Excerpt
The Mystery of the Mosaic andlt;link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../styles/9781442497238.css"andgt; andlt;h2 andgt;CHAPTER 1andlt;/h2andgt; andlt;h2 andgt;The Floating Cityandlt;/h2andgt; andlt;BRandgt;Ella Briar and her twin brother, Ethan, had never been to Venice, Italy, before. Theyand#8217;d never been to a floating city, either!andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt;Venice was made up of a bunch of tiny islands connected by canals and bridges. The canals were like streets, except filled with water. So some people were using boats to get around, and others were walking over the bridges from one little street to another!andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt;The Briar family had traveled by water taxi from the airport. The sleek motorboat pulled up to a cream-colored building with lots of balconies.andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt;and#8220;Hereand#8217;s our hotel!and#8221; the twinsand#8217; mother, Josephine Briar, said brightly.andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt;andlt;img src="../images/f0002-01.jpg" alt="Images"andgt;andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt;Their dad, Andrew, pushed his glasses up on his nose and pointed to his guidebook. and#8220;It says here that the Pensione Mistero is one of the oldest hotels in Venice.and#8221;andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt;and#8220;Is it older than you guys?and#8221; Ella asked with a sneaky smile.andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt;Mr. Briar laughed. and#8220;I should hope so. It was built more than eight hundred years ago.and#8221;andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt;The four of them stepped out of the boat with their suitcases. Pink, yellow, and pale green buildings lined both sides of the canal. Pretty flowers and vines filled the window boxes. There were no cars or bicycles on the cobblestone streets, only people walking.