Venice

In Venice--or actually, just outside of it--Nora and I stayed at a campground in a little cabin.  It was quite small, but we had it all to ourselves.  We took a bus to get to Venice itself, which, I discovered, is an island.  The bus stopped at the train station, and we walked across a bridge to get to the island.

Venice was different than anywhere I've ever been before.  I guess you could say that about anywhere, so what I really mean is that it was more radically different than most places I'd traveled to--both because of all the canals, and because even on the streets there were no motorized vehicles.  It felt old-fashioned and set up apart from the rest of the world, and I loved it right from the start.

We took a vaporetto down the Grand Canal, which was a great way to be introduced to the city.

We got off at St. Mark's Square.  Parts of The Thief Lord, a book I like quite a bit, take place there, so it was cool to be there after reading about it.

the Doge's Palace

You had to pay to tour the palace, but we went in St. Peter's Basilica.  I'm pretty sure I remember them handing out shawls at the door to cover your shoulder if you were wearing a sleeveless/strapless shirt, or to wrap around your waist if your shorts/skirt was too short. 

Flooding in front of the basilica!

After that we just wandered.  That was another thing I liked about Venice--there weren't a lot of specific touristy things to see, so there was no pressure to make it to all the sights; instead we could just relax and stroll around and stop in little shops, not worrying about the time.

A cool building...

...and a painting I later did based on that photo.

We found the Bridge of Sighs--which connects the Doge's Palace to the prison; criminals would be led across it and supposedly sigh as they got their last view of the city before their confinement--but unfortunately it looked like this:

Here it is from the other side. Courtesy of Wikipedia

At least they didn't cover the bridge itself!

Then, more wandering.