Where Is Erich Now

Erich's Venice:
My experience in Venice was an awesome one. One of my highlights was
watching a man blow a glass pitcher on Murano Island. Another was the
cathedral
in Piazza San Marco. I liked the tiled dome in the cathedral.
It was interesting to watch the cool highschoolers
pull out their ultra cool white speedboats and slowly cruise along the
canal. Another interesting fact is that all of the palace's front doors
opened out to the canal. The Grand Canal was busy yet still beautiful.
Bridge #4 was the best bridge. It was very wide, with two lines of shops
in the middle with a set of steps in the middle and on either side. I
thought I would like to live in Venice until Mom reminded me that you
can't ride a bike there.

Stacey's Venice:
In my travels, many places have not lived up to my expectations. Some
places are better than expected, such as Rome. I could have stayed there
for weeks. Other places are disappointing, such as Florence. But Venice
was just as one pictures it, with old decrepit buildings opening onto the
canals, gondolas and traghettos, bridges of all sizes and different
constructions, and water everywhere.
We had a great time wandering on the small streets, taking the traghetto
up the grand canal, and eating gelato. The museums had beautiful art by
Titiano and other Venetian masters, in fact it was hard to escape all of
the art. Piazza San Marco was lovely and predictably crowded, but I guess
no where as crowded as it gets in the summer; someone told us that they
actually close the island to further tourists in the summer, becaus it is
so crowded.
While tourist-watching provided lots of laughs, there were some other
wierd parts. For instance there is a set of city laws governing behavior
in Piazza San Marco: no sitting in the piazza (except at the cafes), no
eating (except at the restaurants), no playing games, and there are
brigades of elderly women wandering around getting peple to stand up and
get rid of their snacks.
The only disappointment was that none of the gondoliers were singing any
opera...Verdi, anyone?