Ta-Da!!!

And now....what you've all been waiting for.....a post with some pictures of the bridges and canals of Venice....what the city is all about!  I had known that there were no cars in Venice and I had expected the small canals with gondolas of tourists gliding by, but I had not given much thought to the logistics of a city like this ~ how people got to work, how goods got to places of business, how you went longer distances, etc.  I thought I had loaded these pictures in an organized way, grouping certain ones together, but it appears they have had a mind of their own.  Considering how long it takes to load them I am going to just go with it and try to explain some of them to help you understand the lack of order.  Many of them are random bridges or canals that I just thought looked cool.

This is a picture of the "vaporetto" ~ it is the main form of mass transit in Venice ~ kind of like a city bus.  There are different lines and different stops just like a bus line in a big city.  By the end of the week, we had gotten really good at navigating this system and were finding our way around just fine.

This is the canal that approaches the Arsenale ~ long ago, Venice was a mecca for ship-building and the Arsenale is where it happened.  They no longer build ships there but it is still a military post.

This is the bridge right at the entrance to the Arsenale.  It did seem like no two bridges were alike, though I don't know if that is true or not.

The tiny, quiet canals are very quaint, but for some reason I was fascinated by the Grand Canal ~ the bigger canal that winds through the middle of Venice ~ I guess it would be like Main Street in a "normal" city.

While many people use the public transportation, many people in Venice have boats of their own.  There are A LOT of boats on the water, but somehow everyone seems to know what they are doing and we didn't see or have any problems.

Chris waves to EVERYONE everywhere we go.   Here he is in action ~ waving from the vaporetto.  Some people just stare at him, but many wave back and are usually smiling when they do.  Chris has a talent for that ~ putting smiles on people's faces. :)

For some reason, I love this picture!

Another picture of the Grand Canal ~ the last one was taken from a gondola.  This one is taken from the Rialto Bridge ~ the biggest bridge in Venice.  There are a couple pictures of it to follow.

This bridge is a famous one called the Bridge of Sighs.  It goes between the Doge's Palace (the doge was like Venice's president long ago) and the prisons.  It is named this because it is said that prisoners sighed as they crossed it as they got their last view of the water/outside world before entering prison.  We toured the palace and the prisons ~ I would sigh too!

Another of my faves!

Rialto Bridge at night

This is a view of the lagoon from the roof-top terrace of San Marco (aka St. Mark's Basilica), Venice's most famous landmark.

This is a view along the lagoon back toward our apartment and the parks taken from an upper window in the Doge's Palace.  It was a beautiful day and, as I leaned out the window to take this picture, the smell and feel of the sea air on my face is something I will never forget.

This is a picture taken FROM the Bridge of Sighs back toward the bridge where the last picture of this bridge was taken ~ it is the view that made the prisoners sigh.

Another view of Rialto Bridge

I love this picture of me and the boys taken on the Rialto Bridge.

Coming soon....a post about Murano :)