Ah, Venice...

Ah, Venice...what a magical place! You walk off the train and you KNOW you are not in Kansas anymore. The first thing that struck me was that this was not like anywhere I had been before. Venice is one of the few truly unique cities in the world. And here I was strolling along the Grand Canal (well, at least in front of the train station)!

For those of you who don't know (and I didn't know most of this), Venice is an island that has no cars whatsoever! It has a multitude of streets (which you and I would most likely call sidewalks), canals and as a result, bridges. Everything is shipped in via boat and hand trucked to it's final destination...hint: pack light! The Grand Canal is the main thoroughfare that travels from the bus and train stations through the island and ends at St. Marks Square. It is a bustling main street with boats of all shapes and sizes. There are the water buses (vaportto), gondole, traghetto, garbage boats, police boats, ambulance boats, UPS boats, freight boats, refrigerated boats, and the inevitable joy riding boats...I have to admit it was rather strange to see people getting off boats dressed like they were walking down a runway (aren't boats for fishing?). All traveling down the same canal with their own individual routes and yet they all seem to get along. While riding along on the vaporetto through Venice and the lagoon, both Tobin and I decided it is Neil heaven...we could totally see him zooming around the lagoon and back canals on his boat of choice showing the locals how it is really done! The Grand Canal...

While most of the length of the Grand Canal has no walkways on the canal side, there are some restaurants that front the canal...

Here is the classic gondola...while we didn't make it on one, they were certainly fun to watch...

That first evening we rode the vaporetto to our hotel (which by the way was the absolute BEST! It was located just upstream of the Rialto Bridge in the middle of Venice only 50 yard from the vaporetto stop and was relatively cheap plus it had air conditioning and breakfast...it was an awesome building built in 1287...we were LOVING it) and then cruised the Canal...

That was the beginning of this whirlwind weekend...lots of sightseeing...lots of tourists...lots of heat...lots of adventure...lots of memories!

Ciao a tutti!

Exploring...

On Saturday, we went exploring! It was a pretty fun day! A bit overcast, but it never really rained...perfect for sightseeing though it was pretty humid by the water.

If you are somewhat familiar with a map of Italy, or where Montalto is...go here for map, you might have to zoom out once or twice...just to the north of us there is an island that is connected to the mainland by 3 ithmus' (I know that really doesn't make it an island, but you understand what I am talking about...well you would if you checked out the map ;). The town of Orbetello is actually on the ithmus with the lagoon on each side. It is pretty cool! I was there earlier in the week but it had been raining and I totally missed the water!

We drove through Orbetello to the Comune di Argentario (that would be the island that isn't really an island because it is actually connected to the mainland...I know that is redundant but I think it is really cool). To the south is a port town...Porto Ercole...it is a neat small town on the Sea! What a great picture I took of it! The building literally look like they are clinging to the mountains!


And just to prove that we were there and it isn't just a postcard or something...

We tried to drive around the island but on the backside it just goes to a dirt road (which us Montanans are NOT afraid of, but it had rained and we have the tiniest car with NO clearance what so ever) we just didn't make it...so we back-tracked and headed to Porto Sto Stefano...quite a bigger town with tons of stuff going on! Again, it is just clinging to the mountains, so there are many stairways leading to streets on different levels...

A nice pic of the town/harbor...

We parked our car and walked around for a bit. Another thing that the italians do well is paid parking...no parking meters all over the place...they have one ticket (biglietti) things you put your money into and get a ticket for your dash...pretty convienent, even for those of us who don't speak italian. We even found doughnuts! One has to find a bakery (forno) in every small town, you know! Now these italians know how to do a boardwalk...marble mosaic sidewalks lined with palm trees!

So that was the beginning of our adventure on Saturday. I will hopefully post more tomorrow on the second half of the day!