Italy - Venice

The last city of our Italian tour was Venice. Our guidebooks had already warned us that the culture of Venice was rapidly changing. That locals were moving out by the thousands each year and it was turning into a historical themed amusement park rather than an authentic city. I will readily agree. In the 11 years since I was there the last time, the entire feeling had changed. All the sights were the same; the canals, the palazzos, St Marks square but EVERYONE was a tourist and there was very little to be seen of everyday life. It is however, still a beautiful and unique city and the kids loved the fact that all the transportation was by boat with not a single car in sight.

We stayed in a wonderfully spacious apartment looking right out onto the Rialto bridge which put us right in the middle of everything we wanted to see and do as well as fascinating people watching out of our living room windows. We saw all the standards; St Mark's Basilica, the Camponile (Bell Tower), the Doge's Palace, shopped along the Mercerie and wandered endlessly among the islands and bridges that make up Venice.

Anthony and I also celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary while here so left the kids with my cousin for the evening and took a romantic gondola ride and had a quiet canal side dinner--very nice.

Three days later, we left the sunkissed Italian pennisula to return to Paris which was rainy and 20 degrees cooler. Truly a vacation we will cherish forever.