We woke up early and ran (literally ran) to the train station with our giant backpacks on our backs. We got a late start and didn’t realize the work it would take when we got to the train station. Luck was on our side because we had already pre-purchased our train ticket and didn’t have to wait in any lines. If we would have had to wait in lines, I fear we would have missed our train. We were cutting it THAT close. We didn’t realize how big the train station was. There were 14 trains headed to different locations in Europe within the station. I guess we know how to get around Europe from now on! : ) Our train trip to Venice was three hours and we were delighted that the seats were comfortable – much more comfortable than a plane.
We saw some beautiful countryside on our way to Venice – it made us want to come back and visit some of the small towns in Italy one day. Maybe bike through? Maybe one day… there are beautiful fields of flowers and wine vineyards everywhere.
We arrived in Venice around noon and were excited that our hotel was right across the street from the train station. We had to take a short bus ride to get into the actual city, but it was much cheaper to stay in Muestre versus staying in the actual center of Venice. Plus, our room is really nice - a lot nicer than the one in Rome (even though it doesn’t really matter because we are only in our room to sleep).
We decided that the first thing on our agenda was to “get lost in Venice” because that’s what everyone told us we should do. We thought it would be a little harder to get lost, but turns out – it’s easy to get lost in Venice… and hard to read maps! There are so many small streets that are impossible to find on the maps.
After a couple of hours, we got the hang of where we were and enjoyed walking through the narrow streets. The streets are BEAUTIFUL. Before we came, there were people who told us that they didn’t like Venice… I am baffled by this… it is amazing. We found it very romantic and picturesque. The main part of Venice is a huge shopping mall with hundreds of stores. It’s a woman’s dream and a man’s nightmare! Haha, just kidding. Scott was actually tolerating it more than I thought he would ; )
Picture from the web:
We ended up in the main square – Saint Marco Square and saw the beautiful basilica and Doge’s Palace. This is the famous square where people feed pigeons and take pictures (which we did, of course!). I LOVED it. People (including Scott) say that pigeons are trash birds, but I still had fun. There were some nice people who gave us some crackers and when we crunched them up in our hands, we immediately had a bunch of birds swarming us. Scott didn’t want the birds touching him, but he finally put a few crackers in his hands just to try it for a minute : )
We got some gelato (caramel is my favorite flavor so far… yum!!) and headed to the main bridge in the middle of the city – Ponte di Rialto. This is the oldest bridge in Venice and spans the Grand Canal. It dates back to 1172, and was in wood until 1557 when it was rebuilt in stone – according to our map. It is beautiful at sunset.
We got dinner at a beautiful, yet expensive, restaurant right on the canal. It was SO worth the money because it was surrounded by beautiful flowers and had the perfect view of the canal. People warned us that Venice was extremely expensive, and that is true. We’ve just been limiting ourselves to one sit down dinner/lunch each day. It’s hard to remember to eat anyway when there are so many beautiful things to see and fun things to do!
We saw the orange full moon on our way back to our hotel. It was HUGE! We tried to take a picture, but, as usual, the picture didn’t do it justice.
Day 5 – Venice, Italy
We went back to Saint Marco Square so that we could walk through the basilica (since it was closed when we saw it the day before) and couldn’t believe how beautiful the inside was. We couldn’t take pictures, but there were gold mosaics throughout the entire church. Apparently the basilica is the most important example of Byzantine Venetian architecture. It was built in 1076.
There is ANOTHER zodiac clock here… like the one in Prague. The clock moves based on what zodiac sign month are in. So right now it is pointing to Taurus. You know I am loving that!
Picture from the web:
We decided to try to get some culture so we went to the Doge’s Palace (No, not Dog the Bounty Hunter’s Palace - the residence of the Doge “the supreme authority” of Venice Palace) to see some paintings/architecture. According to our map - it was from the Doge’s Palace that the Venetian Republic was ruled, and it is still the highest expression of Venetian art.
We saw a lot of Venetian art by Tinteretto, Titian and Bosch. We also saw a lot of old weaponry and the prisons of the palace. This building was where all of the politicians and city officials would meet and “The Doge” would live. It’s kind of like the U.S. White House for Venice.
We then went to get lunch in a beautiful little café by the canal. We had an amazing caprese salad and decided we need to make those more back home with our fresh grown tomatoes! Yum.
After lunch/dinner we went up a bell tower to look out over the entire city of Venice. The view from the top was amazing. We were a little scared for what would happen if we were up at the top when the bells rang (because we heard the bells are REALLY loud). The bells did end up sounding at 3:30 (yes, they ring at half past the hour as well as on the hour) and although they were loud, we were excited to experience watching them ring so closely.
Now to our favorite part of the day… the gondola ride. We heard the gondola rides were extremely over-priced (which they are), but we were able to negotiate a lower rate in a canal off of the main canal. It was fully worth it… it was extremely romantic, beautiful, and peaceful. We loved every minute of it.
Lions and masks are really popular here. Apparently they have a mascaraed festival during a certain time of year. That would be fun to attend, but the masks are a bit creepy... The lions are a symbol of St. Mark.
Pictures from the web:
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