I'm on a boat!

After Rome we spent a bit of time at the villa relaxing.  Our next trip was just a day trip to Venice (Venezia).  We were taking the train there in the morning and coming back later in the evening.  Like our other day trips, we didn't book very far in advance because we didn't feel that we would have any trouble with tickets selling out on the train.  We were a little bit wrong in that assumption (ass, u, me... got it...).  So when we went to the train station to buy our tickets the day before, the early morning train was SOLD OUT.  Really?  It was a Thursday.  Who goes to Venice on a Thursday?  Answer: everyone.

So after much scrambling and thoughts of making a random overnight trip of it, we decided to just take the later train instead and pulled into the station just in time for lunch.  I find that when I'm in Venice (did that sound pretentious?  I'll restart)... I find that Venice requires me to take a lot of pictures.  Many of the exact same thing over and over again.  The canals look different around any corner when you don't have a camera in front of your face.  But unfortunately they start to blend together once you flip through the pictures.

Venice to me is full of colors and boats... and I love both of those things.  They also have a lot of bridges... another thing which clearly is intriguing to me.  Fun fact (maybe just fun to me?), when I was looking at the map of Venice I saw all of their public transit.  It looked exactly like a Metro map or the L map... and I was so surprised that they had an underground here.  Then suddenly I realized the public transit is on the canals... d'oh.  I'm smart...s-m-r-t.

We took a gondola ride along the canals... We started off from a pretty busy section, so it was a little choppy until we got into the island canals, but it was fun.  I hadn't done that before, and for the price, I don't think I would do it again.  I suppose it's a "must do" for Venice though.  All in all, it was mostly just wandering between the streets, taking in the colors, the views, etc.  We didn't get to go into St. Mark's due to an insanely long line.  I had been in there about 8 years before (wow----that is insane) and it has some of the most beautiful mosaics that I have seen.  The floors are covered, and it's just incredible.  That was kind of a bummer that we weren't able to see it.

Overall, everyone in our group loved Venice -- I am still "okay" with Venice.  I don't know that it will be on my list for a very long time.  But, it's still a pretty cool city, and I would recommend it.  Without further ado, here are the pictures.  Sorry for the heavy-text post, just wanted to fill everyone in.

Gondolas are everywhere.  The gondoliers wear the striped shirts and hats that you expect.  It's fun.  You get to see everything from a little bit of a different perspective.

One of the many pictures of boats.... and colorful buildings.  Contrary to what I would have believed with the sold out train, there weren't a lot of people on the side streets.. so we were actually able to take pictures without people!

The Grand Canal that runs through essentially the center of the island.  

Umm...yes, he is actually wearing a shirt that is specifically made for the collar to be popped.... It kind of freaked me out - but not too much that I couldn't pull out my camera and take a picture.

Fun Fact #2: This building in the back left (brown/gray) is on the rehearsal dinner invitations from our wedding.  When John was last in Venice he was on a gondola and took a picture while under the bridge you see of the building in the back.... Weird.

This is Basilica di San Marco with the mosaics.  You can kind of see the gold mosaics in the arches.  It is truly an incredible church.  I recommend it!  If we had more time I would have probably made us wait in line.

Piazza San Marco is notoriously full of rats with wings... err.. pigeons.  Why people like them and feed them, I do NOT understand.  I understand even less when people are so excited when they land on their bodies... or when people sit on the ground with them.  It's disgusting.

This is where we took off on our gondola.  A little bit away from St. Mark's.

My last post for this trip will just be about the doors that we saw.  Americans do not appreciate a really great door, let me tell you.  

On our walk back to the train station to head home.  Boat...check...color...check.

I think we are on the Rialto Bridge over the Grand Canal.  It's a famous bridge, but I there seems to always be an advertisement on the side of the bridge which really discourages me from taking pictures of it.

Sun is setting around the bend of the Grand Canal.

 

I mean, if you're out walking in Venice, you should probably bring your pet wolf.  That seems like the way to go... Just an FYI, this was walking across the new Calatrava bridge (Ponte della Costituzione).

So that was Venice... I think everyone should try to go, but I personally don't think I could spend too much time there.  I would like to see Murano, getting a boat and cruising around the islands sounds like fun... but I think that's far in my future.