Just out of Venice!

Hey All, the keyboard is at least normal and we just rolled into florence earlier today.  Our ferry into Ancona from Croatia was smooth.  Surprisingly we didnt hit an iceberg or end up stranded somewhere.  Despite my words of reassurance, Jen required two benadryl to get her to sleep at all.  In the end, I ended up tossing and turning a bit.  A quick train from Ancona to Venice and we were soon in a water bus (not the 80 dollar per trip water taxis) to our one star luxury condo.  Jen aptly named it our shoebox.  Venice was simply gorgeous and truly unreal with all the scenery.  Definitely lives up to Dubrovnik, but just in a different way.  Our first afternoon went to the San Marcos square...more pigeons than people, but there were times when the tourists were giving the pigeons a run for their money.  Alot of the museums and churches were closed at that point, so we ventured down some non-tourist filled areas of the island.  Rick Steves travel guide recommended that we get lost and just remind ourselves that we cant walk off an island.  We did get lost....several times...in the rain.  Never been so grateful to have the umbrella and raincoats.  There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to the streets, whatsoever.  By the way, did I mention how amazing it is to be able to type and get the y and z in the right places?  The following day, we got up with a free breakfast of bread, jam, tea, coffee.  Met a couple from New York...the wife was quite chatty...  Went to St. Marks Basilica and the upstairs church balcony...all of it just gorgeous and the view of the square marvelous.  Illegal photos (despite Jens pleading) were taken on more than one occassion.  Got the museum card and went to Doges palace (the kings of venice if you will) and the Correr museum.  Highlights included beautiful paintings (Jen loved), a brass key that shot our poisonous darts (Ryans fav), collection of armor and cool guns (both liked and Ryan used).  Anyone like family guy (the television show)?  Well, we saw a 15th century painting that starred a Stewie like baby.  Got a photo as the guard was asleep 10 feet away...Ryan is still kicking himself for not taking a photo of the guard herself.  Had the best gelato thus far...huge scoops of ice cream for really cheap...we actually considered staying in Venice an extra couple of hours before our train to florence just to have another.  Took a water bus down the grand canal to see the sights...and then realized just how many tourists had the exact same idea as we.  As the 15th is a holiday here, many shops closed and many italians came to visit venice... a little nuts.  Bought a few souveneirs including a painting for our wall.  Ryan did his father proud and did some serious negotiating...Jen was sent in to close the job once we had the correct change in hand.  She was awesome!  Got caught in the rain again, and then some tradiitional italian pasta and pizza...they really like using ham in pretty much everything here.  Anyway, just saw the David here in florence and you can feast your eyes on one of Ryans spy camera shots under the watch of 18 guards (maybe more like 3). Met a cool couple of Australians who have been vacationing the last 3 months...which seems to be a common practice of Australians.  We are now off to have dinner and what else but some Gelato as an after dinner snack.  Hope all is well and a special pre-birthday shout out to Sarah just in case that we dont get a chance in 2 days...  Much Love!  Jen and Ryan