Venice

  

The second stop on our trip in August was to Venice. We took the train from Milan to Venice and it was so easy and definitely the right way to go. It's about 2 hours and ta-da you are there right in the center of Venice. We stayed at a little boutique hotel, Locanda Ca La' Vele which I would highly recommend.  We were able to just walk from the train station but will admit pulling my suitcase up the steps/bridges over the water wasn't the easiest but well worth the money saving! 

 

 

Venice is such a unique gorgeous little city. The streets are tiny and of course there are no cars just the power boats and gondolas. Gondolas are the traditional flat bottomed Venetian rowing boats with the cute little men in black and white stripped shirts rowing them (pic below). Unfortunately the gondolas are SO expensive - like over 100 dollars for a 45 min ride around - we just couldn't bring ourselves to waste that moola so we just watched from the steps instead :)

We visited the St. Mark's Basilica and the bell tower located in the Piazza San Marco square. The most memorable part of this afternoon was when I finally found the first canoli in Italy here - yipeeee! It did NOT disappoint! yum - Love them!

Some sights around town...

On Rialto bridge at night before dinner!

Chianti in Italy - this is for your Ash! ; )

More gondolas - they are everywhere!

Venice is known for it's glass making which is predominately done on the island of Murano.  Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to get over there but we did still get to see shop vendors blowing glass where we were. They sell glass all over Venice in forms of lamps, glasses, jewelry, pretty much anything you could imagine.

Masks have always been the main feature of Venetian carnivals. They sell venetian masks all over town and the ones on the street aren't nearly as intricate and made in China - so basically not authentic at all. But they also have many small shops inside the tiny streets who make each mask by hand - obviously these are the real Venetian ones you'd want to purchase. Due to the nice salesman and his passion for mask making and his patience as I tried on all of them for fun - I decided to purchase one. You never know when you might need one right?? When in Rome! ops i mean Venice :)

 Ciao Ciao! Next stop Zermatt, Switzerland!