Venezia!

I am at a loss for words to describe our experience in Venice, so I'll leave most of it to the photos. "Intricate" is foremost in my mind when I remember the narrow streets one must explore to get around the town, the architecture, and just about every detail of the buildings and art. The place begs the question, "whose crazy-ass idea was this?!"

Ultimately, one must go there to truly understand what it is like... and, wow, do people go there! Tourists from all over - mainly the US and China, it seemed - filled every street and shop. And so, it appears that Venice continues its very long history as an international attraction, only now its business is tourism rather than trade. Peter and I were wondering if that means it is obsolete or just evolving naturally.

During the day, it felt like some kind of crazy outdoor museum, but it was easier to see the real past lives of the place during the less crowded evening ("lives" plural is correct in my mind considering the wide-ranging history of the place). Once the tourists dwindled and the heat lifted, it felt less like a museum. Locals and visitors were relaxing at cafes, and personal boats were buzzing around the waterways... it finally felt like a "real" place where these same things have been going on for centuries.

As for the pictures, they are not all pictures of particularly famous places within Venice, they are all simply pictures of what all of Venice looks like. Every corner we turned led to something intriguing and beautiful. Click on the image below to see the slideshow. Click pause if you want to click through manually.