Day 1
Buon giornia and welcome to Fr. Reggie Brissette's Blog of Italy.
Our journey has begun and we are off and running. We arrived in Venice 1/2 hour late and were met by our lovely escort Karin. She is absolutely fabulous and very knowledgeable. We immediately boarded our bus to the Hotel Plaza. Once at the hotel we were told we had to be back in the lobby in 1/2 hour so we would not be late for our walking tour of Old Venice. We took the local train to enter Old Venice as no motorized transportation is allowed in the city. Even bicycles are not allowed the only modes of transportation allowed are boats and walking.
Upon arrival we immediately boarded our boat taxi for St. Mark's Square and our walking tour. As we rode our taxi we were all impressed at the beauty and rich history of this beautifuly city. We had our walking tour of the square and there were hundreds of people there and what seemed like a million pigeons. After our walking tour we got a quick break to grab a sandwich or gelato and then off we went for our gondola ride. The gondolas only hold 6 people so off we went on our 45 minute gondola ride through the Grand Canal. It was an experience no one should miss in Venice.
After our gondola rides off to the water taxi we went to get to the train to get back to our hotel for dinner. We got back to the hotel and sat down for our
3 course meal consisting of linguine bolognese, breaded pork with potatoes, salad and fruit tarte.
Plus we can not forget the wine and there was plenty going around. So as you see we enjoyed our first day very much and we were all definitely ready for a good nights sleep.