One of the most memorable sights that ties you to Venice are the gondolas and gondoliers. These sleek boats are always painted black, a 17th century law to discourage competition between the nobles. They were already competiting with their palaces so they limited thier gondolas. Differences can be seen in the wood work adorning the boat, along with the tapestries inside, and the metal end piece on the back. 200 hundred years ago, there were 10,000 gondolas in Venice. Now only 400 licenses to be a gondolier exist. When a husband passes away, the rights pass to the wife and she is able to pass it to her son or sell her license.

Train ride back to Florence and waiting for Venice.

Still waiting...

Our first views of Venice. A thunderstorm hit and actually deposited hail. We waited it out in the train depot.

Well, some of us waited it out in the train depot.

Venice is a car-free urban paradise with a hundred tiny islands forming the shape of a fish. 400 hundred bridges and 2,000 alleys ways create the biggest maze on earth. Created from a lagoon 1,500 years ago, Venice became Europe's middleman for East-West trade. This trading empire was built out of a necessity to escape the barbarians trying to take over towns after the fall of Rome. When Rome fell, towns were no longer under their protection and were ripe for takeovers. At the peakvof its existence, Venice boasted 200,000 inhabitants. 

The boys in their bedroom which during the day is our family room. Most Italians have small families and often the children sleep in the pullout bed which doubles as a living space.

Transportation around the island is done by city buses or boats called vaporetti. The Grand Canal is the main street at two miles long and bout 150 feet wide. The Grand Canal is what is left of a river that once poured from the mainland to the Adraitic Sea. The sediment it carried created barrier islands that eventually cut Venice off from the sea forming the lagoon. Venice was built on the marhy islands of this delta. Pilings were driven about 15 feet into the clay. Unfortunately, Venice has been sinking since its creation. Every March and October the city floods. The great flood of  the 1960's displaced water as high as 6 feet in St. Mark's Square. Because of this, most of the first floors in the city are vacant. About 25 miles of canals drain the city, and empty into the three main canals. These 45 small waterways are called rivers. This is Europe's best preserved medieval city.

A tradition of lovers is to put a lock with your names on it and the date of your wedding or when you visited and clamp it to the bridges of Venice.