Sing for us!

Greetings from Venice!

This weekend I traveled to Venezia (Venice). We took a 3 hours train ride that left at 7:25 am..I only got a few hours of sleep beforehand so I slept the whole way to Venice. When we got there we had to get on another train to get to our hotel, check in, and then get back on another train to get to the main part of the city. Needless to say I was over being on a train and was ready to explore the city.

The first thing we did was take a gondola ride through the canals. The ride usually costs 40 euro but being the expert bargainers that we are, we were able to ride for 25! We were taken down one of the main canals and into back ways that you normally wouldn't be able to see if you weren't on a little boat, as these are the roads in Venice! I didn't see one vehicle that wasn't in the water while we were there. The ride was beautiful but we were disapointed that our gondolier Mario didn't sing to us! He said that was only in American movies. Such a shame.

Greta and I with Giorgio, Mario's son

Mario!

Going down one of the smaller "streets"

Mario decided to put his hat on my head

Romantic ride for one... hahaha

View from the gondola

After the Gondola ride we walked over the bridge to the other side of the island where we shopped til we dropped. The stores were filled with hand painted Venetian masks and Murano glass which was so much fun just to admire. We decided to attempt to find St. Marco's square and proceeded to follow the signs on buildings pointing us in the righ direction...or so we thought. It took us over an hour and a stop for dinner to finally find the square. When we got there it was packed with people, as yesterday was a large festival held on the Grand Canal.

The water was filled with boats that had tons of people dancing on them to music. It was a giant party and everyone was invited! It reminded me a lot of Fourth of July in the states, but way wilder. We walked up and down the canal and sat by the water for a while but had to head back to the train station to catch the last train to our hotel. We had to enjoy the fireworks from the steps of the train station, but I'm sure it was an amazing view from the canal.

obsessed with this house- I want to live there!

view from the top of the bridge

Me on the bridge!

one of the stores with masks

view from another bridge in the city

The breathtaking basilica in St. Marco's square. It was too big to fit in one frame

Venice was such a beautiful city that has so much to offer. I'm sad I could only spend the weekend there but I'm sure I will be back someday as I know there are so many more things to do and discover in this wonderful city!