Viva Italia! - Part 1 - Venice

Kate had a business trip to Italy about 30 minutes outside Venice and I just couldn't pass that up!  We left a couple of days early and headed to Venice.

Of course the best way to get to Venice is by boat and the most fun way to go by boat is to go in a private water taxi and that is exactly what we did!  We took the taxi direct from the Venice Airport to our hotel and had a nice trip down the Grand Canal along the way - it was certainly a boat ride to remember!

This really is the typical view around nearly every corner in Venice - it seems like the view down nearly every canal was fit for a post card.

We were blown away by all of the people in Venice - they were everywhere!  This is one busy place.  The cruise ship traffic doesn't help either.  Everyday there were 6 cruise ships in port.

We found that the nights and early mornings were spectacular.  Dinner each night started between 8 and 10 PM and we had the whole place to ourselves from 5-8 AM.  Each morning we woke up early and visited many of the sights before all of the people were out and then return to the hotel for the most amazing breakfasts.

 One of my other favorite things about Venice was all of the beautiful plants and flowers in all of the balconies around the city.

 No trip to Venice is complete without a visit to San Marco - Saint Mark's Square.  When we arrived on our first day there was a church service going on in the square with a most beautiful choir singing.

 We visited a couple of older churches while in town and they were all nothing short of amazing.  This one was constructed in the 1300's.