After breakfast we entered the San Marco cathedral. Saw the famous horses, up close. Then the replicas on the balcony.

Giuseppe Nucatola and his wife Laura Nicastro drove in with their new baby, Nicholas and Laura's cousin, Samantha. We took the 52 express vaporetto to meet them @ 11:05, but it was almost 1 by the time we met up with them, which caused us some anxiety. All was well.

For lunch we went to Brek, a cafeteria style restaurant chain, crowded but with surprisingly good food. Something to keep in mind for the future.

We then strolled from the train station all the way to the Rialto bridge while they showered us with little gifts all along the way! We parted company with a promise of a feast at their house in Udine on Sunday.

We walked back for a nap and dinner at Trattoria Alla Rivetta again. I had calamari & shrimp, Barbara, veal Bolognese. Afterwards we strolled San Marco marvelling at the increase in pedestrian traffic over the day before.

The number of people in St. Mark's Square seemed to have multlplied exponentially from the night before. Mosaics... attaching tiny stones of various colors to a wall or ceiling to create magnificent art... so amazing.

The statues of the four famous horses that we saw on our honeymoon had been moved indoors, but for a fee, you can go upstairs and see them up close. You also get a great view of the square and the canal from upstairs.

We forgot that we had Rick Steves' audio of St. Mark's Cathedral on our I-Pods. We were a little late for our meeting with Giuseppe and Laura, but they were later and very apologetic. What a cute couple and an adorable baby! We communicated very well using a lot of Italian, a little English, and sometimes charades to get our meaning across. We strolled through Venice, marveling at the wonder of it all.

We indulged in our first gelato. I love the sweet fruit flavors, strawberry, raspberry, and mixed (frutti di bosco) because they are so intense. Nick likes lemon, which is very refreshing but not my favorite. You know, when I was little girl, we kids loved getting lemon ice from Lemon Ice King, which was on the corner of my grandmother's street. The grownups always ordered lemon, but my favorite flavor was cherry: sweet, intense,and it had an added bonus of making my lips red.