Venice is a beautiful city but it also comes with a price…people.  There are so many people in the city during the day that it is almost pointless to try to move around.  So I think the best thing to do is to wake up early and beat the crowds.  Both mornings in Venice I woke up early and got outside before the sun came up.  There were other photographers out and some runners but other than that it was such a lovely city to have to oneself.  There was a guy who had a tripod and little flip video camera.  He would set up the tripd and then start his movie.  You then would see him running and twirling around.  I saw him do this in San Marco square and then again on the Rialto bridge.  Pretty entertaining. 

A little blurb about waking up early.  Not sure I mentioned this but we had to move hotels after the first night in Venice.  It was a pain but the first place overbooked, and we got the boot.  In the first hotel, there was no reception.  We got to go and come as we pleased.  In the second hotel, there was reception and you had to turn your key in every time you left.  The funny part was that I assumed that the desk was covered 24 hours a day.  Our room was literally a door in the breakfast room.  I opened the door this morning at 5:30 and up jumped the lady working at the front desk.  She was sleeping the in breakfast room, and I just scared her to death.  She screamed “we we” a couple of times and then realized what was going on.  She scared me just as much as I wasn’t expecting a women sleeping in her pj’s right outside the door.  She asked what time we were coming back since I think she was mad that she was just woken up. 

(Here is a slideshow of the some of the photos from the wee hours in the morning.  If you need to see larger photos, you can click on the slideshow.)