Italy, Venice (The Grand Canal)

We started off very early the next day. The morning breeze in the Grand Canal was cooling and refreshing as we sat on the front seat of the water taxi.

The sun spreading its golden ray over the canal made me a very grateful person. I felt blessed because I get to admire Venice in such a pleasant weather. We would have a different experience if it rained in Venice. I've read how people had to walk with water up to their ankles when the place gets flooded. Thankfully, we didn't face any bad weather at all.

A water ambulance just "flew" past us; its siren alerted other boats in the canal to give way. This is another interesting fact about Venice. Since it is a city on water, it thus has a special water-based unit. The ambulance, police and fire units - all of them have their own water fleet. 

One of the water taxi stations to pick up and drop off passengers. 

I love the buildings in Venice. They were uniquely Venice. 

We also noticed that some of the buildings had murals painted on their walls. The murals further added character and beauty to the place. 

Finally, here's the famous Piazza San Marco.

It was such a huge piazza and there were so many fat pigeons there. I think we pretended to be scarecrows most of the time for about an hour so that we could have the pigeons perched on our arms. It's one of the crazy things we did but we had such great fun. We didn't feed the pigeons though as it was prohibited. 

There were many shops along the piazza but they were not opened yet because it's too early in the morning. The campanile (bell tower) is the most prominent landmark in the piazza. We went up the tower to have a bird's eye view of the area and for the price we paid, it's worth it. 

For me, the Secret Itinerary Tour of the Doge Palace is the most interesting part of our visit in Venice. I learnt about the system of governance when the doges were still ruling Venice and I find it pretty impressive. I also became acquainted with the story of Casanova, the most famous prisoner held in the prison here. I once thought that he was just a myth but now I knew that he was a real figure. A biography on this fascinating man could be found in the palace bookstore.

The trip to Venice wouldn't be complete without taking a ride on its gondola. Unfortunately for us, we didn't take the ride because it was expensive. I'll be contented with just a few photos of the beautiful gondolas. It must be romantic to take a cruise in one.