Day 7 Classe, Venice (June 27)

We left Florence and drove along the autostrada across the Apennine Mountains, countless tunnels and bridges as we made our way from one side of Italy to the other.  Fabulous views across deep the deep valleys and steep mountains that seemed to go on forever.  Rural Italy is very pretty.  Once you hit the flat land of the coast it appears every available inch of ground is taken up with some sort of crop or fruit trees.

We stopped at Classe and walked through one of the oldest churches in the world, the Basilica di Santa Apollinare.  Not as fancy or ornate as the huge Florentine style basilicas on the outside however still enough inside to make you wonder at the detail and work that went into creating these buildings.

 Inside the Basilica di Santa Apollinare.

After about 7 hours of driving we arrived in Venice and went for a water taxi ride along the Grand Canal.  Venice must have been impressive in its day and it still is however time is taking its toll.  You cant have homes, palaces and all the other buildings hundreds of years old without them showing there age.  Many are maintained but many are not. 

Then a gondola ride through the Venetian ‘streets’, there were seven gondolas in our little flotilla and only 2 musicians so they ran a ballot to see who rode in the musicians gondola.  The Rickard family were selected so we were treated to a serenade all the way.  We therefore feature in many photos of many tourists from all over the world……