Venice

The train ride to Venice passed quickly and at 3:33 I was hugging my parents after 75 days of separation. We left the station and in a few shorts steps we were on the Vaperetto, the public form of mass water transportation. Of course I knew the streets were water and the cars were replaced by boats of  but Venice is just one of those places you have to see to believe and I instantly took a liking to it. Not only was the weather perfect but I loved the hustle and bustle of the waterways. I was fascinated by the sleek black gondolas, shiny teak water taxis, and of course a wide array of colorful crappy boats with highly questionable seaworthiness. Once we arrived at our hotel, the Westin Europa, we got settled into our respective rooms (I had my own!) and then we took to the streets for a little sightseeing.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking the streets and getting lost in Venice, stopping only for a little vino and dinner.

The next day we planned on heading to Murano for some famous Italian glass. Lucky for us the city council of Venice had organized some kind of tourist event for Murano that day. Naturally I thought my Mom was being swindled into a tourist trap at first but it ended up working out perfectly. Our water taxi to Murano was free, we got the see the glass blowers in action and then we got a tour of the facility. The glass of course was insanely overpriced (Like 75 euro for a flamingo figurine that was the size of a my first overpriced) so we headed out to do our own shopping and exploring. 

After lunch we eventually found our way to the glass shop my parents had previously bought some lamp shades from, or at least thought they had. After they purchased a new set of wall sconces they discovered that they were in the wrong shop but it all worked out fine, and the sconces should arrive before Christmas.

We left Murano via the Vaperetto and decided it was time for a gondola ride around Venice. Our gondolier was quite the character. True to Italian style he kept a cigarette hanging limpy from his mouth the entire 45 minutes and he even sang to us. The ride, I must say, was quite pleasant. The smaller streets and canals are as eerie and they are beautiful and they just add to the charm of this old world city, which sadly won’t be around forever.

The next day the tide and rain had flooded St. Marks square but there are raised platforms in place to keep tourist congestion to a maxium. We decided to visit the church on the other side of the Grand Canal and just puetz around for a few hours before we boarded our cruise ship.

All in all I loved Venice. Yes it's crowded and overpriced but it's one of those places you just have to visit before you die. I'll end this post with a few photos I would like to frame together somehow. Ciao!