Veni Vidi Vici Venice!

Before leaving for Nice, I had made plans with an old friend of mine, Brian, to meet him in Venice for dinner one night. Seeing as how he had no cellphone or internet connection during his tour of Italy, I couldn't very well cancel... so we took a quick drive along the coastline of southern France and Italy and across the mainland, which looks astonishingly similar to rolling grassy hills of Tennessee - only that the buildings are made of stone. And have been in existance longer than the United States.
















well, maybe not so quick... never did figure out why the entire motorway came to a complete stop in the middle of the afternoon. We translated the Italian truck driver's description into somthing along the lines of "fire-breathing dragons are ravishing the countryside!!"

But we did eventually make it in time for dinner, and to see the lights come on across the buildings in St. Marks Square. One of the most stunningly beautiful twilights I have seen in my life... Here the sky grows dark over The Basilica:















I honestly had not been feeling 100%, probably all the travel and time adjustments... but when you're in Venice, this face doesn't last too long!















The next morning we were up early and headed back to the Square to go inside the Basilica (more pics soon) and roam the Square with Brian and his brother Michael before they headed off to Munich... Brian is on the left here and looks EXACTLY like when I knew him 16 years ago. Will try to find evidence of this!














And then James and I were off to meander the quiet, narrow passageways of Venice ourselves... I desparately wanted to get lost for days, but we were due back in Nice in time for the evening Chelsea football (read: soccer) match.

(I'll post more Venice pics later - Blogger only allows 5 per post)