 | Two nights of your European Exposure adventure will be spent among the famous canals of Venice, Italy. Nobody arrives in Venice and sees the city for the first time. Depicted and described so often that its image has become part of the world's collective consciousness, Venice can initially create the slightly anticlimactic feeling that everything looks exactly as it should. The water-lapped palaces along the Grand Canal are just as the brochure photographs make them out to be. The narrow canals and small bridges away from the more heavily-traveled areas really are as picturesque as you'd expect. St. Mark's Plaza does indeed look as perfect as a film set. And the panorama across the water from the Palazzo Ducale is precisely as Canaletto painted it. The sense of familiarity soon fades, however, as details of the scene begin to catch your attention – an ancient carving high on a wall, a boat being maneuvered round an impossible corner, a tiny shop selling colorful Venetian Glass in a dilapidated building. And the longer -- and closer -- you look, the more intriguing Venice becomes. These are just a small sampling of things you can see and do in Venice. For more information, click the following links: Venice Overview Venice Attractions Venice Shopping |