Europe 2007 - Venice

Day 13 (cont): Wake up in Austria

We stopped for lunch in this little town on the way to Venice. It was a beautiful town and I took a ton of pictures. We got to Venice at around 5 pm. We took a water taxi into the city and I must say the city of Venice is breathtaking and worthy of many pictures.

We arrived at Hotel Serenissima and ran up five flights of stairs and ventured out to take a peak at Venice prior to meeting up with the group. We stumbled upon St. Marc's Square after only walking for about 5 minutes. It was quite surreal and a moment that I will not forget. I felt like I was in a dream. The light was absolutely amazing.

We walked back to the hotel to join up with the group and made our way back to...guess where? St. Marc's Square. It was funny but it was actually great that we went the first time because the light was so good. Colleen our tour guide told us about the history of St. Marc's Square and a little about the city of Venice. We stopped for dinner with the Wisconsins in a little pizza joint. The food was good but watch out for extra surcharges that are in small print at the bottom of the menus.

After dinner Colleen organized a gondola ride for the group. She got a guitar player and a hot Italian to serenade us. It was dark out and the canals were so quiet. Jason and I got to cozy up in the couples seat and listen to the music. It felt like we were in a movie. It was a top moment from the trip and probably one of the most romantic things I have done with my honey.

After our romantic adventure on the gondola ride we headed out on the town to experience the Venetian night life and to have some drinks. We went to a little café. Jason got a glass of white wine and I went for a Latte Macchiato which was yummy and warm. We stayed behind in St. Marc's Square once the group departed. We found a step to sit on and enjoyed the quartet that was playing classical music. Colleen told us that it was were the Battle of the Bands first occurred because they had dueling quartets playing across the square from one another. The square floods at high tide and at night it was always full of water but it added to the charm of Venice.

Day 14: Wake up in Venice

We started the day with a local guide giving us a tour of the city. She explained how the water levels were a problem and caused the population to drop. St. Marc's Basilica's main entrance also floods at high tide closing off the main entrance to visitors. Only 20% of the populations lives in Venice year round because of the flooding. She also explained that Italy is actually younger than the U.S. because of the time it took to unite. Prior to uniting—Venice's political power was held by powerful families.

Our tour concluded with St. Marc's Basilica, one of the best known forms of Byzantine architecture. We had to use the side entrance because of the flooding (photo to the left) but it was worth the wait. The museum at the top offered amazing views of the square and grand canal. Then we met for a glass blowing demonstration. They made a glass horse so quickly and with perfection. Venice is known for Venetian glass and it is beautiful.

We walked through the small allies of Venice. It's easy to get lost in Venice, the good thing is there are signs all over Venice pointing you in the direction of major destinations which helped Jason get his bearings. We stopped at the gondola workshop but they were working on a paddle boat. This area was free of tourists and we saw art students sketching and Venetian school children playing. We did some shopping in the street markets. A favorite moment was sitting on a dock of the Grand Canal and gesturing to Italian men that they were hot. Our tour guide showed us the hand gesture and I couldn't leave without testing out. I got a lot of cute Italian smiles back even with Jay sitting next to me.

After sitting on the dock we went back to the hotel to change for our pub crawl. We went to three pubs and got some finger foods along with a glass of wine at each. We didn't spend more than 5 euro at each stop. The wine in Italy is inexpensive. We ate calamari, sardines, potatoes-balls, meatballs and a few other things that I don't know the name of. Then we got a fruit cup from a stand. After that we went back to St. Marc's Square to enjoy the orchestra again. We ordered a couple glasses of wine which weren't cheap here—what was hysterical is that they brought out a bowl full of bugles, potato chips and cheesy puffs—very classy. Good times!