We again faced the question of what to do on Christmas day. Well, some of the day. After eating and then shopping at the strangely large number of open shops, we head over to feed the pidgeons at Piazza San Marco, Eric's absolute favorite activity. For only one euro you get a packet of enough dried corn for about 3-5 minutes of bird feeding frenzy, depending on your distribution technique. The birds are accustomed to people and have no qualms about landing on your head, shoulders, or outstreched arms. When there is a bird sitting on your shoulder, looking you in the eye from four inches away, and Hitchcock's movie, The Birds, doesn't run through your mind, you are either too young or crazy. It didn't bother me to have them land on me, but staring at a sharp little black beak that close to my face bothered me.
Eric loved being buried in birds. He wanted to stay there all day, feeding money to the birds. We ending up stopping there everday and spent more than I want to remember. Oh well, that is the cost of fun.
In the evening, I thought of something fun to do. There are about 3,000 streets and alleyways in Venice, many too small to map, and hundreds of little bridges. What better to explore the city by running at full speed through the narrow, underlit stone streets, taking turns at random, with the intention of getting lost? We ran at a breakneck pace down incredibly narrow alleyways, twisted and turned, and crossed countless bridges, hit deadends at canals and doorways, ran back, jumped off or over anything possible, and ran some more. It was a fun way to get a massive dose of the beautiful nightime city of Venice. We got lost and took the first vaporetto we saw, and ended up right back at the Rialto bridge. Running with Eric through the city was one of my favorite experiences in Italy.
