2009-06-21 Italy Trip - Venice Day 2

Today we had a buffet breakfast and went back into Venice for some last minute sightseeing and shopping. We took the shuttle boat to just down from St. Mark’s Square and hoofed it into the square and through the archway under the clock tower. Karen and Eva wanted to shop at a jewelry designer’s trunk show and I wanted to see the Rialto Bridge. We dropped the womenfolk off at the jeweler’s and took off through the rabbit warren leading to the Rialto. Sometimes there were printed signs saying “Per Rialto” with arrows, and sometimes there was spray paint saying just “Rialto” with an arrow, and a couple of times it was hand written on a piece of paper and securely taped to the wall.

We finally arrived at the bridge and it was worth all the work it took to find it. It is truly inspiring since it was built in 1591 and has shops built right into the bridge. We walked over the bridge and there was an open air market on the other side with mostly souvenirs. We browsed for a while and then it was back over the bridge to find our way back to St. Mark’s Square. On the way we met the girls coming the other way so we took them back to the Rialto and then it was back to the square –right after stopping for some gelato. There’s always time for gelato.

We had a late lunch at the buffet, and most of us took naps. Eva and Audrey went to the spa and Eva got a great new hair style.

For dinner I had the scallop risotto, the shrimp scampi, and the tiramisu. Tolga gave us some more puzzles: two triangles, move one stick to make four triangles. He also gave us a word puzzle: “Ted is the son of Tom. Tom is the _____ of Ted’s father.” Give up? It’s “name”.

He told us of the boy driving with his father when they had an accident and were taken to the hospital. The father was in one room and the son was in another. They brought the doctor in to operate on the boy and the doctor said, “I can’t operate on this boy, he is my son.” How can that be?

The answer is that the doctor was his mother.

It’s an old gender thinking example and I am sorry to say that none of the females at our table guessed it. He left us with another one:

“10 10 10 = 950”
Add another line and make the statement true.

We had a late night buffet that had to be moved from the pool to the Windjammer Café due to the weather. It was quite a spread with lots of carved fruit and melons.

Answer: "10 TO 10 = 950"

Per Rialto...

Finally! The Rialto Bridge.

Justin, Scott, Ryan on the Rialto Bridge.

On the other side of the bridge.

Shot through the market to the bridge steps.

Venetian masks.

Leaving the Venetian Lagoon.

Shhh... Late night buffet.

The rest of the pictures are here.