Doge's palace

It is the last day of our vacation. This vacation has passed by extremely quickly.

Our guide: Raphael is a walking tome of knowledge. Moreover he makes things extremely interesting and without doubt is the best guide we have had on this trip. He walks us through the Renaissance and the Baroque periods of art and using examples and paintings on the wall clearly distinguishes the two.

After our tour of the palace, we are offered an optional tour of a factory where artists create glass sculptures. It is a 20 minute boat ride to the factory; inside an artist vows us by making a vase and a standing horse in minutes.

Next up, we are taken to a room full of beautiful finished pieces. We sit through a sales pitch and then are left to wander around the rooms. Wife is interested in a vase, but it is prohibitively costly. We admire a plate which is again atrociously expensive. A couple of folks fork out a bunch of money and buy some stuff. Even if only two or three people end up buying, given the prices, getting us to the factory is a great investment and a smart business move on the owner's part. Somehow, I think that the things on sale are vastly overpriced.

Back on the island, we have the tastiest pasta that I have had for lunch in a restaurant that is next to a canal. After lunch, we take a longer route back to the hotel. It is easy to get lost in Venice, as you snake your way through different narrow streets, and before long I find out that I am headed in the wrong direction. We retrace our steps back to St. Mark's Square. Wife is tired and is longing for a siesta.

I drop wife at the hotel and then head out to explore more of Venice. I wander off to the Accademia (another museum in Venice), but I am in no mood to see more museums or fork out more money to enter them. So I sit outside and watch the traffic on the canal. After a while, I head into the island and turn into random alleys on a whim. Midway through, I reach the other side of the island and watch the most gigantic cruise ship that I have ever seen make its way into the port of Venice. MSC Musica is emblazoned across its hull.

Moving on, I walk into a chocolate shop that has the daintiest chocolates that I have ever seen. I am tempted to buy some, but I fear that they'll melt in the heat before I get to the hotel.
In front of a church, I find a girl screaming into her cell phone. She is terribly mad at someone on the other end of the line, and after she hangs up, gives vent to her frustration with a violent scream.

I am now lost, but with the help of a map manage to get back on course. I meet others who seem to be in a similar predicament with maps in hand. After a good two and a half hours of walking, I reach the hotel. My feet are tired and I could use some rest.

In the evening, wife does more shopping, before we head to dinner. I order pizza, while she orders pasta. The service so far in previous restaurants has been ordinary, but the waiters here are extraordinarily good and entertaining.

We have an early morning flight to catch, so we get back to the hotel at 10 and pack up for the journey back home