Today my tour guide along the Grand Canal was with Andrea on a vaporetto, the original water bus of Venice. We set off from Marco Valleresso, the smaller and older of two waterbus stations near the Piazza San Marco We passed under two of the oldest bridges - Accademia and Rialto - The Rialto Bridge since its construction as a pontoon bridge in the 12th century has been several times to stand out as the best bridge in Italy this is now the 4th time the bridge has been built. Just some of the interesting buildings we passed included that of Lord Byron who had moved from his flat near St Marks Square, to the vast Palazzo Mocenigo along with his menagerie of several cats, a mastiff, a pair of cranes, a fox, a wolf, at least two monkeys, to name a few. It was a beautiful day in Venice, the sun was shining giving wonderful reflections of the historical buildings & palaces that line the Canal.