In the morning, we were served breakfast in our room on a silver tray. We ate while watching the canal through the semi-circular window.

Afterwards, we went to Piazza San Marco and in Saint Mark’s Basilica. There were gold mosaic ceilings and beautiful marble tiles on the floor. This was Theresa’s favorite church. We went up to the balcony and saw a fabulous view of the square. After the Basilica, we took the elevator up the bell tower next to the church. There was a great view of Venezia on all four sides. We saw the huge bells up there and wondered if they ever went off. We guessed that they probably did not because of the tourists up there. Sure enough, while we were waiting to take the elevator down, the bells went off. They were loud as hell. Luckily we were on the other side of the tower when that happened.

At this point in our trip the weather was getting extremely hot. We had pizza along the waterfront for lunch in the deadly heat. After lunch, we went back to the hotel and changed into shorts and hats (we wore long pants for the Basilica) and took a gondola ride for 80 euros. The gondolier explained various things about Venice to us, like the symbols on the gondola. The ride was short but definitely worth it.

We spent the rest of the day shopping. There are tons of different stores in Venice. Then, after getting ready for dinner, we walked to the restaurant, La Fenice. The courtyard where we ate was romantic, but the food itself was very expensive and not that good.

After dinner we walked around and took a vaporetto to the Rialto bridge, which was very crowded. We got lost on the walk home, which is always a treat in Venice. In fact, that’s probably one of the most fun things you can do there.