Venice. A late arrival (so sorry). Crowded parking. Water taxi's. Spots away from the crowds.

 On May 16th, we got up early, caught a taxi to the airport and picked up our rental car for mostly the rest of the trip and headed to Venice.

 I wanted to take some back roads to Venice rather than jumping on the Autostrada (think Interstate). We drove through the Tuscan hill country and ultimately arrived at Forli, where we got a bit lost but soon back on the way towards Ravenna and Venice. 

I thought this would be much quicker than the roundabout way the autostrada went, but figured wrong. Lots of little coastal towns with both auto and truck traffic. I also later got a speeding ticket from one of the little towns. Oh well. 

 On the drive we got several calls from our Venice host wondering when we would arrive. I tried telling her where we were at various times, guess my Italian pronunciation wasn't great because she had no idea what I was saying. 

 We eventually got on the long causeway out to Venice and found a parking garage that was packed. Got on a water taxi to the stop that the host had provided and arrived at our cute little 2 floor condo. She was a bit miffed since she had taken time away from work and waited for us, but after a few apologies, she seemed to understand what had taken so long.

 One of the fun things about Venice (at least for me) was finding little piazza's where there weren't a lot of tourists. That afternoon we found one and had a glass of wine and a small appetizer in the sunshine.

 

 The next day was our "Grand Tour" of Venice. We walked along the Grand Canal, visited the Basilica Santa Maria della Saulete, found that the Piazza San Marco was way too crowded to be believed and went off grid to a little piazza on the less visited North side of Venice.

 

 The Grand Canal

 

 

 The Basilica

 

 

 

 A view of San Marco from the Basilica and Mary at the Piazza San Marco

 

 After fleeing San Marco we made our way to the less visited part of Venice and found another little Piazza where we had a glass of wine and rested my weary legs.

 

 One of the many back streets.

 

 A short visit to Venice, but long enough to tire of the crowds. The next morning we boarded a water taxi to the garage and spent an uncomfortable 45 or so minutes while the attendants tried to locate our rental car. I was a bit panicked for a bit there.

  

 

 Mary waiting for the water taxi.

 

We heard the mountains calling and we knew we must go. Off to the Dolomites.