Venice

We love Venice! The first stop on our trek through Europe. We spent three days enjoying this beautiful city. The people were amazing. The food was better than we had hoped for and the city is incredible.

Our first day we took the boat from the hotel (pretty sweet hotel by the way) and started walking. The houses and buildings were so pretty. We went in several shops. Stopped at our first cafe and had appetizers. The bruschetta was great and the waitress was very sweet, but knew no English. Since we could not read the menu, we thought it would be a good idea to have our main course at another cafe.

The gondola guys convinced us we could not wait another minute to take a ride through the canals of their city. I was a little skeptical at first, but it was so amazing to see Venice that way. Madi took lots of great pictures. What we did not realize was they don't make a circle and drop you off where you started. We were enjoying the sites and the ride and all of the sudden he pulled up to a dock and we were done :)

Turned out perfect though. We ended up across the island and had a great time finding our way back to familiar territory. We stopped for dinner shortly after the ride and had some great pasta. Probably would not have seen this area on our own.



After dinner we walked through St Marc's square (of course stopping in all the little shops on the way). In the evenings they have tables set up all around the square and little areas for dinner. There were three of the restaurants that featured live music. They were almost dueling, it was very cool. And we did get to hear one of them playing Vivaldi, priceless.

For dessert we were back on the main canal. We picked a cute cafe and asked for the dessert menu. Our plan was to have something sweet and a bubbly white wine. They had the wine, but were out of desserts. We ordered the wine and went to a vendor in front of the cafe and bought cookies. It was perfect. Our waiter Michael, born & raised in Venice was adorable.



We missed our planned ride back to the hotel and finally got a ride back a little later. We went to the rooftop restaurant and sat outside for a night cap. It was so pretty. We met people from Toledo to Saudi Arabia. The waiters loved Madi and the service was outstanding.

We slept in the second day. Got up in time to enjoy the breakfast buffet at the hotel. We took the boat back across in the early afternoon and spent the day wandering around the city. Everything was perfect.

I did forget my cigarettes at the hotel and found the little vending machine. The smallest bill I had was 20 euro. The machine took the money and gave me a ticket to get the change from inside the store. Of course it was closed and will not be open on Sunday, so that pack cost me about $30. They were good:)



Our train left for Paris on Sunday afternoon. We spent Sunday morning relaxing and then taking a boat, actually several boats to the train station. We got on the wrong boat and got to travel around the whole island before we got to the station. I have to say, if you are going to be lost, a boat traveling around Venice is about as good as it gets.

(our ride to the train station)

I think Madi and I both agree, Venice was our favorite spot. It was so pretty and the people really made us feel welcome.