D160 -- Are we in Oz?

Our first glimpse of Venice yesterday was from the airport bus as we drove towards it. I thought it looked pretty cool. Once we actually got into town, though, we were absolutely blown away.


Venice is INCREDIBLE. Everywhere we looked was a postcard picture. In fact, I think I took about 50 pictures just on the vaporetto (water bus) to our hotel And the weather was fantastic. Blue skies, green waters, and beautiful old buildings rising straight out of the water. We kept talking about how fake it looked; like being in Disneyworld or Vegas. Can you tell I am excited to be here?



Museums and churches would have to wait, however, as we were down to our last pairs of underwear this morning. We took the vaporetto to do laundry, and I just couldn't keep my camera holstered on the ride




































































The weather was glorious and the neighborhood around the laundromat was very nice. Except for one main street there were no tourists and it was really peaceful. Where is the overcrowded tourist nightmare I've heard so much about?

After a rest at the hotel - which, by the way, is a fabulous 16th century building with frescoed ceilings - we finally started the official sightseeing by going to Ca' Rezzonico. It's an old mansion from the 1700s, a very decadent period for Venice. It had lots of frescoes on the ceilings, Murano glass chandeliers, etc. Most of the furnishings and art are not original... now it's more of a museum for 18th century work. They had two of Canaletto's famous canal scenes there. I thought it was interesting to see how Venetians of that era lived (and partied), but Thomas was largely unimpressed. I guess after seeing Versailles it's hard to be affected by luxurious abodes. So he went back to the room and I stayed until I was kicked out.

Thomas watched a bit of World Cup action and then we started out for dinner, bumping into a nice Texan woman in the lobby. We have seen more Americans here in two days than we have seen in five months of travel combined! Seriously! I wanted to chit chat (probably my homesickness coming out) but Thomas was all business, on a mission to find food. We ate a a cute little place on the water. The friendly British couple next at the next table got a kick out of us taking so many pictures of one another and the view.

-Elva