Venice

Day 5: Today we said goodbye to Paris and hopped on a plane to Venice. From the airport we had to take a vaparetto (water taxi) to our house in Rialto. From there we walked through the tiny alleyways to our house. After dropping our stuff we left to explore. Luckily enough right next to our house is the best gelato in Venice! It really was amazing! Some of us may have gone more than once today... then we headed to St. Mark Square and across to take a gôndola ride. It was everything you think it would be! We cruised through the most charming canals of Venice. Although our gondolier didn’t sing, we saw others who did! 🤣 Lunch was the most delicious pasta and pizza. Then we grocery shopped and souvenir shopped in the afternoon. We saw the Rialto Bridge,which I’m told is the bridge from Spiderman. I made chicken Parmesan for dinner. Why did cooking dinner here feel so fun? Something about the traditional Italian kitchen made it seem so fun.

Waiting for the Vaparetto

 It was funny to see that the ambulance, delivery trucks, trash trucks...were all boats! But that's literally the only way to get around. 

 We arrived in Rialto and took off through the alley ways to find our Airbnb. They are very narrow and a little difficult to navigate with our backpacks on. 

 We immediately visited Venchi to try real Italian gelato! It did not disappoint. 

 St. Marks Square

 Yes, he really fell asleep! Five days of traveling and still a little jet lagged has done him in. The subtle rocking of the gondola was enough to lull him to sleep. 

 Venice was so HOT! I had gotten one of these fans in Paris, but once in Venice everyone wanted their own. It's a must have items traveling here in the summer. 

 There were amazing masks everywhere, even some very cool animal ones. 

 These boys took a gelato break while us girls shopped. 

 The alley up to our house.

Day 6: Phew, I’m starting to lose track of what day it is! Today was the day we embraced our sense of adventure and went out with no plan into the city of Venice. We just walked and walked and literally got lost in the endless alleyways. It’s hard to narrow down pictures because at every single moment your surrounded by some place that’s uniquely beautiful. We mailed some postcards today. Ate gelato twice. Got so lost I was sure we’d never find our way home. Visited “the most beautiful bookstore in the world”, Libéria Acqua Alta. Walked along the Grand Canal. Fed the birds in St. Marks Square. Met some wonderful people from Iraq and Iran. One of the couples were on their honeymoon, so we treated them to gelato! The girls bought some cute dresses. We grocery shopped for dinner again. We are shocked how cheap things are here! And we spent more time on our balcony waving down at all the gondola riders and enjoying the gorgeous music. So far we have found the French people to be much friendlier than the Italians. But we do appreciate how much English everyone here speaks! And we appreciate this Airbnb has AC! We are melting over here and I’m averaging 18,000 steps or 6 miles a day.