We headed out from our all too brief visit to the Dolomite mountains for our final destination of Venice. En route, we stopped for a visit to a museum in Bolzano Italty that houses tzi the Iceman. Visit that link for the full story, but the short version is that tzi is a mummy that was found by two German hikers 20 years ago. He’s about 5300 years old and was found with a number of artifacts including clothing, weapons and some tools. The museum is really quite well done and worth a stop if you find yourself in Bolzano.
After a visit to the museum, Deanna and I wandered around the city centre of Bolzano. It’s the regional capitol of the South Tyrol and is home to a population of around 100,000 people. It’s quite a nice little city and the centre is full of shops, restaurants and interesting buildings.
We grabbed a quick Gelato (of dubious quality) and headed out for Venice. Deanna wasn’t feeling very good and slept most of the way for the afternoon.
Venice is one of the places I’m really looking forward to seeing. It’s been portrayed in books, movies and lots of different art forms. The whole notion of the city bisected by canals without any cars sounds ideal. The bus pulled into a really grimy industrial parking area before dropping us off to catch a Vaporetto which is a water taxi. Our hotel is between the Rialto bridge and San Marco Square, which is pretty much the perfect location.
After checking in we met the group for a quick orientation tour of a few things close to the hotel and we then split off for dinner. We ended up at Agli Artisti da Piero for dinner with some folks from the group. The restaurant was full of charm and the wait-staff were excellent. I ordered Scampi but unfortunately they were sold out and had calamari instead. It was pretty good but again (sorry to sound like a broken record here), not fantastic. Deanna had seafood spaghetti and shared the same opinion of it as I. (We must be spoiled by the great Italian food we get back home I guess). Our dining companions seemed to enjoy their meals so maybe it’s just us fussy Canadians 
After dinner, the entire group went for a float through Venice on a Gondola. It was very romantic and while a total cliche, should be something that everyone does at least once in their life times.
Tomorrow will be a busy day with a guided tour of Venice and then the balance of time off on our own. Deanna is feeling better which will make the day much more pleasant.