Canals and Gondolas! (Day 12, Friday, November 1, 2013)

Our Florence hotel, Starhotel Tuscany, is fine and comfortable.  Theresa's one requirement is a coffeepot: check!  My requirement is a tub I can soak: check!  Today is one of the church's holydays, All Saints Day.  We all rise early and go to Mass at 7 a.m. in the hotel conference room.

Our priests, ready for Mass.

In the dining room, a fine breakfast awaits us.  At 8:15, our large group is all aboard the bus for a trip through the Apennine Mountains to the city of Venice.  The mountains are beautiful, all tree-covered.  From the highways, we view rows of grapevines, as far as we can see, in many places.

Mountains and more mountains along our route.

Along the way, Elianora, our chief guide, gives us some history of the city of Venice.  There are actually 120 islands in the city, connected by 400 bridges.  In the city, there are 2,000 alleys and canals. Venice was founded after the fall of the Roman Empire to escape the invasion of barbarians, in approximately the fifth to sixth century A.D.  In the ninth century, Venice was a federation of islands, a Democratic Republic, an independent state. Even though Venice had no king, it was a very powerful republic with a 'college of senators.'  The most important person was the "Doge" (pronounced doe-jay), like a duke.  From the ninth through eighteenth centuries the 'trades' were very powerful.  Venice was the Golden Door between the east (Istanbul & Constantinople) and west.  The city was unified into Italy in the late eighteenth century.

All of our guides have had such obvious pride in their respective histories!  They are the right person for their jobs! Also, we have been blessed with spectacular weather all during the trip.  Several raindrops fell one day, on the bus windshield.  Other than that, the days were sunny, temperature in the mid 70's F.

Venice, Oh, Venice!!  The last time I saw you I didn't want to leave you!  Today I'm thrilled to be back and wander the dark, narrow passageways they dare to name 'struts.'

Our first view of the Venice islands.  Our bus parks because motorized vehicles with wheels are not allowed in the city of Venice.

With the rest of our group, Theresa (left) and I take the ferryboat ride to Venice.  Elianora is sitting directly behind us.

Arched bridges everywhere in Venice! (arched to accommodate gondolas passing underneath).

St. Mark's Cathedral, Venice.

Across from St. Mark's Cathedral is the tall Baptistry tower.  It was closed today.

 When I've talked about Venice, I'm always asked, "Were you there when it was flooded?"  The answers are, "No (for ten years ago)," and "No (for this trip)."  The islands are slowly and steadily sinking.  More frequently every year, elevated platforms are installed around the perimeter of St. Mark's Square so pedestrians may walk about when it's flooded.  We walk around the crowded square and Elianora gives us a tour of St. Marks Cathedral.

The remains of St. Mark the Evangelist are in the church.  St. Mark was killed in Alexandria, Egypt, but the Venetians stole the relics and brought the body back to Venice hundreds of years ago.  The lion is the symbol of St. Mark; it is seen everywhere in the city.  There are 120 churches in Venice.

St. Mark's church has heavy Moorish influence.  All the marble came from Constantinople; this is totally different from the Italian tradition.  The layout, or floor plan, of the basilica, is in the shape of a Greek cross, with all four 'arms' equal in length.

Elianora dismisses us for free time and makes sure we all know where to meet to catch the ferry later.  Theresa and I shop, take a light lunch from a street vendor and sit on the steps of the lagoon to eat it.  Many of us take gondola rides.  We were all SO looking forward to this!

Our hard-working Gondelier.

It is fun seeing the city from the middle of the Grand Canal!

Church across the canal from the main city of Venice.

We head into one of the many narrow canals.

Another question I'm always asked about Venice, "Did it smell?"  The answer is, "No, just a very faint smell of seawater." Every place is extremely clean in Venice.  No trash in the water, no trash evident on the sidewalk passages.  No graffiti.  The Venetians definitely take a lot of pride in their city.  Elianora says that there are now only 56,000 residents of Venice.  It is very expensive to live there.  (I'd like to try to live there, for a time!)

Venice is considered the safest city in Europe, maybe the world!  The reason: even residents of the city have a hard time figuring out all the 'streets,' some so narrow a person could extend their arms and touch the buildings on both sides. There are many 'dead-ends,' another barrier to a quick escape for criminals.  We are told to be aware of the usual big-city pickpockets, but other than that, there is very little crime.

We love all the old homes.

This is a pleasant journey through the canals.

It's so fun passing under all these arched bridges!

One of twin white lighthouses on a nearby island.

Our day in the Fairytale City of Venice was over too quickly!  We met our group at the prescribed time, ferried back to the bus, and motored back to our hotel in Florence.  On the way back, we enjoyed another fabulous Italian dinner at a busy pub.  In the bus, Elianora put in a CD of Italian tenor vocals.  I think it was the most pleasant ride home I may have ever experienced!