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We arrived in Venice Friday evening, in the rain, and our first view of the famous canals and narrow, winding streets was from underneath an umbrella, as the rain continued on Saturday. We woke up yesterday morning and headed into the city. Our first stop was the square at San Marco cathedral, where the place was so flooded that the elevated sidewalks were out (the water was over knee-height in places).
We then headed over to the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, a former palace, renovated into a library and art gallery, whose inner courtyard and ground floor were designed by Carlo Scarpa. As the high waters were flooding the entry room, we left a bit earlier than was planned, and split up to eat lunch. We later headed out to two separate art exhibitions. One was an international exhibit, where different countries featured artists in special pavillions. The other was in the warehouse district, in the former armory. Both featured any possible kind of contemporary art that you could imagine, from paintings, photos, sculptures, videography, and time-lapse art.
Today, Sunday, we had to ourselves to explore the city. Becky, Shandra, and I started out the day by browsing through the shopping district. Anything and everything imaginable is for sale from street vendors to shops in all sizes and shapes. After some more looking around, we ate lunch. For the rest of the day, the three of us wandered the city, and rode the water buses around the large waterways. We toured two of the city's more famous churches - Santa Maria della Salute and San Giorgio Maggiore. We went up the tower of San Giorgio and had a beautiful view of the city. The church also featured one of the funniest warning signs I've seen yet, it said in four languages, "This is a church, you are not allowed to behave indecently."
We finished out our day with a little more vendor browsing, and ate dinner at a restaurant by a canal... big mistake, while the canals don't smell while you're just walking by or over them, if you spend time just sitting next to one, you get a wiff of the sewage that gets dumped into them. We headed back to the hotel for the night, to get ready to head out for Florence tomorrow.
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