Italy: Venice

Well, you can’t win them all. After months of generally great weather for touring, it poured during the two days we spent in Venice, Italy. No matter, though, as Venice is a beautiful place rain or shine. We braved the downpours and spent an afternoon getting lost among Venice’s maze-like streets and neighborhoods, including the obligatory stop at St. Mark‘s Square. Venice’s look is distinct and full of character with seemingly endless bridges crossing gondola-filled canals. Venice’s prices, however, on everything from coffee to water taxis, are much less charming.

The rain graciously allowed us to catch up on our lagging wine consumption, which we enjoyed thoroughly during a movie night with "The Big Lebowski". To escape the wet weather, we hopped on a train westward to Italy’s other coast on our way to France. Cinque Terre, Italy is next.