..........ST. MARK'S SQUARE, (or in Italian, "PIAZZA SAN MARCO"), where all the tourists congregate in Venice (and more than a few pigeons too!!)

......THE PIGEONS VS THE SEAGULLS.....FUNNY !! At least I was amused when I saw this: Someone had dropped a sandwich on the ground wrapped in aluminum foil, and dozens of pigeons were working feverishly to open it. Then FINALLY when they got the sandwich free from its wrapper, 2 big seagulls came out of nowhere and stole the whole thing!! LOL It was hilarious (and sad at the same time) to see all the pigeons hard work go for naught . It was even funnier to see one seagull with a huge slice of ham or bologna hanging out of its mouth, and the other seagull with the entire big bun in its beak, trying again and again to swallow it whole! Then they flew away with their prized catches, lest the pigeons try to get their revenge! LOL, I really enjoyed that moment and wished Sonia had been there with her video camera!! (OK, sometimes it doesn't take much to entertain me :-)
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.....SOME INTERESTING FACTS The pic directly above shows only part of the top of the Basilica di San Marco which is decorated so exquisitely. The WHOLE Basilica can be seen in the photos above. We toured the inside, (got no pictures) but it seemed at least as gorgeous and huge inside as St. Peter's Church in Rome . Also, the very tall bell tower in the Piazza can be seen in our photos below, which the guide book says is over 98 meters high, and was rebuilt around 1912, after the original, identical one collapsed in 1902. No wonder....the ORIGINAL bell tower was built between the years 888 and 912.

Other photos in this group show a white building inside St. Mark's Square, which was built approx. in 1496, and is still standing today.
Part of this building is the "CLOCK TOWER", (white building in 2 photos below with bell on roof), where from the piazza, tourists can spot the bell-ringer figures (made of bronze) high up on the roof. These figures MOVE like clockwork (a UNIQUE ACTUAL GIANT MOTION CLOCK) striking the hours now and for more than 4 centuries. We saw this happen ....How cool!! I have a friend named SAM who adores motion clocks and motion lamps, has a huge collection of them, and even wrote a BOOK on them! - so he would definitely appreciate this!! (Click on the 3rd photo down to see the best view of the bell and figures on the roof).


.....HOW TOURISM HELPS VENICE:
The sinking and flooding problem is one reason, (Settimio's sisters say), why Venice is so expensive. It depends on Tourism for most of the money needed to help keep Venice "afloat", (pun intended!) and repair all the damages.




.............Another example of the costs Venice passes on to the tourists: We paid a total of $300 for the 4 of us for a 3-day pass, JUST to ride the "cheapest" regular passenger boats, (called the vaporetto ), which we didn't use nearly enough, since we walked everywhere so much. And I hate to say it, but we had to cut costs for eating out in regular restaurants in Venice (since Settimio and I paid for all trip expenses for all 4 of us, including airfare, trains, buses, boats, food, apartments, etc) so IN VENICE we always ate in snack bars and the "Tavola Calda" (translated, "hot table") which are similar to snack bars OR more specifically the "Italian equivalent of fast food"!! This was because as a rule REAL Venetian restaurant prices with decent meals started at $40 per person, and went up from there! I may have mentioned this before, but Settimio and I have never been "big spenders" when it comes to food!