Venice (Oct. 20-23) - updated 10/30/06

We arrived in Venice and checked into our hotel, Mercurio. Our friends, the McCreadys, arrived late due to a missed connection in Germany, but we are all enjoying ourselves. Venice is perhaps the most unique city in the world with waterways and bridges to everywhere. Music every night in St. Mark's Square is wonderful. We found the crowds to be smaller and the food better and less expensive in the areas outside San Marco. Our hotel room was very small and the bathroom barely big enough. Our friend, Bob McCready, is 6' 5'' and had an interesting time taking a shower (the photo his wife took is hilarious).

In the 1950s, there were about 150,000 people living in Venice. Today the population has dwindled to about 50,000. On the plus side, there are about 18 million visitors every year. On the minus side, the many fruit and produce stands along the tiny streets are gone, replaced with shops like Gucci and new hotels. And due to the sinking city and rising water, in about 100 years, all of the streets will be underwater.

As I left the city on the water bus, seeing how the water often lapped above the doorways on the very old and dirty buildings, I felt as if I was watching a dying city.