Venice Baby

This past weekend, Michelle, Valentina, Daniel, and I went to beautiful Venice. We thought we'd be smart this time and buy our train tickets once we got to the station so we wouldn't risk missing the train. After we bought the tickets, we realized that Valentina forgot her passport (and we all know from previous trips how important that is)!! Needless to say, we ended up sprinting to the train and hopping on just as it was leaving.

We had a 15 minute delay at one of our stops, so everyone else decided that they wanted to stretch their legs/get food/go to the bathroom. My comment was "I'm not getting off this train.... with all my luck, it'll leave without me". The other 3 laughed as they headed for the station and left me behind with all the luggage. 15 minutes later, the train started moving and I was the only one in our seats...... yep, they had to run down the train a second time!! however, they did make it safely and we headed on our way.

Kind of another funny story with the hotel. I booked this hotel because it said it was really close to the train station, and I didn't want to have to pay for another taxi. Come to find out, this train station wasn't on the Islands of Venice, but on the mainland, and "close to the train station" means a 20 minute walk with all of our stuff. The entire trek there, I got alot of sarcastic comments like, "I thought that there were gondolas in Venice..... where's the water?"

Just in case you were worried, our hotel lost the reservation for one of the rooms..... I didn't want to dissapoint you and let you think that a hotel in Italy actually functions properly. After some haggling with the secretary, everything turned out ok, and we didn't have to pay any extra.

We took a bus into the REAL Venice, and I was blown away. It was absolutely gorgeous. Every part of it looks just like the pictures. We just walked around for the first hour enjoying the views and getting lots of photos.

We went to the Piazza di San Marco.... the one with all the pigeons that is stereotypical Venice. Just thought I'd point out that the birds are really gross, and I'm terrified of them!! However, after watching Daniel and Valentina feed them, I thought "What the heck.... I'm never going to get this chance again"..... so I did it!!! It was super creepy and I screamed and squirmed for about 10 minutes after the picture was taken.


We then headed for a gondola ride. Michelle and I had bought gondola driver shirts, and we sported them for the ride. Our cute driver sang to us for a little bit, then took us through the little streets of the town.

When we got to a calm place and we were the only boat, he let me and Michelle drive!! It was the coolest thing ever! I drove a freaking gondola!!


We went back to the hotel afterwards, ate, and went to bed. The next morning I realized that I needed to get back to Florence early, because I'd been living there for a month and I hadn't seen the David yet!!! That's a mortal sin I think. We left in the early afternoon, wishing that we could stay for a week!

Venice is so beautiful and so amazing because there are no cars. Every street looks like it should be a post-card. I'm definitely going back someday!!