We'll Have a Barrel of Fun

We landed in Venice, after taking a water-bus from the airport down the grand canal, at the Piazzetta dei Leoncini. It is a waterfront carnival of souvenir kiosks, gondoleers, confused and frightened tourists, and pick-pockets. Rolf and I, needing a shave, shower, and a nap, had our passports, money, and credit cards in money belts underneath our clothes, our Rick Steves' guide book in hand, and led off pulling our new baby blue luggage right through the heart of Venice, past the Doge Palace toward Saint Mark's Square, through crowds of laughing tourists and pigeons, (and probably pick-pockets.)

There was a tiny orchestra playing in a big outdoor cafe, while a man and his family readied pigeon feed and camera's with fear and excitement. Then he stood in the middle of the Piazzetta, put his arms straight out palms up with bird feed, and the pigeons landed from wrist to wrist like sparrows on an electric wire. The two trying to sit on his head were hindered by his lack of hair, and fluttered their wings . . . as we marched on through St. Marks Square, around the basilica crowned with the huge bronze horses, and funneled into the "lanes" of Venice; ally ways filled with elegant shops of the most gorgeous colored glass vases, chandeliers, and statues, while we were looking for a sign on the ground, a blue mosaic that was to say "C & C Glass", which was our landmark to turn into another ally.

We laughed when we found it, and plunged onward and right up a bridge over the first canal. Where we stopped for the most beautiful sight. It was an intersection of canals, tourists on the footbridge, gondoleer's on the water "road"; and our hotel's front door was all part of the post-card perfect scene.

Pure joy.