1. Venice September 2009

4. Art students in one of the campos (a type of plaza)

5. Campo SS Giovanni e Paolo

6. Local children in the campo

7. My first espresso in Europe and people-watching in Campo SS Giovanni e Paolo

8. The Grand Canal

17. La Salute church

18. My first sight of San Marco Piazza!

19. Basilica of San Marco – designed in the Eastern Byzantine style to distance Venice from the influence of Rome. Gorgeous mosaics inside!

21. My artsy attempt to convey the magical, ephemeral Venice

22. 7:00am – Gondolas slumber after a hard night of ferrying tourists

23. Doge’s Palace – The doge was the ruler of the Venetian trading empire

25. Church of San Giorgio Maggiore – designed by the legendary Palladio, whose mathematically-proportioned architecture inspired Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello (as well as almost every classical-influenced government building in the United States).

26. The beginning of the aqua alta, or floods.

27. Aqua altaat the Doge’s Palace – notice the courtyard is beginning to flood…

31. Ponte di Rialto

32. Waxing his most prized possession

33. Loading the mail for delivery

35. Rialto Produce and Fish Market

38. Bailing out yesterday’s torrential rains

39. Church of Santa Maria GloriosadeiFrari

40. A traghetto – how local people cross the Grand Canal for only 50 euro cents!

41. The cemetery for Venice