Day 66 – Milan and Venice

First we headed into the Duomo (this is a term for a large church or cathedral). It was much different from others we had visited. The architecture was quite unique and inside there were a lot of paintings, sculptures, and displays of mummified cardinals. One statue in particular was really unique (and creepy!). It was a statue of Saint Bartholomew who was apparently skinned alive by the Romans. The statue was Bartholomew, skinned, wearing his skinned skin as a toga. This only became apparent if you looked at the statue from the side. See this page for pictures.
After thoroughly exploring the Duomo we went shopping for nice clothes for our cruise (required for the two formal evenings on board). We also bought a new hiking backpack to accommodate all of the heavy souvenirs and gifts we bought planning to send home (which would have cost hundreds of dollars to UPS home). We took the 3 hour train to Venice Mestre where our hotel was. We checked in, dropped off our stuff, and headed to Venice ( the actual island part). We wandered through tiny streets, which were more like alleys. They were barely lit at all and they sometimes abruptly ended with a few stairs down into the water of a canal with no notice (blind and drunk persons worst nightmare). We had a nice dinner at a pizzaria of pizza and pumpkin soup. We walked all the way to the Piazza San Marco where we saw the campanile originally built in the 1000’s but rebuilt in the early 20th century after it suddenly collapsed. It was really cool to see all of the buildings right on the water. We finally headed back just before midnight.