Venice

|Sunday, October 7|

Unfortunately there are no high speed trains from France to Italy, so we spent the better part of our day in a bus.  We made a stops, where we had our first Italian cappuccino and a caprese sandwich.
When we finally reached our destination of Venice, we were ready to walk around and see the city.




After dinner we took a Gondola Ride through the canals while we sipped champagne and were serenaded by local musicians.


Following our ride, we went to St. Marks Square and enjoyed our first gelato.





|Monday, October 8|

Our tour guide spent some time preparing us for the hotel rooms in Europe; smaller rooms, less modern amenities than we may be accustomed to, and older buildings.  Venice was by far the oldest hotel we stayed in. The bathroom was a frustrating experience for me.


That shower head was located in the middle of the wall and there was no shower curtain, glass, or any surface to keep water from escaping the shower. So each morning in Venice I began my day by spraying water all over the bathroom.  I told Matt that the next time we go to Venice, we are staying at the Hilton.
I digress.

Our morning began with a Murano glass blowing demonstration at Vecchia Murano Glass Factory.




We began walking back to St. Marks Square to see the sites by day and stopped for some pizza {and Diet Coke in a can} on the way.





The Bridge of Sighs, an enclosed bridge between the jail and the Doge's Palace, named so because prisoners gave a sigh as they looked out it's windows to see Venice for the last time before being imprisoned.

We took a tour of St. Mark's Basillica.


Then we went up the Campanile to capture a scenic view of Venice.







One of the recommendations we received about traveling to Venice was to take some time to get lost and we did exactly that. Matt is a direction wizard and there were a few moments when he wasn't sure how we were going to go from lost to found, especially when he couldn't get a signal on his phone.
When we finally became found, we headed over to Burano Island for dinner and some exploring.  Burano is a beautiful island filled with brightly painted homes. Before the use of addresses, these homes were identified by their colors.












We had a lovely and large Italian dinner.  Our menu included seafood risotto, spaghetti, salad, fish, calamari and shrimp, some dessert biscuits that we dipped in our wine, and cappuccino with almaretto. Burano had us smitten.


We ended the evening with a bottle of red, sitting in a square, people watching, and enjoying one anthers company.

Of course the night wouldn't be complete without a gelato stop...


|Tuesday, October 9|

We began our rainy Venice morning by walking through the city to the Rialto Bridge.




The Rialto Bridge is the oldest of the four bridges that span the Grand Canal.


We continued on to explore the Rialto markets.








For lunch we found a small restaurant off the beaten path. We were the only tourists and the place was full of local businessmen and construction workers eating lunch.  We had an amazing meal and loved the authenticity of the restaurant.
After lunch we continued our walk.






Ruga means wrinkle in Italian.  Have you ever seen a more perfect sign to describe our Bella?
We spent the early evening sitting in a park, drinking wine, and watching local children play while we pondered what it would be like to live in Venice.

Our last night in Venice ended with an amazing pizza topped with 'rocket', better known as arugula
and....

you guessed it...
gelato.

**********