Rome- day 2, Venice day 1

So we hop the train to Venice. Another early wake up call due to the 6:55 a.m. departure. 4 hour trip each way. Are we gluttons for punishment or what? So, we're cruising along and all of a sudden the train stops, and not at an obvious station. WTF? What is going on? About 1/2 an hour later we realize that another train broke down on the tracks and we had to rescue them. Needless to say, the train suddenly became REALLY full. Luckily they all got off at the next stop which was about 45 minutes down the line. However, this did cut into our time in Venice by about an hour and a half. Boo!
We finally get to Venice and step off the train and W.O.W. instantly amazing! This city is nothing but eye candy. I wanted to take pictures of EVERYTHING. We decide that our first destination should be Ponte di Rialto... a major bridge that is essentially a shopping haven. The streets of Venice are basically small alleyways going every which way and you have to be really careful as to not get lost. One of the first streets (alleyways) we turn on to brings us head to head (no pun intended) with a masturbating man... right there... in front of us... GROSS... we just keep moving forward and start to walk at a faster clip. In my head I'm thinking "great, is this a sign of things to come?" I felt totally violated and wanted to call HR... but, oh yeah, we're in Venice and what the hell am I talking about? He didn't chase us or anything, which is good news, but the whole thing was utterly disturbing. Fortunately, this was the worst moment of the whole trip.
There is so much character in every inch of this place. I took a bunch of pictures of the doors alone. Each one was so different and unique. I noticed that there were a TON of stores selling underwear and lingerie. These people are obsessed with SEX!
We shopped here and there and once we got to THE BRIDGE, we shopped some more. Next destination is Piazza S. Marco. This place is the place you always see in movies where there are a ton of pigeons landing on people and just swarming around. Well, I was NOT interested in getting pooped on, so I took some pictures and moved on. We bought a ticket to board the next boat over to Morana and as we are sitting there we realize that if we get on this boat and get to the island, we wouldn't get back in time to catch our train (the last train) out of Venice. Good thing that damn boat was taking it's sweet time to pick us up b/c we realized our {almost} mistake and bailed on the boat trip. We head back toward the train station and catch lunch somewhere in between. We had pizza this time and it was DeLish! We pick up some more souvenirs, get to the train station with time to spare, buy our ticket back to Rome and wonder around a bit more until it's time to board. I finally got my hands on some gelato and we are on our way. We get back to the Rome station at about 11:30 p.m. (thank goodness our hotel is only a block away) and back to our rooms EXHAUSTED!!! We are excited that we don't have a tight schedule tomorrow and can sleep in a bit.