Venice - Thursday

Today's outing started with the marble clad church next door, S. Maria dei Mericola, a popular venue for Venetian weddings. Next we wandered through the Corte de Milion where Marco Polo and his family lived. Wally figured that if Marco had managed to find his way around Venice as a boy, he would have had no trouble finding his way to China!  We walked on to Campo de la Maddalena, a tiny square with small houses where nothing much has changed since the Middle Ages. From there we made our way to the busy Rialto Market.  Our plan for the day was to seek out a few more of Inspector Brunetti's haunts on the literary trail and then end up at the Gritti Palace, the ritziest (5 star) hotel in Venice to enjoy a drink on their deck overlooking the Grand Canal. We reached our destination and there we had a perfect view of the canal and the Church of Santa Maria de la Salute on the other side. We enjoyed the exquisite service, sipped Rossinis made with fresh strawberries and Prosecca while nibbling on roasted hazelnuts, tiny crackers and giant olives. Yes, it was as decadent as it sounds!  The final pictures in this post (after the drinks) were some scenes I liked as we made our way around Venice today. I think they speak for themselves.