Venice, Italy

Venice (Italian: Venezia ( listen), Venetian: Venice is a city in northeast Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture, its artworks, and for being partially underwater. It is the capital of the Veneto region. In 2009, there were 270,098 people residing in Venice's comune (the population estimate of 272,000 inhabitants includes the population of the whole Comune of Venezia; around 60,000 in the historic city of Venice (Centro storico); 176,000 in Terraferma (the Mainland), mostly in the large frazioni of Mestre and Marghera; 31,000 live on other islands in the lagoon). Together with Padua and Treviso, the city is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area (PATREVE) (population 1,600,000). 

Coming into Venice

Words cannot describe the beauty.

As you may have noticed.....Joey and I had fun playing camera tag.  (I just wanted to make sure we had ourselves in some of these photos you know)

This excursion was by far the highlight of the entire cruize. 

When we docked we exited the boat onto another boat and that is how we commuted around Venice...by boat.

Our first stop was a famous glass-making company "Murano Glass"

We watch a demonstration and then were able to browse the beautiful collection.

These are the beautiful glasses (souveniors)  that I couldn't pass up.  I got a sest of 6.  Joey purchased the Venice mascot (a horse) that we watched the glass-maker make himself.

Venice is the capital town of the Veneto Region and of the homonymouse province.  It seems that Venice was born following the flow of refugees that abandoned the lowland of Padana after the invasion from the Longobards from North Italy in 568, it withdrew around 118 lagoon inlets.  Besides being the capital of the Republic in Venice, it is known and respected as "The Serene One" or "the Dominant One".  Venice is built on 118 small islands, and holds 150 canals, connected by an amazing 409 bridges, which only four of them cross the main canal.  St Mark's Square can be considered its main "piazza" meaning the central square.  It is one of the most beautiful in the world, where you can find the enchanting Bascilla, the Doge's Palace and the historical "Campanile", the impressive Bell Tower.  Another important symbol of the city is the "Rialto Bridge" from where you can start a pleasant walk and visit many of the typical Venetian shops, the "bottegas". 

Entering St. Mark's square

After a quick walk through the square we headed for the gondalo's.

Joey and I on the Gondola

On the boat taxi headed back to the ship.  I love this man of mine:)

And that concludes our cruize.  We've decided to make this an annual tradition. 

It was fabulous!!

Now to decide where we are off to next year:)