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Gotta Go . . .
We had the most spectacular entry into Venice through the Grand Canal. It reminded me a bit of boating on the Potomac during July 4th celebrations, only better. The city looks just like every magnificent postcard or any other image you might have in mind. Old and stately, the series of bridge connected islands is in danger of sinking away. This has scared away most of the residents and predictions are that in another 10 years the city will be an adult amusement park. So sad to even think about such a thing but statistics say that only about 20,000-30,000 residents live on the island today. No tour was booked for this afternoon so with maps in hand and a couple of ideas from our cruise staff we headed out. We were told we couldn't get lost in the city and that we should just explore whatever area we found ourselves in until we could become reoriented so that's exactly what we did. Our first destination was San Marco Basilica which we found easily. We stood in line for the tour and were so very glad we did. It seems each church we entered was more ornate than the last and the ones in Venice were definitely the most decorated of all that we saw. Sadly we were not allowed to take pictures inside but you can see the beautiful exterior from the picture posted. Inside, the walls are covered with mosaics that start at about shoulder height and cover the entire ceiling, domes and all. Every tiny inch is covered with beautiful biblical scenes created using the local Murano glass tiles. You may be able to get a sense of the style from the mosaic scenes that appear on the outside as well. From St Mark's we wandered the streets, doing some souvenir and window shopping. Again we found beautiful stitched works along with the amazing Murano glass designs in nearly every store. Venice also has a version of Rodeo Drive and we wandered along the winding streets being awed by the gorgeous displays. We began the process of bargaining for a gondola ride and ended up making a deal for a ride that took us past Marco Polo's house, Casanova's house (he slept in many houses, so the story goes, but only one night in each), and other glorious sights that are accessible only from the canal. Many of the major hotels are also situated on the canals so guests can simply walk out the front door and onto a gondola for transportation pretty much anywhere in the city. We walked by La Fenice, the opera house that was nearly destroyed by fire in the 1990s but they were closing so we missed the tour. Everything has limited access and early closings on Sundays and we hit two of the major cities on our itinerary on Sunday. As we strolled we were searching for the perfect place for our last evening's dinner and we found a great little cafe that served Italian food. It was delightful! After dinner we had an easy walk back to the water taxi that deposited us on the cruise pier. We spent the final night of our trip on the cruise ship where we prepared for an early departure the next morning from Marco Polo airport. Apparently the Venicians don't do early mornings well because we waited in an empty airport for over an hour while the airport employees readied themselves for the day. Our flight from Venice was delayed by about two hours so we ended up spending over 8 hours in the airport before finally boarding our plane. Due to the delay we landed in NYC with only about an hour to check through customs, retrieve and redeposit our luggage, and race to another terminal for our gate and the final leg of our trip. It was a mad sprint through the airport when we heard final boarding call for our flight. Fortunately they held the plane since our Austin group made up nearly half the passengers. Sadly not all our luggage made it. So we arrived in Austin bone tired and ready to drop into the comfort of our own bed only to discover the house and car keys were in one of the missing bags. We tried all sorts of options but short of breaking into our own home we were left settling for a night at the La Quinta. It wasn't the best ending for our fabulous trip and as I type this message we are still awaiting the arrival of our lost luggage but we wouldn't trade any of our memories. Our trip of a lifetime has come to an end. We hope you have enjoyed journeying along with us via the blog. Thanks for your comments and emails along the way. We'll get our photos organized and send a link for anyone who is interested in wading through all 500 or so. And now, arrividerci.
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