Venezia - Venice

Yesterday we took a day trip to Venice for our day off. It was right after our ski trip, so we were all a little hesitant about walking all day. Luckily, Venice is a much different city than Genoa. Genoa was a port city spread all across the coast, and the sights we wanted to see were all very spread apart. For Venice, what is there to see? People go for the natural beauty of the city as a whole, so really we did not need to walk extensive distances. My pedometer told me we walked about 16,000 steps as compared to the 27,000 or so in Genoa. We all had a great day again, but it was more relaxed. Our goals were simply to make it to the Piazza San Marco (The city "center", though it is far from the center. This is the main hub of the carnivale) and to ride a gondola. We got both done, so it was a successful day.
Venice was almost labyrinthine. Small canals all around tend to cause dead ends of smaller roads. You could not always wander in a direction and get where you need to; a road may turn the wrong way and end abruptly. The buildings were especially fascinating either. They weren't unlike Verona or certain parts of Milan and Genoa. No, the appeal of Venice truly is the canals. Standing on a tiny bridge and watching a boat make it through a two meter wide canal with 4-5 story buildings on either side is a unique view. The city had Italian charm, but also a unique feel from these canals. Because the city is mostly alleyways and canals, you can get the feel after a few blocks. There was no need to explore the whole city. Additionally (I just realized this as I typed), there were no cars. It felt like such a new and unique place that I didn't even realize that important detail. All the roads were too small, and often had stairs. The biggest wheeled vehicle I remember seeing was a big trash cart/ wheelbarrow pushed around by employees. Very cool, the roads were mildly crowded so I didn't really notice.
During carnivale (if not all the time), there are two main merchandises being sold in nearly every shop: masks and glass. They were very fond of their glass figures, rings, bracelets, etc. I found them kinda dumb and didn't really have a desire to get any, but nonetheless they must be popular (I took some pictures in my album). The masks were everywhere. cheap ones, expensive ones, fancy ones, paper ones. We went into a professional hand crafted mask shop and it was one of the coolest shops I've ever been in. I snuck two pictures of that as well. Venice is a shopping city for sure. 90% of places passed were like souvenir, mask, or clothes shops. There were also many stands. There were not many places to eat, and there were not as many churches as there are in other cities.
Anyway, enough about the general details of the city, let's look at the album. My phone died just halfway through the day, so unfortunately I did not get many pictures. Still, I feel I captured the city (as I said, after a few blocks you have seen the place). Any pictures after the Piazza San Marco were taken from either Matt or Allie.
You can find the album here.

Also, a short video of our gondola ride: