Venezia

We went to Venice for a few days while the boys were out of school for the Toussaint break. Sky took this picture.

Anna had been to Venice years ago, but I had never been. I had always wanted to go. We flew in and took this water bus to Saint Mark's Square.

We stayed at the Metropole, a lovely hotel on the "lagoon" and just a short walk from the square.

We dropped off our bags and went for the first of many long walks.

We did all of the tourist things. I fed the pigeons in the square, cringing.

We ended the day on the Rialto Bridge looking out at the Grand Canal. It was lovely.

The hotel had a very nice breakfast. The boys, of course, drank hot chocolate each morning.

The hotel offered a free water taxi to Murano, the glass-blowing island. We decided to take them up on it, given the high price of water taxis. The boys were delighted, as you can see by the look on True's face in the photo above.

It was great fun riding through Venice.

Sky was in his element.

The glass blowing on Murano was fascinating. Todd and Pierce were there not too long ago.

This turned into a plate.

These are some of the glass blowers tools. The point of the free water taxi ride, of course, was to get us to buy some glass. There wasn't much pressure, but we bought something anyway.

This is the lion of Venice on the clock tower in Saint Mark's Square.

Of course, we took a ride on a gondola. The music playing in the slide show above is "Autumn," from Vivaldi's "Four Seasons," which we were told he composed in what is now the restaurant of our hotel but was then a chapel.

It was a great trip. True fell asleep in the water taxi that we took back to the airport from the hotel.