Now the Photos Begin!

I have been home for a little more than 48 hours and now I can start posting my photos. Our first city was Verona on June 6. However, it rained the entire time we were there and aside from seeing Juliet's balcony, the city was rather unremarkable. In fact, much of northern Italy was rather unremarkable except for Venice. That city is certainly worth seeing and truly a wonder! We spent a full day exploring the city and touring its major sites. Included in that , we saw how the famous Venetian glass and laces were made and we took a gondola ride. Here are just a few of the many photos I took while there!

The view from our "water taxi" as we approached the city.

The Piazza San Marco with the famous St. Mark's Cathedral. (Note the also-famous pigeons)

The gang... a.k.a. the "Staude Seven" The girls (L-R): Rachel, Sammy, Hanna, Katie;
and the guys: Marcus, Greg, and Clayton. We had a blast the entire 15 days!

A scenic shot from my gondola!

A view back towards the Rialto Bridge, one of only 3 bridges that cross the Grand Canal. Note the "hunky" gondolier.... we thought about bringing him home to work on the Missouri River!

Six of the gang in their gondola! Each gondola is worth over $30,000 Euro!

As you can see from just these few starting photos, we saw many beautiful things on the trip. Stay tuned for more as I work on getting my photos all ready for printing!