Venice Collission

I've always been intrigued by Venice. The idea that a city can grow up around a series of canals instead of streets is fascinating. I remember the first time I saw the famous canals. We were staying at a small hotel on the mainland and had to take a bus into Venice. The island is connected to the mainland by a long 2 lane road on a bridge. The road dumps you out into what is essentially a large parking lot. Here is where you leave the car in favor of a boat or your feet (there is a lot of walking in Venice). We descended from the parking lot and turned a corner when it hit me, the canal, the boats, the architecture. It was almost too overwhelming. It is a strange feeling to finally be standing in a place that you have only been able to imagine in the past, when the world that you created in your mind as Venice and the actual place collide. I remember standing there taking it all in (and taking a ton of photos, of course) when I realized that I haven't even left the parking lot yet. There was still an entire city to explore. This photo is one of the many that I took from that parking lot, when the Venice of my imagination and the real Venice met for the first time.

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