Venice, ITALY

We landed in Venice around noon, we got off the plane and it was so exciting to be in a new place, and new city, and not to mention another country!! We booked our hotel in advance and when we got off the plane there was supposed to be someone there waiting for us from the hotel. We landed a little early, but everything worked out great, the driver was there to pick us up and we started our journey to our hotel just outside of Venice. That day as you can imagine, we were pretty exhausted since we didn't sleep the night before on our red eye flight to New York. So we arrived at the hotel unpacked and decided to take a little nap :) A little nap turned into a few hours...lol. But, around 6pm we got up and went walking around the town we were in. The hotel grounds were SO beautiful! They had a pool, and a garden, and they even had a flock of peacocks that walked around the yards. It was gorgeous! So, at this point we were a little hungry, of course we went to get pizza! It was really really good! Then we walked into town, we were not staying inside of Venice, we were staying in a little town right outside of Venice called Quarto D'Altino that night after we got pizza we walked around the town it was a typical Italian town. Really quaint, lots of gelateria's, lots of bikes, and old men at the center, a church in the middle of the town where everyone gets together and chats about life, and their day, and probably about us taking pictures of them.  We enjoyed some really tasty gelato and took lots and lots of pictures, we watched as the sky was painted pink, and took pictures of the river that went through town. We finished the night by getting eaten alive by mosquito's at the train station. Overall an awesome way to kick start our two week vacation.

The next morning we woke up early and headed into the city of Venice on a very hot, very crowded, and very loud local train. It was only about a thirty minute ride, but it seamed to be much longer due to the conditions. When we finally arrived at the station we got off the train and right as you leave the station you are pretty much dumped into this city full of people and boats and beauty! We were suddenly surrounded by water, and bridges and people speaking Italian. It was really really exciting! We crossed the first bridge to make our journey through the maze of streets to get to San Marco. Let me tell you, it's a long journey through the town, it's full of bridge after bridge, and beautifully lit alley ways and photo op after photo op. We just followed the signs to S. Marco, or the Rialto Bridge. It took us a couple of hours I think, just because we would stop after every turn and take pictures or videos. It's really amazing to see all of the locals manage their boats through all the water filled canals and park in their water filled driveways. I always wonder what it's like to live there and not own a car. So we walked and walked and took pictures and looked at all of the beautiful masks. We stopped at the Rialto Bridge and took tons of pictures of course. You can almost feel it when you get closer to the square because the streets get more crowded, the markets get closer together, and the food gets more and more expensive. Once you finally reach the piazza it almost feels like the sky opens up and the hallelujah chorus starts singing (lol. okay not really, but that's what it felt like to me). It felt this way because through the city while you're walking there you can only really see a sliver of sky because all of the houses and buildings are tunneling your view of the sky. So when we reached the square the sky opens up and there is just sky and church and water.  We of course went inside San Marco, It's a stunning cathedral full of the most beautiful gold mosaics. When the sun hits the gold tiles of the mosiacs it nearly took my breath away. It was so beautiful!

At this point, we were pretty tired..so we went to relax and ate more pizza and pasta. We also decided to get a 24 hour pass to ride on the water bus. This is the best deal to get around Venice, it's about 20 Euro per person. But, it literally saved our life, or our feet. We then decided to take the water bus over to another island off of Venice called Lido. It was so beautiful and not crowded at all! We walked to the beach, and it was such a different feel than Venice, but it's only a 20 minute ride. It was really beautiful! Everyone is relaxing by the water, or playing soccer, or eating gelato. We took so many pictures and walked along the water. It was really nice. At this point the sun started to go down in the most beautiful way. We got back on water bus and took it through Venice basically in a circle around the island. It was the most amazing ride, watching the sun go down and being on the water seeing the city from the water. It was like a scene out of a movie. If you ever get a chance to visit Venice, this was probably my favorite part of the whole day. Watching the sunset in a different country is just an experience of a lifetime. As you can probably tell, we loved Venice! If you ever go, I'm sure you will love it too! Here's some pictures for your enjoyment from the rest of our day.

Thanks for reading!!

>>>>>>>To watch the vlog from this trip click here!<<<<<<<