A Lovely Gondola Ride

This morning began with a wonderful buffet breakfast on the hotel's rooftop restaurant, which gave us beautiful views of two neighboring islands.  The weather was warm and  balmy but rains were predicted for later in the day. As we relaxed and ate we watched a huge cruise ship being towed into the lagoon. It was distressing to see such a gargantuan ship enter the serene lagoon. I hadn't realized until we arrived here that such large ships were allowed to come so near to Venice.

Around 9:00 we meandered through St. Mark's Square and took a leisurely stroll past very high end shops on our way to meet our guide and take a gondola ride on the canals.  We met Alessandro just before 10:00 and we commenced a lovely private gondola ride through the canals of Venice. As we viewed the sights, Alessandro gave us the history of Venice and many of the buildings. It was a perfect day for the ride because it was Sunday and there was a lot less traffic on the Grand Canal.  After the ride we walked across the Academia Bridge into the Dorsodro quarter.  We visited the Galleria dell'Academia and viewed  the spectacular Renassance art of such Venetian masters as Bellini, Titian, Tintoretto, and Veneziano. After the museum we stopped at a small restaurant for a light lunch. While having lunch it started to rain but lightly. We walked back to the hotel while dodging the raindrops.  We meet our tour group and guides this evening at a reception and dinner in our hotel.  Our official tour begins tomorrow.

Below are scenes from our gondola ride this morning: