As I said a few posts back, Ryan was so well-organized in planning this trip that he had the foresight to buy two three-day all-you-can-boat passes (note: this is not what they're actually called) through Venice's vaporetto network. We took one such vaporetto early on our last day to a few other islands in the Veneto lagoon, including Murano, Burano, and Torcello. We got off at Burano, only a 45-minute boat ride from north Venice.
 

Whereas our first day in Venice comprised an overview of the Grand Canal (Venice's main waterway and thoroughfare of goods, vaporetti, and dedicated trash, police, and ambulance boats) and St. Mark's Square, our second day revolved around the square's main constituents: The palace, the Correr museum (and former quarters of Napoleon after he conquered the city), the basilica, and the campanile. The Doge's palace and Correr museum were appropriately fancy, with their velvet walls, gold furnishings, and wall-to-ceiling frescoes. We even saw the largest oil painting in the world, which adorned an entire wall of a 53x26-meter auditorium.
 

By the time we arrived in Venice, we were desperately in need of food and air conditioning. We made the long, winding trek through confusing canals, bridges, and dead-end alleyways from Venice's "new" train station (established over a century ago) to our bed and breakfast near St. Mark's Square.

For lunch, we found a "street food" vendor (i.e., a tiny closet of a restaurant without seating, but with excellent WiFi) who tossed pasta dish after pasta dish into small folded takeaway boxes. Even though their pesto was listed as having pine nuts (which I'm fine with) and walnuts (which are a bit of a question mark), I was so in need of good pesto that I dove into the order without a care in the world.