Arrival in Venice - July 8, 2012

After on time and uneventful flights, I arrived at Marco Polo airport where Katie was waiting to greet me.  It was good to see her; she looked tan and happy. We walked down to the dock and hired a water taxi to take us to our hotel, the Al Ponte Antico, in a great location on the Grand Canal within sight of the Rialto Bridge.  Though Katie had been in Venice for the last three days, it was her first time approaching it by water which gives a different perspective.

The Al Ponte Antico with its lovely terrace

Our hotel is a small family run place and one of the nice things is that the staff has been the same for the several years I've stayed there and they call you by first name.  After checking in and cleaning up, we set forth on our first walkabout.  We were drawn to St. Mark's Square.  When Katie had been there a few days before, the place had been absolutely packed.  Today because it was later in the afternoon there were less people (though it was still busy).  I was hot and needed to sit and have something cold to drink so we stopped at one of the cafes in the square and had expensive but refreshing Aperol Spritzers and listened to the dueling bands. It was a pleasant interlude!

Flags flying in the breeze in front of St. Mark's

Katie's group, the Women's Voices Chorus of Chapel, had the honor of singing the mass on Friday evening in St. Mark's.  To hear them and see some of the sights they saw and members of the group follow their link.

For dinner we went to a little restaurant close to the hotel and recommended by them, the Il Barababao (the Devil).  We had a pleasant meal of salad and pasta with seafood and a nice house wine.  On our way back to the hotel we stopped for gelato to finish off the evening. It was a nice first day of our 2012 adventure.