Venice, Italy

Venice was my favorite Italian city. As soon as you walk out of the train station, there's the water. We got a little turned around looking for the hotel, but it wound up being down this narrow little street right next to the train station. They kept calling it a street, I probably would have found it easier if they said your hotel is down this foot path. We had no specific agenda for Venice, so we just decided to head to St. Mark's Square. No, actually, we headed there cause that's where the Hard Rock was. So we had lunch at the Hard Rock, then headed into the square. There were some high end shops there that we looked in while we listened to Andrea Bocelli's orchestra practice. We took pictures of the square and then headed to the main bay of the Adriactic Sea, overlooking another Cathedral, which I can't recall the name of right now. We sat on the steps that randomly lead into the water and put our feet in the Adriatic Sea. It felt wonderful. I'd say we sat there like that for nearly an hour.

Beautiful Venice

In St. Mark's Square

Looking out over the Adriatic Sea

Then we decided to see how much a gondola ride would cost. I went to check and then returned to Kristen to tell her the price. But apparently walking away is a good thing, cause the guy came after us and dropped the price a bunch. So we agreed and off we went to his gondola. He was a great tour guide. He told us about Marco Polo, Casanova, and how the city was built. It's actually a network of islands, with every square inch of land built upon. The canals and everything were all already there naturally. He didn't sing, but he was a lot of fun anyway. And yeah it's a little expensive, but I'd recommend it as a great way to see the inner parts of Venice. Plus, hey, our guide stopped at an ATM for us. We had to get out of the boat, but talk about service. Then again, I guess he just wanted to be paid.

Taking a gondola ride

When we got back to land we walked up and down along the Sea and did some shopping. I think gellato was also had. I can't keep up with our ice cream consumption. We had dinner right off St. Mark's square and then strolled around just long enough to hear Andrea Bocelli sing for a few minutes. While we were waiting for Bocelli to start we made friends with the pigeons. If you held out your hand with bread (which we stole from our own dinner) they'd fly right onto your arms. I had one just perch on my shoulder for awhile. I wasn't even feeding him, he just chilled. I named him Paco. We stood there with those birds forever. I'm not sure exactly how or why we found them so amusing, but we weren't the only ones. The square was packed with people playing with pigeons.

After Bocelli we boarded the Vespetta, which is like the water bus, and headed back toward the hotel down the Grand Canal. When we got off our stop it was just so relaxing and pretty that we sat down on the steps again. I guess this is the point at which exhaustion caught up with us cause we just sat there and laughed for about half an hour. Over anything and everything. Even when we got back to the hotel we just laughed until a ridiculous hour.

At some point on this trip we tried to leave from the wrong train station. Might have been Venice to Milan, I don't remember. But when we entered the train station, our train number and time and platform were all displayed on the board. The train just never came. And that was because it left from a different station. We were able to catch another train about half an hour later though. Now I'm thinking maybe this was when we tried to leave Milan. But I know when we left Milan our original train broke down and we got a back up so instead of a non-stop trip we had to get off and change trains twice. The moral is...be prepared for anything and think quickly on your feet! And if you're in another country, learn to pantomime.