The rain seemed to follow us from Verona to Venice.. but once again luck was on our side. The rain only lasted for that one night and we got a free upgrade to the honeymoon suite in the hotel :) Here was the view from our room.
Given the rain, we took it pretty easy and got up early to try and beat the crowds in the morning. It is quite peaceful in the mornings, and by morning I am talking about 10ish. I have reached the conclusion that Italians are not early risers haha.
We had time to explore and do some silly poses :)
We eventually made it down to St. Marks Square, the heart of Venice.
We have learned the value of booking tickets in advance, so we did the same here. We got into St. Mark's basillica fairly painlessly and avoided the long queues.
Here is the view looking back on the square from the basilica
On the left was Doges Palace
The entrance to St. Marks Basilica
The 4 bronze horses were moved to Venice as war booty.
They were on the outside of the basilica but were recently moved inside.
The view from the top was pretty cool!
This was on the left side looking over the grand canal.
The base of the watch tower and queue
This is the right of the basilica. It is hard to tell from the photo, but this an astronomical clock. Given the city is surrounded by water, this was very important to the residents.The clock had 24 hours on the hand which I thought was pretty cool too.
At the top of the clock was the bell and it rings every hour. If you can see the 2 people beside the bell, they represent the future and the past. They each ring the bell separately 5 times before and after the hour.
More views from inside the top of the basilica....
We enjoyed our tour so much in Rome, we also signed up for a tour in Venice, the 'Hidden Walking Tour of Venice.' We had a little bit of time to kill before it started, so we went wondering and crossed our fingers we didn't get lost! haha
We wondered by a local Venetian market and saw some interesting sun dried peppers.
This is from the Rialto Bridge...
We started our tour in St. Marks Sqaure.
Our guide starts off by telling us about the landscape of Venice. It is actually composed of 6 islands and the regions are broken up accordingly. We thought the water in the square was left over from the rain but she told us it was actually brackish water. The wind was coming in from the South direction that day and it tended to keep the tide from going out all the way. There are times in the year when they put out planks so that people can walk on the move over the water.
The next question immediately following was is Venice sinking? Well she didn't directly answer, but did tell us more about it. The buildings are on wooden panels and are submerged in water. Given they are in the water, there is almost no decay and the city is still on a good foundation.
Along the tour, someone asked where they got their drinking water from... Here is one of the few wells that used to collect the rain water. Today they get water pumped in from the main land.
She pointed out the different styles of architecture around the city.
We even got to see the house that Marco Polo grew up in.
This was a hidden gem on the walking tour. She showed us this beautiful staircase.
We topped off the tour with a gondola ride! As were walking around, she had been telling us some interesting facts about the gondola boats. I had no idea a gondola cost 35-60K to build, nor that there was only one produced each year. There is only one female gondola. She failed the test 2 times, but had just recently passed. The 6 regions of Venice are presented on the front of the gondola boat.
We really enjoyed the peaceful ride!
On the tour Jeff happened to catch an eye for this gem as a spot for dinner. They had a happy hour with a buffet of snacks for 2 euro pp and really good house wine at 3 euro per glass. They also had a band that would be playing.
The next day we dedicated it to the water. We started the morning with the water bus down the grand canal. We got really luckily and snagged a seat in the front.
When we got to the end of the canal, we started to wonder around a bit. We found this little square that was doing some fried seafood and a glass of bubbly.
We saw the police go by
....and then immediately saw the ambulance go by too.
Hope everyone was okay!
Hope everyone was okay!
We also ventured across to one of the neighboring islands, Muro. It is famous for the glass blowing. We caught a quick demonstration, but I think the highlight of this trip was just to enjoy the water boat and view to and from :)
Last stop before heading out was to stop and enjoy some more tapas. We found this place along the water that was pretty cool. The inside did not smell to nice, but it was so nice to sit outside and enjoy a tapas snack and a glass of wine under the sun.
Looking back at these pictures brings back such good memories! We started out not so fond of Venice thinking it was such a tourist trap, but we left feeling like it captured a little piece of our hearts. We had a great time in Italy and can't wait to explore the other regions in the future :)
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