A short recap on my 16 days in Venice. I had a pretty good time. I
rented an apartment but the laundry service that washes the bedsheets
left something to be desired. But it had a clothes washing machine,
which meant I could bring just two sets of clothes total, meaning my
sole luggage was my daypack. My one packing mistake was bringing all
the nylon stuff sacks for 4 sets of clothes, but not needing them and
putting up with their bulk.

Sixteen days was a little long, and I spent too much time in my
apartment "at night". Some of it was to sauve my ankles in the tub,
since I walked considerably all day. But in retrospect I should have
tried to do more each day and take a train daytrip to the mainland
for3-4 of those days. Maybe if I was really really into Baroque
architecture, things would be different. But I did generally
appreciate a lot of the old and interesting architectural details,
particularly the little relief sculptures planted in so many of the
walls.

The tour of the Doge's Palace and St. Mark's were as incredible as I
remember them from a longer tour back in 2002, and one of the
interesting new things I experienced was the Correr museum, which
housed among other things a lot of naval artifacts from Venice's
maritime tradition.

I am glad I (nearly) finished a history book on Venice before
departure, called History of Venice by John Jules Norwich. It was 673
pages, but it read very very well. I am generally aware of the course
of history in Europe, but it was an excellent perspective and greater
detail to see how Venice fit in. Such as when I visited Sicily in the
Fall of last year I learned all about the Normal presence, and in this
Norwich book I get to read of their interactions pertaining to Venice
as well. I greatly appreciate reading history, and visiting Venice was
a great opportunity to essentially walk through it in person.

--
Dan Stephenson
Photos and movies from US Parks and all over Europe: (no Venice as yet)
http://homepage.mac.com/stepheda