 Our hotel room is the window in the yellow building all the way down the canal. We got to hear more gondola music than we ever wanted FOR FREE! |
 This is the impressive St. Mark's square, the most breath-taking place in Venice. |
 The square is enormous and features the basilica and the bell tower, and is surrounded by Renaissance era buildings full of cafes. |
 That's St. Mark's basilica, a church integrating both Byzantine and Roman architecture into a unique Venetian style. |
 The square from the other side. Napoleon built the building in front to close the area in completely. |
 The entire square is mobbed with people and pigeons. The pigeon food vendors don't really help the situation. |
 Renaissance statues serve as perches. This is why all of the guidebooks advise on how to deal with pigeon droppings. (Thankfully the advice was not needed!) |
 The basilica is famous for its Byzantine style mosaics, using lots of gold-leaf cubes. Here is a detail of the front entrance. |
 The gold leaf is most impressive indoors, where it is used to represent the sky of heaven. (This isn't my photo, since photography wasn't allowed inside.) |
 More detail of the front, showing the different types of marble used for each column. Those Venetians had some serious cash in their day. |
 A gondola parked at the lagoon. Gondola prices are $80-$110 for an hour. Add an additional $100 if you want music. Needless to say, we enjoyed them only from afar. |
 The Doge's palace and the two famous columns of the piazzetta, or little square, just off of St. Mark's Square. |
 An interesting staircase right next to our hotel. |
 It offered an interesting view of the city, including the onion domes of the basilica in the distance. |
 Meredith was really there! |
 Another shot of the square, this time from the balcony of the basilica. Note the defining features: crowds, pigeons, and cafes. |
 Meredith was there, too! |
 And so was Brian.... |
 The original set of 4 copper horses were stolen and restolen all the way back to ancient Egypt. These copies are outside so that the real ones can be under lock and key for some reason. |
 Another gold leaf mosaic |
 From the other side of the basilica balcony, Meredith enjoyed the view of the piazzetta, the Doge's palace on the left, and the lagoon. |
 Detail of the pink marble used to build the Doge's palace. |
 The building opposite the palace featured lots of statues, and the column depicts some saint skewering a crocodile. |
 The tops of both columns. The winged lion is the symbol of St. Mark (yes, that Mark) and is found EVERYWHERE in Venice. |
 At least the pickpockets had the decency to take our picture before they walked off with our camera. (kidding!) |
 The view of the Grand Canal from the top of the famous Rialto bridge. |
 The view from the OTHER side of the bridge. |
 Detail of the statues on the building overlooking the piazzetta. |
 The famous Bridge of Sighs, which connected the Doge's Palace to the prisons across the canal. |
 The courtyard inside the Doge's Palace with the domes of the basilica behind. |
 Those doges sure knew how to throw a courtyard together! |
 The statue of Hercules smiting some endangered species. |
 Meredith and I are thinking of doing something along these lines in our backyard. |
 In addition to having a decent palace (with no photography allowed inside), the doge also managed some decent views of the lagoon as well. |
 This is the view from inside the Bridge of Sighs that would be the prisoners last view of Venice before being led below, specifically the view of tourists taking their pictures. |
 The two giants on the giants staircase. The doge would greet his guests here for maximum intimidation. (Note the winged lion is everywhere.) |
 We went to the top of the bell tower for a view of the square below. There aren't too many crowds in this picture because I think they are all crammed in the bell tower elevator with us. |
 A nice view from the bell tower |
 A closeup of that same nice view for no reason at all |
 Meredith got the jail cell with a view |
 We were actually higher up than St. Mark's lion, and they still didn't name a basilica after us. |
 Meredith and I want to get columns like this for our front yard. |
 An island in the lagoon |
 A massive cruiseship is partly responsible for the hordes of tourists in Venice. |
 The shadow of the bell tower on the doge's palace below. |
 A view out over the basilica and the whole city. |
 The palace and the lagoon |
 From above, those horses and the lion on the front of the basilica don't look so big. |
 You can't even see all of the canals between the buildings from up here. |
 This is probably why they have bars at the top of the bell tower, to keep people from plunging into the cafes. |
 A shot of Brian mere seconds before he was dragged into the lagoon by inexplicable tentacles. |
 This is the church that was used as the church/library in the third Indiana Jones movie. (Remember they broke through the X in the floor, swam through rats and then came out a sewer grate in the square?) Brian recognized it immediately. |
 Navigation was confusing enough without helpful signs like these. Interestingly, San Marco and the Rialto were at least 30 minutes walk from this position, but I guess it doesn't matter which way you go! (Notice Meredith in "packing light" mode with the entirety of her belongings on her back.) |