I think when people create the image of Venice being the most romantic city in the world, they don't paint the picture with cold, windy, overcast weather. That's what we had when we got there and it sucked. Neither of us was prepared for that contingency, especially my weather-spoiled Floridian travel buddy. However, the second day was better and everything worked out eventually (as it always does for us).

We decided rather quickly that we wanted to shop for the world-famous Murano glass, so mid-day on the second day there we ferried ourselves to the island of Murano. We must have hauled back about 50 pounds of the stuff, and all really cheap!