Venice, Italy was the last stop on our tour.  The ship was going to dock on the mainland and we had not planned any shore excursions.We decided that we didn't want to be so close to Venice without seeing it, so we started to investigate the possibilities.  We had a difficult time finding out information on the ship, but did talk to a crew member, who thought that accessibility was good.  We decided to go for it.  

    We checked our bags at  the terminal and set out on our 6 hour whirlwind tour of Venice.  It was tricky finding the ferry terminal, but we soon found ourselves heading toward Venice on a vaporetto (public ferry).  There was  a lot of activity on the water and we enjoyed watching the smaller water taxi's plowing through the waves.  It took about 30 minutes to reach Venice and we took in all the sights along the way.

     We arrived at St. Mark's square and immediately noticed the energy in the area.

People were walking with a purpose, with maps in hand or were milling around a street show put on by energetic street performers.  We visited St. Mark's Cathedral and then went exploring. We visited numerous streets and alleys and found accessibility to be good, although sometimes we found our route blocked by a canal, or steps to a bridge.  We enjoyed watching the gondolas passing through the canals.  We explored numerous small shops and bought some nice souvenirs.  Debi found some nice glass bead necklaces at one shop and couldn't decide between them.  The helpful shopkeeper saw her predicament and kindly offered to sell her both for the price of one. Sold!  We stopped at a sidewalk cafe for lunch and Debi enjoyed her most expensive latte ever, 11 Euros, or about $15!  It was a perfect ending to a wonderful day in Venice.  We made it back to the vaporetto with a few minutes to spare.  We wished we had more time, but we got a pretty good taste of the Venice experience.  We picked up our bags and made it to the airport on time.  Our flight took off and gave us one last look at Venice as we flew by.