Cortona to Venice

Off to Venice today - got ripped off by a water taxi driver, but can't do too much when you don't speak the language...

It was swarming with tourists in St. Mark's square. So much so that M, who is a seasoned traveler and has been to Venice 8 or 9 times, said that it was the busiest she's ever seen it.

We went up St. Mark's Campanile, had some gorgeous views of the city, then into St. Mark's. It was absolutely breath taking.

Walked around Venice some more and then had a gelato before a nice afternoon nap.

We had dinner close to La Fenice at Il Teatro Ristorante. We started off with a bottle of rose and had sarde in saor (Venetian style sardines). This right here is what I think of when I think of Southern Italian cuisine - fresh fish, raisins and pine nuts. Yum. I then enjoyed a fresh pasta with spider crabs and Jer had the lasagna. We had a bottle of Chianti Classico with our dinner. As we were finishing off our dinner, and wine, it started to pour. As everyone ran for cover under the umbrellas out on the patio, we decided that we were having too much fun to call it an evening, so we decided to stay for another bottle of wine - a Nero d'Avola.

After we gorged ourselves with food and wine, we decided to top it all off with some gelato on the way home.

**back blip**