Day 7 - Venice

We arrived in Dolo, just west of west of Venice in the dark last night, and finally found our hotel, Villa Gasparini after "Nancy", as we have named the voice on our GPS unit, had difficulty navigating us accurately on the roads in Italy. In the morning we took a boat across to Venice, a most beautiful city! When we arrived in St. Mark's Square, we discovered a ceremony honoring the firefighters of Italy was taking place, and they were lowering the flag of Italy down the Campanile, the Bell Tower. The piazza was crowded, since there were so many cruise ships anchored off the Grand Canal. Saint Mark's Basilica was closed to the public, unfortunately, however, we were able to tour the Doge's Palace, which dates to 1300's.