Although not scheduled to see much of Venice from the air, the pilot announced that he was too high to approach the runway, so he made a big loop over the city and we saw some of it this way!

The S-curve of the main Grand Canal is clearly visible, dividing the fish-shaped city in two, with the larger Canal Giudecca and Venice's modern port facilities to its west. Our hotel was on the Canal Giudecca, where we were able to see many of the larger car ferries and cruise ships. (I have marked the hotel location with a red dot in the larger picture that you can see by clicking on the smaller picture here.)

This photo is from earthobservatory.nasa.gov

You can click on any picture on this site to see a larger picture.

The boat from the airport to the city stopped in Murano.

After Murano and Lido, it stopped near St. Mark's Square. Here we first saw the Doge's Palace, the Campanile and St. Mark's Basilica in the background.

From the boat we had a good view of the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore.

The boat went right past our hotel, the Pensione La Calcina, also known as Ruskin's House, since he had stayed there for a few months in 1877. Immediately in front of it is their restaurant, La Piscina.

An hour later we were seated in that restaurant.

After dinner we went for a walk across the Accademia bridge, with its view of the Grand Canal and the La Salute church.

We walked to St, Mark's Square as it was beginning to get dark.

The next morning we had breakfast in the hotel breakfast room, with this view.

After buying our passes for the museums, churches, and vaporettos, we took our first vaporetto ride to the town of Murano, which is famous for its glass factories. We visited its glass museum with its exhibits from the 1st century to the present.

The museum also had exhibits of the sticks of glass which are fused together to make the patterned beads.

After we returned to St. Mark's Square, we took our first vaporetto ride on the Grand Canal.

A typical building along the Grand Canal.

The famous Rialto Bridge.

We stopped at the Rialto Bridge and walked around that area and had our first gelato of the trip there.

From there it was a short vaporetto ride and walk to the Frari Church which has an unusual amount of great art. From left to right below we see The Assumption of Mary by Titian, a wooden statue of John the Baptist by Donatello, and Bellini's Madonna and Child

From the Frari Church, we again boarded a vaporetto to go back to St. Mark's Square. We passed under the Accademia Bridge with a water level view of the La Salute Church.

We returned to St. Mark's Square to see the Basilica. The line was quite long to go in, so we decided to save that for the next day.

We visted the Doge's Palace instead. There we saw the ducal apartments and the rooms where laws were passed and trials were held.

There is a small bridge from the Palace to the prison where prisoners were taken after they had been convicted. It is called the Bridge of Sighs since it was their last view of the outside world before they entered the prison.

This is the view the prisoners would have had.

Tomorrow we will vist St. Mark's Basilica, the Correr Museum and Ca' Rezzonico, a museum of 18th century Venice.