Italy: Glamor Shot

I snapped this photo of Ben while riding a "water bus" through Venice. Venice had no streets, which meant no buses or cars or public transportation in the traditional sense.  Instead, they had long boats called "water taxis" and "water buses" to transport people to different places the city.

For example, we wanted to get from St. Mark's Basilica to our hotel. We hopped on a public water bus and rode it around the Grand Canal until we reached the stop closest to our hotel.  The water bus stopped at umpteen points along the Grand Canal, and commuters stayed on that boat or switched to other boats that traveled to different canals.

The water bus let us see the city from a different viewpoint and it was pretty cheap.  Like any city bus, it got crowded and it took a long time to go around the city to pick up passengers.  Overall, though, good experience.