We spent a lot of time touring Venice, with and without local guides. There were very few dull moments. I'll start back at St. Mark's Square. This photo is from farther back in the square so that you can see more than just the St. Mark's Basilica. It's really a large square at 196 yards by 77 yards, so it's almost like two football fields by three-quarters of a football field. The basilica is at the back but the Doge's Palace is on the sides. The Doge was the President of Venice, so a man of tremendous power. You can also see the Campanile or the bell tower of St. Mark's Basilica. Construction of the Campanile began in the 10th century, though what we see today was finished in 1912. The previous tower collapsed in 1902. It's 323 feet high and was both a guide for ships to safely enter the harbor and a watchtower to sight approaching ships and protect the city. Also in this square are lots of very nice stores and even the oldest coffee shop in Italy, Caffe Florian, opened in 1720.

Our local Venetian tour guide was pointing out to us where Marco Polo lived in Venice. He was a huge factor in Venice becoming a major trading center and being the city it is today. Of course, Marco Polo lived in many other places that we have visited as well.

Venice had many other squares, or campi, besides St. Marks. This one was very interesting as well and not so crowded. This is Santa Maria Formosa Square. It was designed in 1492 and has many famous buildings.

Venice is much like other major cities and on this day, the Venice Marathon was being run. At first, I was surprised since the city is so cut up by canals and bridges, but their marathon has been run for many years. This is again in St. Mark's Square.

Wait, did I mention that we ran in the Venice Marathon? Well, we did! Oh alright, well, what we did do was to run "across" the marathon course - and we had to do it four times to get to our water taxi. Here you can see Vicky "running in" (or across) the marathon. She was really moving fast, too!

I still had questions about how Venice managed to put an entire marathon running course together, given the fact that Venice is Venice. On one excursion that day, for which we crossed the marathon, we got to see a temporary bridge across the Grand Canal, done just for the marathon. I have to give it to the Venetians for ingenuity.