BK's Travel Blog: Our short day in Venice

We started out our day on 6/11 by being bused from Florence to Venice, which was quite a long drive from what I remember. After we got to a dock on the mainland/industrial part of Venice we all got on a boat to take us to the town center. The boat let us off a few blocks from Piazza San Marco, so we had to walk along the sea for a little while before we got to the main square. Along the way our guide, Isabella, pointed out a tower in the background that was leaning and she called it the leaning tower of Venice. Once we arrived in the square we had some time to get some money and grab a quick lunch before our tour of the palace and church in Piazza San Marco.

We met back at the entrance of the palace in Piazza San Marco around 2 pm for the tour inside and the church attached to the palace. I had been to Venice previously when I went in high school, however we never attached went inside this palace or church so it was a first for me. The palace was interesting to see the court rooms, golden hallways and to learn about the Venetian Empire. After this tour we had a couple hours to roam around Venice and shop before we had to head back on the water taxi. Our first stop was a glass company in the center of Venice which we got a short demonstration of glass blowing and later got to see all the products you can buy. Along the way we went to the Rialto for a quick photo-op over the Grand Canal. As soon as we got there we pretty much had to turn around and head back to Piazza San Marco to catch our boat back to the dock where our bus left us earlier.

When we arrived at the dock we were expecting to hop right on our bus and head to Verona, however our driver had left and was late in returning to pick us up so we had to stand there for about 15 minutes before he came back. Once he arrived we drove to Verona and got dropped off at our hotel to check in. We had dinner at the hotel and for once we stayed in that night and caught up on some sleep.