Venice

Venice is an amazing city what with all the canals and water taxis everywhere. We took a bus in from the Marriott out near the airport. We couldn't figure out where to buy a ticket so we rode the bus for free - you take your chance that you won't get caught riding free - if they check, you get some sort of fine (I guess). We got dropped off somewhere out by the port. We then wandered what must've been about 5 miles til almost by accident we stumbled across the square outside of Saint Mark's Cathedral.

We were really getting hungry, thirsty and tired by the time we finally found the square. We stopped in a restaurant for some pizza and spaghetti bolognese. We couldn't really read all of the menu and so we ordered a pizza thinking it had sausage of some kind on it as it said wurst something or other in the title. It came with hot dogs on top - kinda weird but tasty. Turns out that this is a regular style of pizza over there.

I pilfered some bread from the restaurant and we then went to feed the pigeons in the square (I did - my wife thinks pigeons are disgusting). There was a young girl who also wanted to host some pigeons on her arms so I lent her some of my bread. Then we walked down by the water where there were scores of dudes selling knock off sun glasses and purses. Every few feet a guy with a sheet on the ground was selling this stuff. Then a cop came by and these guys gathered up their sheets of stuff and threw it on their backs like a hobo trying to catch a train and ran like crazy. And then as soon as the cop disappeared, they all went right back to their spots and unrolled their wares again.

Later that day, I stopped at a street vendor for a beer and a bratwurst which I ate on the steps of some cathedral while Karen shopped. Then we wandered our way back deep into the city until we finally found the bus depot again. All in all, we must have walked 10 to 15 miles and crossed over 100 bridges. That night, we found this restaurant called Crazy Pizza that had good beer on tap and some very excellent pizza.

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