Merchants in Venice

By Rosebud -
We headed out of Florence early Monday morning to this.



Of course, it made us rather nervous.  But it shortly cleared up except for small pockets between the hills. 


It was like the Great Smoky Mountains of Italy! 


Several hours of dull driving (our favorite kind), a bit of a bus trip, and then our first views of iconic Venice. 








One of the fun things about Venice are the various shops and sellers.  A big draw is the masquerade masks.  



 



With an homage to the British.  Or to Natalie Portman. 

Of course, the big draw in Venice for children is Piazza San Marco.  This isn't because of the historic charm of the basilica or the impressive Duke's Palace or Belltower.  It's because of these guys:



After being cooped up (no pun intended) in the car for the morning, they took full advantage of the collection of pigeons filling the piazza.  




 It was chilly, but we still managed to eek out one last gelato on our last day in Italy.   After that, we just wandered through the little winding streets, enjoying the shops and the city.  We never did walk over the big bridge, but we appreciated it as we waited for our bus back.


Food on the island was criminally expensive, so we went to the little family joint up the road from our hotel on the mainland.  Rebecca thought she was getting pizza with roasted potatoes - instead, she got pizza topped with french fries.  She picked them off.  At least her siblings enjoyed them.  And then we got all of us back to the hotel before poor Jonathan fell asleep in his gnocchi.  







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