This was the scene the whole time in Venice. I don't know how anyone managed to find their way around before google maps and an iPhone. Thank goodness my company pays for my international phone plan. Even with the phone, we still took a whole bunch of wrong turns.
On our last day in town, we went straight to St. Mark's first thing in the morning to see the inside of the church. We got there before it opened and still had to wait in line in front of the Doge's Palace here (which we did not go inside).
The church is free to enter, but you can pay a few Euros extra to go in certain areas. We paid twice without really knowing what we were paying for - one to go into this area, which turned out to be a small chapel housing the tomb of St. Mark. The back side of the altarpiece is solid gold, but because it's the Catholic church they only turn it around for the congregation to enjoy on special occasions.
The entire ceiling of St. Mark's is gold mosaic. I remember hearing it's 4900 square meters which seems completely insane, but it is pretty big, and I am too lazy to look it up to verify.
We paid another few Euros to go to the museum upstairs. There were some interesting things inside but no pictures allowed. You do get to also go on the roof, though, which was a nice bonus! You can see here how they're working to improve the water drainage system in St. Mark's Square.
Right next door, there is the world's first digital clock (where it says X 25). The numbers roll over every 5 minutes.
We grabbed some omelets at a place near the square where they seemed to make them one at a time? It was weird. Like a Vietnamese restaurant in Los Angeles where they bring out stuff at random times whenever it happens to be ready. Then we walked around a little more.
Mmmm, window sandwiches.
Alessandro told us on the bar tour that it's free to go on the terrace of this department store overlooking the Rialto Bridge. We made a reservation so this would be the last stop before heading to the train station.
Right down there by those tables is where we had our prosecco with Alessandro the first night.
Then we went back to get our suitcases and got on the waterbus to go back to the train station. We had an uneventful trip to Florence, got lost trying to leave the train station but eventually figured it out, checked into our apartment, and then had cheeseburgers at an American-owned restaurant right in the old city. It was weird! They had college football on the TV. It was kind of nice to get a break from the intense extended Italian dining experience.
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