Venice

Very excited to be arriving in Italy!  (We chose Encounter because Kim wanted to see Paris, and I Italy)

Piazza San Marco, better known to Anglophones as St. Mark's Square. In The Companion Guide to Venice, Hugh Honour describes the Piazza San Marco as "beautiful at all times of day or night and all seasons of the year. It is one of the few delicate works of architecture that can absorb a bustling vulgar crowd without loss of dignity; a great city square which retains a feeling of animation when there are few people in it."  As you can see there were more than a few people there, on the day of our visit.

We arrived over the water, once again.

Basilica di San Marco (Saint Mark's Basilica), church in Venice that was begun in its original form in 829 (consecrated in 832) as an ecclesiastical structure to house and honour the remains of St. Mark that had been brought from Alexandria.

A closer view...

(Rialto Bridge) is the true heart of Venice. The current structure was built in just three years, between 1588 and 1591, as a permanent replacement for the boat bridge and three wooden bridges that had spanned the Grand Canal at various times since the 12th Century. It remained the only way to cross the Grand Canal on foot until the Accademia Bridge was built in 1854.

Our gondolier.  He sang for about 1 second.  Sort of not romantic like the movies- as you pass other gondolas frequently... Even have gondola jams.  Worth the ride, nevertheless.

The Contiki crew in the neighbouring gondola