Venice

May is a good month to be working in France. This year there were four public holidays - May 1, May 8, May 25, and May 26. Since the last two made a four day week-end, Amanda, Theresa, and I took the opportunity to make the short drive the Venice, Italy.

Ok....short drive is not exactly accurate. It is supposed to be 7 hours by car but, in truth, it took us almost 11 driving down due to traffic jams.

But Venice was worth it. Venice is a one-of-a-kind place. People can argue favorite cities between Paris and London and New York and Rome. But at the end of the day, there is only one city with a canal as it's main street and boats for city buses.

We were there for two days. Well, actually we booked a hotel in Padua and took the 40 minute train ride to Venice each day. I'm not going to bore you with a lot of details. Just some pictures.
Above is the Plaza San Marco - Saint Mark's square. The basilica of San Marco is in the back ground with the bell tower to the right.
Plaza San Marco is heaven for pidgeons. Never will you see so many and so brave. Above is Amanda feeding the pidgeons.

Inside the San Marco's you're not supposed to take pictures. Theresa, devil that she is, snuck a photo anyway. Above is her snapshot of the interior of San Marco. The artwork with the gold background, which covers almost every square inch, is actually mosaics.
The previous photo was a picture looking toward the Island of Murano from the upper level of San Marco. To the left, you can see the gothic arches of the Doge's Palace. On the inside, this palace was sometimes more impressive than Versailles. One has to remember, though, that it served both as a palace and a community adminsitration building. One of it's rooms - the sala del maggior consiblio - could hold up to 2500 town's folks. Quite honestly, it's the largest room I've ever seen ...short of a modern stadium or auditorium.

The winged-lion is the symbol of Venice. The sea gull is just an interloper.

Finally, another view of the grand canal.