It was only such a brief time that we had there in Venice. Though as stunning the city of Venice as it could be in every seasoned traveler's lips, it is indeed a hundredth fold better once you travel down its cobblestone alleys, explore its myriad of canals or browse its centuries-old Venetian apartments.

The beauty of Venice has been visually immortalized numerous times - as far as I've become aware of, in various travel television programs and magazines.

The evoking image of Grand Canal with the Salute Church as backdrop; gondolas gliding over the sparkling emerald water; the numerous stilts sticking out and lined-up by the side of the Grand Canal corralling those idly-docked gondolas. Truly, they depict and represent the stunning uniqueness of the city of Venice that have spell-bounded its visitors throughout the ages.
Saint Mark Square - the place where we emerged from our last phase of strolling, faces Venice's main train hub from a distance, separated only by the Grand Canal itself.

Out here, there seems to be no decline of crowds. A scene that ironically went in agreement with the settling late afternoon sun so hesitant to descend yet out in the horizon. It was a bit overcast and foggy, but the orangey hue of sunlight blanketing a whole expanse of the Square, the Canal, and train terminal subdues a rather gloomy atmosphere. It did not seem to matter anyway, since most of the oblivious crowd were busy clicking the shutter of their cameras to capture the frozen-in-time beauty of the place; we were one of them.

From Saint Mark Square's open court, we continued to lazily stroll along the Grand Canal. At one point we just sat close to the waters and listened to the serene sound of gentle waves - rippled and generated by each passing gondola, lapping and breaking off right before our feet against the concrete wall and affording us even to relax further watching activities in the Canal.

Gazing out from our where we were - the emerging outline of Salute's dome-shaped roof and a series of apartments adjacent to it, was strikingly formed by the settling sun behind them. It reminded me of asymmetrical figures you would see peeking from a kaleidoscope. We stayed a good one hour there.

Although the breeze turned-out colder at the onset of the early evening, that did not diminish the number of people wondering to and fro. I actually thought it was busier than it had been during the daytime we were out.
Heading back to my friend's place for dinner, we again followed those whimsical narrow alleyways cautious not to depend too much on street names, but depended wholly on whatever sort of specific points of interest we've remembered on the way out earlier that afternoon. (to be continued...)