100 Day Challenge - Day 72

Day 72 - A picture of you with unbelievable scenery.

 Venice, Italy. On the Rialto Bridge.

European Tour: Europe with Family - Venice

A two hour train ride from Florence, our next stop was Venice. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel, which was right off of San Marco's Square, and then headed to San Marco's Square. As I talked about in a previous post, Venice floods sometimes and one of the first places to flood is San Marco's Square. This time, there was evidence of the flooding. The puddles behind them in the picture aren't from rain, but from the standing water that was in the Square earlier.

Uncle Joe, Aunt Sue and parents in San Marco's Square

The first thing my mom wanted to check off her "bucket list" was feeding the pigeons. So she bought feed from the cart and the pigeons went to town. There she is, getting pecked on for food. Fortunately she didn't get pooped on, miraculously.

Mom, feeding the birds

The one-legged pigeon

With San Marco's behind us

As mom was finishing up feeding the pigeons, I noticed one pigeon who only had 1 leg. I felt sorry for it, snapped a picture of it (obviously) and let out an "Aww, look at that one" as I pointed it out to everyone else. As they were turning to see it, it literally dropped dead. We all laughed uncertainly, thinking that it was playing dead or something. But Dad nudged it with his toe and it was really dead. The animal lover in me felt so guilty...like I somehow had managed to kill the pigeon with just my glance. And seeing as how I almost killed someone's relative earlier in the trip (the candle incident as it's referred to in my family), it just wasn't working well for me. So Rest In Peace, you poor little bird :(

Typical scene on our sight-seeing tour

After San Marco's Square, we walked around for a little bit longer. My dad was in charge (as he was the whole time) of telling us what to do and when to do it. As you can see in the picture to the left...Dad is reading the map, the rest of us are waiting for him to tell us what to do and my mom was taking pictures of everything she could think of.

On the taxi boat to Murano

The next plan was to head over to Murano, to see the glass being blown and then made into something cool. We took the little "taxi" boats over to Murano, and walked around for a little bit after getting a demonstration.This is when my parents saw a fishbowl that was all glass and blown by the artists from that shop. I'll give it to them, it's a pretty cool decoration, its very intricate in it's design and looks like all the fish swimming in the bowl are real but they're indeed glass. I FREAKED out when they told me the price (isn't it supposed to be the other way around) and secretly wondered if they just traded the rest of my college education for a fishbowl...

Us, with the shop's cat

While we were waiting for the administrative part of the process to get going, Mom and I decided to walk around some more. We happened to come across the shop's pet cat. As I've explained before, I'm a HUGE animal lover and while both my parents enjoy animals, my mom has a soft spot for them...especially cats. So Mom and I spent a better half of an hour petting and playing with the kitty while my dad negotiated prices and shipping and all the fun stuff.

View from our room

After ordering the fishbowl, we got back on a water taxi and headed back to the main island of Venice. We walked around a little more, taking in the sights and then went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Our hotel had two entrances/exits. One was from the street and you can access it by foot, the other was from the water. Gondola's or little water taxi's could pull up behind the hotel and deposit you and your belongings. One of the main disadvantage to taking a boat in Venice is you have to know when the tides are changing. If it is high tide, boats can't get under bridges and other things...so you're blocked in until the tide goes down. Just another thing to think about when you travel by water all the time.

Mom, Me, Aunt Sue and Uncle Joe on the gondola

Me at the Doge's Palace

After dinner, we decided to check the "take a ride in a gondola" off our bucket list. Once the gondolier got us all situated according to our weights and balanced the boat...we were off. Dad had to sit in the very front of the boat by himself (the same place I got put when I rode with my friends in the earlier trip), and he's responsible for the pictures that were taken...so needless to say, they're kind of blurry. There are many things my dad is very good at, taking really good pictures is not one of them. I'm trying to train him better...It was getting dark outside so most of the pictures from the ride didn't turn out well, but we did get some with the famous Rialto Bridge in the background. We circled around the whole island of Venice, navigating the canal waters.

Uncle Joe and  Aunt Sue

The next day we made a stop at the Doge's Palace before we had to get on the train to Switzerland. The Doge of Venice was the ruler of Venice at one point in time, and much like you were expect from a royal, his palace was lavish.

After our visit to the Doge's Palace, we went back to the hotel to finish packing and check out so we could head to Switzerland. We found Aunt Sue and Uncle Joe in the hotel bar, cheersing to Venice and Italy in general...a good way to leave the city. We got in a water taxi that would take us back to the "mainland" so we get to the train station. The last picture really shows just how small the water taxis are, Uncle Joe and my dad look super uncomfortable squished into the little boat. And keep in mind, there were 3 others of us, as well as all our luggage. It would've been nice if it wasn't raining, we could've stood out on the deck of the boat, but no such luck. We all crammed into the little inside of the boat...but it was definitely a fitting ending for our trip to Venice.

Crammed into the little water taxi

 To be continued...Next Up: European Tour: Europe with Family - Riva and Bellinzona

European Tour: Venice, Italy

Venice was a "short" trip for us...aka only 2 days. It was only a 3 hour bus ride there and back, so convenient compared to some of the other trips we had taken. We stayed in a hotel that was just off San Marco's Square. It was a pretty hotel that had funky chandelier's that were made from the Murano glass that Venice is famous for.

San Marco's Square, looking @ the Basilica

The first thing checked off our tourist to-do list was San Marco's square. It is the lowest point in Venice, so when there is heavy rains or flooding from the sea, this is the first place to flood. There was no flooding when we were there, the only signs of it were what looked like risers (picture what you stood on for chorus in elementary school) that lined the Piazza. They were used to people to walk on when the water got too high in the square.

With the Greek Horses

View from the top of the Basilica

The real Greek Horses

We waited in line to get into St. Mark's Basilica, where I was told to put my sweater on cause showing my shoulders was not allowed. Good thing I brought a sweater, cause no one gave me a heads up about that. I walked through the Basilica, admiring the golden ceilings and all the pretty work throughout the interior of the church. After you make your way through the church, you climb up the steps so you can look out on the balcony which overlooks the square itself. In this picture I'm standing next to the replica of the Greek Horses, the real ones are now inside, protected from the elements. They were brought to the Church in the 1200's...so you can understand them wanting to protect the antiques from rust and decay.

After the Basilica, we were set loose onto the unsuspecting Venice...until dinnertime. I haven't talked much about it until now, but Venice is the perfect time to share my love for gelato. Kathryn and I had made it our personal mission to eat gelato in every city that offered it...which was mainly cities in Switzerland and Italy. Kathryn and I discovered a gelato place right by our hotel that sold "After Eight" gelato. It's basically mint-chocolate-chip made with the After Eight mints, and it's seriously TO DIE FOR. I think in the 2 days I was in Venice I had 3 cups a day. Side note: I was watching the travel channel once I was back in the states and the Gelato place that Kathryn and I loved was on list for "The Best Places to Eat in Venice"...yeah, we know what's up.

Dinner that night was at a nice restaurant, where we had our own room. We amused ourselves by playing with the candles (shown in the pictures)...and laughed really hard. I remember the food being good, but really? It's Italy, of course the food is good! After dinner, we walked around Venice for a little while and found a few coffee shops/bars. We would sit outside at a table and drink whatever beverage was our choice and just enjoy being in Venice.

Ladies and G-Rod in Burano

Burano houses

The next day we took a boat out to some of the surrounding islands in the Venetian Lagoon. The boat was kind of set up like a charter bus, just our group and you could either sit topside or downstairs. The party was definitely downstairs, where we were listening to people's iPods and choreographing dances. The first stop was Burano, which is known for it's really colorful houses. We walked around the island, went into cool little shops that had handmade jewelry and crafts, bought souvenirs and I think we even found a gelato place that was serving at 10 am.

Kathryn and I in Burano

After Burano, we took the boat over to Murano. Murano glass is famous in this part of the world, and I think in others. We got a demonstration on how they form the hot glass into things...our demonstration was a horse. It's amazing to watch something go from an orange (with heat) ball of glass into something that has a recognizable form. The trade is passed down from generation to generation and they are definitely very talented.

After Murano, Torcello was up next. We walked through the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta which had Byzantine architecture all throughout the church. I think our most favorite thing though was the old concrete chair that stood a couple of yards away. It was supposedly Attila the Hun's chair...no idea how they managed to figure that out. But we had a photo shoot (which those pictures are gone) in the chair.

In Attila the Hun's chair

After the photo shoot, we headed over to a restaurant for lunch. Beforehand, G-Rod had asked us whether we wanted the "fish" option or the "non-fish" option. This is where I would like to say that although I am a picky eater, I try to expand my horizons whenever I can. So, having that in mind, I chose the fish option. To start off with, we had a salad, that came with little pieces of raw fish on top. Then we had some sort of fish soup. Not really feeling any of that, but I tried it to say that I did. The thing that pushed me over the edge was when they set a whole fish, eyes and all, down in front of me. I had to walk out of the restaurant and throw up in the bushes...no lie.  Molly was nice enough to share her "non-fish" option with me when I returned to the table.

Girls on the Rialto Bridge

View from Rialto Bridge

After returning from our boat trip, we walked some more around Venice. Trying to find the perfect gifts for people back home and Steph and Kathryn were attempting to find the perfect cannoli...which is hard to find in Venice, since they like to put orange slices in their cannolis. We stopped by the Rialto Bridge to overlook the canal...and take pictures (of course).

That night, a group of decided to take a Gondola ride because you can't go to Venice and not take a Gondola ride. It was a different view of Venice, floating through it's "streets." A lot of the scenes looked like something you would see straight out of a movie. I guess it's less beautiful, or maybe you get used to it if you live there, but it was just weird seeing things like laundry hanging out over people's balconies thrown in with scenes like these.

Getting on to a Gondola takes listening skills. The Gondoler knows exactly how to position everyone so the weight is distributed evenly and no one goes toppling into the water...There's no way I would ever want to go take a swim in the nasty canal water...ick!

Although it smelled funny, and it's seafood cuisine isn't really up my alley, Venice was a beautiful place to visit...and I was fortunate enough that I got a second visit later for Thanksgiving break.

To be continued...Next Up: European Tour: Barcelona