We met our agent near the dock and walked to our lodging.
The streets are easy to read in Italian, so Google Maps and our paper map should be just fine!
First up, we were going to see the famous Piazza San Marco, the plaza surrounding the Basilica San Marco church. The walk from our lodging was circuitous, at best. The streets seem to wind back and forth, seemingly at random. After a time, it became obvious that the streets twist and turn to follow the canals:
Many "streets" feel like offshoots from adjacent alleys, but if you look carefully above them, the signs seem to be easy to follow.
The streets are covered in all manner of shops, many of which selling an incredible variety of pastries and candies.
The architecture of the towers and buildings is simply stunning. The ornate gold on buildings such as this clock tower, are punctuated by the dated feel of the weathered bronze statutes we passed.
The plaza was absolutely teaming with people at midday. It's hard to believe it's the off-season for travel - I could only imagine being frozen in place with crowds much larger than this!
Due to the density of the crowd, it took much longer than I expected to cover the same distance. In fact, it feels like walking in a straight line is accomplished only by randomly dodging people along your way.
All this walking quickly ran down the batteries. While we had planned to stay active to adjust our body clocks, it was not meant to be. After touring the square for a bit, we made our way home, again trying to navigate the labyrinth of streets (getting turned around at least once).
A small co-op grocery store and deli were all we needed to assemble a nice dinner at home:
With Day 1 behind us, we started to talk about plans for tomorrow. More to come in the days ahead!
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