To Getting Lost in Venice

My apologies for the long delay in this post, and all of the others really.  It is hard to believe the amount of time and work that go into moving, job hunting, and laying out at the beach ;), but you will know all about what I have been doing soon -- I will post about it I promise.

So Venice, it was an incredible first stop in Italy and had some incredible Gelato! My favorites were Raspberry and Kit Kat (but I don't think that we actually had a bad flavor).  We flew into Venice from Paris and had to take a water taxi called a vaporetto to get to the island and our hotel-- it was really cool and provided some beautiful views of the city! Once we got on land, there were people and merchants everywhere.  It was very overwhelming at first especially because it was very difficult to find street names and our hotel didn't have a number address (just a street), so we were confused.

After some wondering on the brick lined streets (not the best match for our wheeled suitcases) we found it! Our hotel was really cute and family owned.  The carpet had fleur de lis all over it which I appreciated but it was very European.  At first the guy took us to a room that had one queen bed and two twin beds in it because the hotel seemed to think that my parents, my aunt, and me were all sharing a room.  It did not take long for my mom to correct them and they found my aunt and me another room.  One interesting part of this hotel experience was that they had bath tubs with no shower curtains, so needless to say my first shower left the bathroom floor rather wet.

After we got settled into the hotel we wandered for some lunch.  We actually found a cute restaurant right down the block that advertised it as being the very first pizzeria (see below) so naturally we had to try it.  I am not kidding when I say that it was the best pizza I have ever had.

Sign for the pizzeria

The best pizza EVER

Next, we did what Erin recommended and wandered through Venice.  It was absolutely stunning.  We quickly learned that Venice is really made up of hundreds of tiny islands that are connected by bridges and took beautiful turn after beautiful turn after beautiful turn.  We also realized that everything was really close together because we quickly stumbled upon St. Mark's Square and all that that area had to offer (it was actually 2 minutes from the hotel which was nice).

We stumbled into the Grand Canal!

My parents and me with a view of Canale di San Marco behind us!

Me and my aunt, same spot!

After a gelato, we all went back to the hotel and decided to rest up for a while before going out again.  This actually turned into a long nap which my parents turned into going to bed.  My aunt and I had heard that Venice was really great at night so we went out in search of desert.  A little bit of fog had rolled in and that made the walk really cool.  We walked by the grand canal which was breathtaking.  Finally, we stopped for coffee and tiramisu, both excellent, before heading in for the night.  Definitely a successful first day in Venezia.

Our tiramisu!

The next day started out a little bit eventful and dramatic.  Ethan had taken an overnight train (on TranItalia-- they have no wifi and are notoriously late) and as far as I knew was expected to arrive to Venice around 7 AM.  We had planned to meet him near a vaporetto stop, since finding our hotel was proved to be tricky, at around 11 so he would have plenty of time to get to his hostel and meet us.  Well, the first problem was that I gave Ethan shoddy directions (oops!) and was not completely sure we were on the same page.  So we stationed my family members at different spots along the boardwalk in hopes of seeing him because there were a lot of people and he blends in pretty well with the crowd.  After 20 minutes had passed with no Ethan, my dad and I decided to see if his hostel was close so maybe we could leave a note for him or something because with little wi-fi access spots around us we didn't really know how else to communicate (talk about first world problems).  We walked the 10 minute long maze to his hostel where the guy said that no he had not checked in and, in fact, he didn't have a record of his reservation.  Que: Lindsay's panic mode.  We walked back to the hotel to get wi-fi so I could send him an email and it turns out my aunt had found him and called to tell us they were on there way.  Poor Ethan's train was late so he missed his connection in Barcelona and had to find a way to get on the next train to Venice.  But he made it, woohoo!

After a quick shower and a moment to take a deep breath we set out to explore Venice (since we only had one day to do it).  First, we went back to St. Mark's Square and saw the Basilica and Doge's Palace (although we didn't go in).  The Basilica was really incredible both inside and out and my aunt and parents even paid to go on the roof.  We also saw the Florian Cafe which is famous because it was one of Hemingway's favorite spots.  

Doge's Palace from the outside

St Mark's Basilica

 

Ethan and I in front of an entrance to the Basilica

The Florian Cafe knew they were a famous tourist spot because they charged like 10 E for a
cup of coffee,  hence, we only walked by.

Mom and Dad with a view of the clocktower in the background 

Next, we walked across Venice to the Rialto Bridge, another famous sight.

I absolutely loved the Venetian buildings!

Picture from our walk

View of the Grand Canal, one of my favorite pics

Rialto Bridge, it had shops all along it and amazing views

 

Standing on the Rialto

Too bad we didn't get much of the view in the background,
but we look cute right?

Next we wondered into a market where we looked at tons of leather handbags and I had the best fruit of my life!

I was too into it!

We finally took a break so Ethan could check into his hostel and my family could take a nap.  Ethan's hostel was in a really cool spot and the guy that ran it was really nice! He gave Ethan a bed and showed us a balcony area that overlooked Venice.  He even took a picture of us that turned out to be one of the best pictures we got the whole trip!

Finally, we decided to go on a gondola ride and get dinner.  Not only was the gondola ride so touristy and Venetian, it was really fun and provided a bunch more views of the city. I took tooo many pictures!

This is what the typical gondola looked like, super swanky.

Random bridge we went under

We even went under the Rialto!

We also went under the Bridge of Sighs which I appreciated since we
didn't have time to go inside Doge's.

Annie also trying to document every moment #tourist

Finally we went out for a seafood dinner that was delicious! Mom and I split seafood spaghetti and it was so good. Everyone else had fish and raved about their dishes too. 

This was a typical display outside of restaurants to display how fresh the seafood was! YUM

After walking off our dinner we went to bed because we had an early train to Florence to catch the next morning.  Overall Venice was incredible.  It was so vastly different from anything that we had ever seen!  It was my parent's favorite place and definitely on the top of my list! We saw a lot of incredible lace and glass shops even though we did not visit Merano or Burano. We also learned that it is slowly becoming an adult "disneyland" because it is really difficult for normal people to live there so it is mostly just there for the tourists.  Sad, but understandable.

Sleepy Ethan loving the views as we are about to get on
the vaporetto to the train station.

For now,
Lindsay