Venezia

I've been in Venice for about a day and a half now, and the first word that comes to mind about the experience is surreal. Venice is a beautiful, yet strange city. The whole city is the size of central park in NYC. There are no cars, no buses, no bicycles, no streets, no traffic lights. If u want to go somewhere, you walk. If it's far you take a boat. If canals are equivalent to streets here, then boats are cars. There are taxi boats, police boats complete with sirens and lights, ambulance boats, and fire boats. And yes one can get a ticket for boating too fast from the cops. Just getting here was interesting. From the baggage claim we walked out of the airport to a dock instead of a garage and got on a taxi boat, which took us to our hotel. It should be noted that boat traffic is much different than car traffic. There are no lanes, so boats just swerve past one another like a crazy game of Chicken, only there are 40 boats playing. It gets especially bad when a larger boat passes and you get caught in the wake. The journey was definitely not for those who suffer from sea sickness. At night the city becomes somewhat treacherous. Venice is essentially a giant maze of canals, alleys, and bridges. The city is also constantly sinking into the ocean. As the moon rises, water floods sections of the alleys and even submerges entire courtyards. There are very few street lamps, and as the sun sets the city becomes very very dark. Navigating Venice at night feels a lot like playing a board game. You can round a corner only to lose a turn thanks to a lake blocking your path or a Nigerian man trying to sell you a fake purse. Not that any of this detracts from the experience. It in fact adds to it.
In keeping with the city's aquatic location, Venetian cuisine involves a lot of seafood. Shrimp, or scampi as it's called here, is very popular. The food is excellent in every kind of restaurant even the touristy ones. Hopefully I'll be able to talk more about the food later. I have another day in Venice before I ride the train to Florence.