Venice, Italy

Our cruise began in Venice, Italy. We went one day before the cruise. It was a beautiful, magical overnight stay. We were blessed with nice weather for November. No rain and temperatures in the 50s. However it was foggy much of the time, and with the shorter days, it was dawn or dusk much of the time.

Obedient dogs

Churches were lovely.

Venice is a beautiful city. We loved it!

Venice: The canals

Venice is a grand city with old world flavor. No cars are allowed in the city. The Grand Canal slices through the city and many smaller canals and bridges link the rest of the neighborhoods like watery roads. Boats take the form of taxis, buses and even UPS trucks.

My photos of the grand canal cover day and night. Most of our time in Venice was foggy.

We did not take a gondola ride. However we did cross the canal in a traghetto, which is a gondola for crowds to cross where there is no bridge. People stand in the boat as they go across.

Bari, Italy: Where St. Nicholas is buried

The old town of Bari, Italy is a simple walled city dating back hundreds of years. The streets are narrow with arches. Laundry hangs across the passageways. We walked along the wall to enter.

There are a lot of churches in the old town. We also saw quite a few nuns walking around during the lunch hour.

The most interesting story is that of the St. Nicholas church. Bari natives stole his body by night a couple centuries ago when having a saint buried in your town was a big deal. We were unable to enter as it was closed for lunch.