Venice, Italy (July 23-27, 2012)

It happened like this.  We were going over nautical charts related to our sailing through the Ionian Islands when our eyes caught site of Italy just sitting there with this little Adriatic Sea attached to the Ionian.  And we’ve always wanted to ride a boat from the airport to the hotel, so Venice here we come!

Any trip to Venice deserves a gondola ride, especially in the late evening with a bottle of wine.

The Grand Canal is the major water corridor of the city, but there are many small and winding other waterways as well.

This is Alessandro-written up in Rick Steve’s Italian Guidebook for touring bars in Venice.  Without Alessandro, we would never had discovered some of Venice’s little treasures.

What you do is take your empty water bottles (Melissa gets mad if she sees you draining hers in the sink!)   And you FILL THEM-the cab is sort-of expensive at $2 Euros per liter.

And Venice is a romantic and scenic place as well.