We arrived in Rome on Sunday morning and immediately took the high-speed train north to Venice. We had planned to spend two days in Venice before returning to Rome for the work-related conference that I was attending there later in the week.
I haven't been to Italy in over 15 years, when I was there as a poor, backpacking college student and Scott had never been to Italy. Taking these factors into consideration and considering the fact that I am now so much older, had made hotel and transportation arrangements in advance, etc. made for a much smoother trip than the last time I spent time in Italy. I enjoyed our time in Italy so much more this time around for many reasons.
Above is the view of San Giorgio taken from San Marco square, taken around 9:00 in the morning before the gondoliers had prepared their gondolas for the day. Below is the view from the water bus we took after arriving in Venice by train, as the boat traveled around the Guidecca canal.
On our first full day in Venice we traveled over to San Giorgio (church in the first picture above) to see the church, and more importantly, to climb the church tower for amazing views of Venice. The views from the belfry proved well worth the trip. Below is a photo of San Marco square (the main square in Venice), where you can faintly see the crowds of people packed into the square.
Another view from the San Giorgio belfry, looking down a different canal towards other areas of Venice. Notice how blue and crisp the sky is, with not a single visible cloud? This is what the weather was like for just about every single day last week while we were in Italy, and another reason why the trip was so wonderful.
We traveled up and down the Grand canal via water bus several times because it was the easiest way to travel that routeefficiently. In particular I enjoyed the chance to observe the distinct architecture on the homes lining the canal. This one with gold mosaic tiles and beautiful windows caught my attention as the tiles shimmered in the sun.
This is a water bus that was traveling in the opposite direction as the bus we were riding on. The only ways to get around Venice are to walk through the narrow streets lining the canals or to travel by water, where the water-related options consist of private gondola, private water taxi, and the water busses. The water busses operated just as busses would in any land-based city, were easy to use, and were perfect for getting a glimpse of Venice from the water.
We had to wait until our last morning in Venice to get inside the basilica of San Marco due to very long lines and immense crowds. We finally planned well for a visit by going early that morning. Inside the church the mosaic marble and gold-tiled decor, huge marble statues, and lavish decorations were impressive. You can see some of the ornate detail on the church exterior.
Pigeons live in abundance in Venice, and if you have ever been there you know that tourists like to feed them. Scott thinks pigeons are disgusting so he wanted to kick them, but that is another story. After we exited the church of San Marco, we stumbled upon a group of Japanese tourists that thought it was loads of fun to pose with the pigeons. 
And when I mean pose with the pigeons, I mean they scattered crumbs along their necks, hands, and arms in order to encourage the pigeons to climb all over their bodies. Ewww. We observed dozens of tourists from this large group with multiple pigeons on their bodies, scrambling for others in the tour group to take their photo. So Scott and I thought this was pretty gross, and instead of taking photos of the pigeons I took photos of the tourists taking photos of themselves with pigeons climbing all over. It was so gross in theory, but hilarious to watch.
One of my favorite things about Venice was walking through the narrow walkways lining the canals, crossing bridges to get to the next area every few hundred feet or so. Away from the main plazas, and especially earlier in the morning and later at night, Venice was quite peaceful.
This last photo is the canal just outside of our hotel. Gondolas were tethered to the poles there and the canal was a cute, narrow space that goldoliers used to shuttle tourists around Venice all day and night. It was completely wonderful to be greeted by this view every time we stepped outside of our hotel.
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