ahhh....Venice

We packed up from our fun hotel in Florence (which had a big family suite with two lofts) (with free laptop computers in every room) (and a PS2 – big hit!) and took the train to Venice. We were sad to leave Fabrazio, who was the owner of the hotel. He was so helpful and kind.

When we stepped off the train in Venice and saw the Grand Canal, it seemed like we were in Disneyland. There it was – the Venice that we had read about, seen in pictures and watched in movies! We took a taxi boat to our hotel, quickly got settled and then set off for St. Mark’s square.

I have become a fan of tall towers. I love when we climb a duomo or tower in a city and get a bird’s eye view of the city. It just puts into perspective all of the places that we tour in a city. It felt like we cheated when we actually took the elevator to the top of the bell tower and had a beautiful view of the entire city of Venice.

Andrew and Matthew loved playing with the pigeons. They were all over! They were also quite brave. They would fly right onto your hand if you were holding bread. Matthew thought that was pretty cool and tried to see how many times he could get a pigeon on his hand. There were some people there who had 8-10 pigeons all over their bodies…..I did not think that would be my favorite thing to do.

We ate dinner and then took a classic gondola ride through the canals. As it is quite pricey, it was a short gondola ride….just to have the experience. However, it was fun to see more of the canals and to learn about all the palaces. By the way, they don’t actually sing – they are not allowed to unless you pay extra for the “music tour.” I did wonder what would happen if you brought an ipod speaker and just played Italian opera during the ride…maybe next time.

We decided we wanted more of a tour of the Grand Canal, so we hopped on the vaporetto (water bus) and took a nice, long boat ride all around the city. It was beautiful to watch as the sun went down and the day turned into evening.

Believe it or not, this is the pared-down collections of pictures I took of the canals in Venice. It is just so unique and beautiful, I couldn't leave any more pictures out!

Underneath the palaces and homes (and businesses) is a boat garage. I just thought this was a cool picture of how someone would come home at night from work!