Day 2 in Venice I convinced the girl to get up a bit early so we could head to St Mark's Square straight away since our 24-hour pass expired around 1pm.  It was SO crowded during sail in the day before I was worried, but it didn't seem as bad there.  We walked around the square and then started following the signs to the Rialto bridge, not getting as lost as I expected.  There is lots of shopping to be had along the way for those interested, on the bridge as well which reminded me a bit of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence (spelling?).  Across the bridge we stopped, snagging some fresh cherries and a watermelon drink from a vendor and watching the pigeons stroll around.

We continued walking and got to the market area of the San Marco district, which always interests me, I love seeing all of the fresh goodies and interesting purchase options.  From there we took another vaporetto along the grand canal, hoping off for a little more aimless walking and exploring then back to the station and ship.  We had until around 7pm that we could have stayed out, but I think we were both a bit too tuckered and gave in early.  It was nap for the girl and hot tub for me once again.

Venice is quite nice, I think it was Dani's favorite stop.  I'd be happy to go back, that's for sure.  I guess it would be better if you could bask in the romantic aspects of Venice too.  Meh.  I was surprised I never smelled the canals.

Tonight's show was a violinist - which is like nails on a chalk board for me.  I guess it's the rubbing on the metal strings... he was good, but there were still spots where it sounds sqwalky to me.

I also wanted to comment a bit on our dinner waiters, Gonzalo and Zoran.  I really liked Zoran, he remembered my preferences and would bring me iced tea each night etc whereas Gonzalo seemed to always be rushing us, even though we always got there pretty on time and were the last to get our food amongst his tables.  Usually when you're finished things get whisked away quickly and you're on to the next course, for us we'd wait for things to be cleared and wait for the next round - dinner taking nearly 2 hours each night.  The smaller tables would be on dessert and we had not yet gotten our main course, their desserts before them while our food sat on the tray after it finally came out for 5-10 minutes.  I have to admit that was a bit disappointing... but it's hard to say where all of the blame lies.  It seemed like the waiter would go to get our food and be gone for forever.  It was also so late that we often had little option for replacements as the kitchen was out or closing down by the time we got our meals so we were again rushed to check that meat was cooked, things were still hot, etc.  It was also readily apparent that the two did NOT like each other and were at each other's throats.  That's not a good thing.