heading toward our journey’s end

Today, we travel to the final destination of our European Trip, to Rome. We’ll stay here until August 30, when we travel back home to San Diego.

We stayed in Florence the past 3 nights, and before that we were in Venice. Here is a photo taken in Venice near the Basilica San Marco. The rides on the gondolas were between 80 and 120 Euros per person. The locals say the Mafia runs the gondolas, and one waiter said it was a “rip-off”. The water buses were the easiest and quickest way to get around Venice. That and a lot of walking, but the little shops and markets were a delight.

It’s like a maze to stroll around Venice, but it’s a beautiful city, and one gets the feeling that you’re transported back to the days of Marco Polo. The city has remained the same for several centuries, though now they say the city is sinking, and parts of it are susceptible to flooding and high tides.

In the photo to the right, a friendly pigeon has decided to rest on Jordan’s shoulder while we were in the Piazza San Marco in Venice. You can purchase a package of seeds from a vendor to feed the pigeons, and they were everywhere and very friendly toward us tourists, a sure sign that many people have fed these birds in the past.