A room with a view in Venice...

... in our case meant, Ferragamo, Versace and Prada here from our Violino D'oro hotel room.

Our view. Note the gondolier stand.

Took an exhilarating water taxi ride from the airport to our hotel. The water taxi was a beautiful sleek teak boat captained by a driver with no fear of hitting every wake head on. It had stormed that morning and the swells were noticeable. Splash. Crash. Woo Hoo! When I say we took it to our hotel, I actually mean the closest dock. Well, when I say dock, I actually mean a two plank wide structure that took us from the water taxi to the island of Venice. There was a good foot between the water taxi and the dock when I was swinging my suitcase across to our driver. Challenging as it was, I grabbed his hand and jumped. He kept telling my Mom, who does not like water, to not look down as she stepped across that gaping foot. Ah Venice.

The Murano glass chandelier in our room.

After a flight to London, with a slight delay and connecting on to Venice, I think that boat ride gave us both our second wind — by now we were both up for more than 26 hours. We dumped our bags in our room with a view, grabbed a map from the lobby, and set off in a straightish line to St. Mark's Square (there is nothing straight in Venice). We were a mere five minute walk away.

We had a lovely, sunny breezy initial walk into St. Mark's Square. It is as massive as I thought it would be. It is surrounded by expensive designer stores to tantalize as we walked by. Name a designer, and they were there, all beautifully appointed.

Two weary tourists in St. Mark's Square.

Pigeons abound.

Jewellery stores were full of eye candy.

Even the door knobs were beautiful Murano glass.

My Mom perusing the map, while waiting for dinner.

 By this time we actually were getting peckish, and found a quiet little trattoria on a side street, with many Italian tourists inside, which we thought was a good sign, and had our first meal in Venice, a Margherita pizza, with wine of course. We had a leisurely stroll through the square, by this time many of the tourists had gone back to their cruise ships, and the square was quite lovely. Three bands were playing in front of three different cafés: Florian's, Caffe Lavenna and Quadri. Vivaldi could be heard at one, jazz at another, and believe it or not, the  score to The Sound of Music at another. We booked tickets for a Vivaldi concert for the next night, grabbed gelatto for dessert as we walked back to our hotel —  the end of a lovely first day in Venice.

Buona Sera Venezia.