Our first full day in Venice

We woke up today at our usual 7:30. The hotel provided a continental breakfast of buns, croissants, cheese, yogurt, cereal and tea. We headed out and ended up walking to San Marco Campo. It is a very interesting walk through hundreds of passages and over bridges. We arrived in a wide open square on the south side of Venice. First item of business, Annie had to find the note Alyssa had left her. She found it! We then walked through St.Marks basilica, which was very spectacular in it's own way. Annie went up to the top of the bell tower as per the instructions in her note. It had the most amazing view of all of Venice and it's surrounding islands. She took zillions of pictures! Meanwhile Barbara walked around the square. When we met up the square had suddenly become packed with tons of people and pigeons. We then took the vaperato (boat equivalent of a city bus). We travelled all the way down the grand canal back to our hotel. A thirty five minute ride with spectacular views everywhere. It is hard to find a place in Venice that isn't worth taking a picture of. That is why Aunty Barbara bought a new camera when we got off the boat. Her old one wasn't working and the memory she had boughten was obsolete. She now has a camera with enough memory for about 1200. That should be enough. We shared a giant calzone for lunch then hopped back on the boat. We took it to the island of Murano. This trip allowed us to see the backside of Venice and the open ocean. Murano is famous for it's glass blowing. We walked into a factory, where we were held hostage and followed through the store. The sales people tried to block the door so we couldn't get out! We eventually made a brake for it when they weren't looking. Murano is more commercialized than expected. We got on the boat and realized that we were supposed to activate our pass before boarding. Oops! Thankfully made it back without getting checked. We decided it was time to get lost in the Ghetto. Gorgeous! We wandered for a couple hours then stopped to eat at a self serve spaghetti place. Not bad. Annie had a Gellato and we sat on some steps and watched people and boats go by. Did you know they even bring the mail in by boat. We saw them delivering a coach on a boat. A crew member was sleeping on it. :) Ecerything is transported by boats and onto hand carts that are designed to go up the stairs of the bridges. This is one of the most interesting places we have seen and we look forward to taking a guided tour of the Doge's Palace tomorrow. We are managing to see a lot of Venice in the few days we have here. Talk to you tomorrow!
Annie and Barbara