San Marco Plaza

This is the hot tourist spot in Venice. Rightfully so. We stayed litterally right behind it so we saw it several times a day. We did of course take the time to visit the two main sights the Basillica and Dodge's Palace.

This is the basillica. It is signifigant becuase it is a) beautiful and b) contains the remains for the Saint Mark or the apostle Mark. I read this out of a guide book on our drive down as for some reason was in total awe. I know I have visited the sights of historically notable people that date back even before this, but perhaps becuase the exsistence of the apostles actually means something to me. Whatever the case I thought this fact was really outstanding.

We had just gotten back to our hotel to let the girls rest for a minute when we figured out that we had to turn around and go right back if we wanted to go inside. We told Kaylie and she was all in a hurry. " I don't want to miss Jasmine's palace". We aren't exaclty teaching her anything here and if her deciding these places belong to animated charactrers makes her a more willing sight seeer then its a win. We could not take pictures inside. This is the entrance where they let you take one. The enitre inside is just as much if not more incredible.

Then we ventrued our onto the roof. The view was amazing. These horses are replicas of ones we saw inside. They are from 4 BC. Venetians stole them from the Eygyptians when Venice was just starting.

On the roof agian. In the back of us you can see Dodge's Palace and the ocean.

It was also unbelivable. It is where the rulers of Venice lived. The history of Venice is nothing I ever considered and now I find it fascinating. Picture me with all my lonely nights Jeff is working searching i-tunes for documentaries. Agian we could not take pictures inside. Every wall was painted many with biblical themes and the Christ child. Audrey scram baby every time she spotted one. Kaylie continued to belive that it belonged to Jasmine....it is connected to the basillica. My favorite part, a map fresco over the walls of an entire room of the world painted in the early 1500's. America exsists and it is about the size of Italy with little savage looking Native Americans painted on it.

The bridge of Sighs. It connects the palace courts to the prison. The prisoners would "sigh" as they crossed over getting the last peek of the outside world. Apparently it was a pretty rough judicial system. The prison was inhumane, dark, damp and the home once of Casanova. Kaylie remembered it is where Aladin was kept. We have a serious princess problem at our house.

When we were inside the prison we could hear thunder and lightening outside. It was clearing by the time we got outside, but the roof was built to collect the water and it spouted off in a stream. The girls thought it was as fun as the splash park. Audrey kept yelling "snowing" "snowing".

The plaza was empty of tourist and filled with puddles perfect for jumping.

We went and got outselves more treat and to Kaylie's delight a pigeon came for a bite. And of course soon there were dozens of them.

I have a dozens of shots of almost the same thing; Jeff and Kaylie with birds on them. Both of them found this very entertaining.

I was worried everyone was going home with the haunta virus and Tiny wanted those birds to stay far away from her treat.

Don't worry little one, more treats are not far away in Venice. We walked the winding streets for a little longer, got ourselves one more scoop of gelato, and started the long journey home. It may have been our most eventful weekend so far if the knots in the back of both of our calves are any measuring factor of the ground we covered. The worst to date.

Ciao baby. We heard this a lot from all the friendly Italians to our adorable girls. Audrey was sleepily laying her head like this on Jeff's shoulder as we headed out untill she heard the word gelato and she seriously sat right up. We may not be teaching our girls anything about the histroy of the places we are visiting, but they are being well educated from a culinary aspect.