I’m overwhelmed. This is my first trip to Venice and it really is a remarkable place. Yes, it’s full of tourists (30 million people a year come to this city and I think 20 million of them are here now) but there are so many wonderful things to see, I don’t care. And there are also plenty of canals and bridges to discover that aren’t overrun.

Here is part of the view from our hotel window – the Grand Canal. I keep thinking about the wonderful Merchant/ivory film, A Room with a View, based on E.M. Forster’s novel. Parts of the story took place here in Venice. What a romantic city.

We had a private walking tour of Venice, which included St. Mark’s Basilica. A tiny portion of it is shown in this photo. It’s hard to believe that craftsmen and artisans living hundreds of years ago created monuments like this without the use of modern machinery and equipment. What they lacked in equipment they possessed in passion and drive.