Erin: Day 12: Venice, Italy

Good Morning Venice…  That’s what I said as I awoke and opened up the floor to ceiling windows in our room.  It was a beautiful day, the sun was gorgeous and the wind was warm and balmy…  It was fabulous.

Good morning Venice!  View from our hotel room at the Hilton.

View of Venice from Guidecca, where our hotel is located.

We decided to stay in and do a bit of work this morning but to be honest, it was tough!  We did about an hour of work before throwing on some clothes, grabbing our stuff and heading out into the glorius sunshine.  We decided to grab the 12:40 shuttle over to Venice so we hung out on the dock for a bit before the shuttle boat showed up, right on time.  I have a video of that which I will post later on.

Landing in Venice, we didn’t really have an agenda.  We knew that we wanted to see San Marco’s Piazza and the San Marco Basilica but otherwise, we had no other real “plans”…  So, we first stopped to get some gelato which was a great idea.  It was delicious!  We then walked to San Marco’s Piazza, stopping to take in the sights every once in awhile.

Typical canal in Venice.

Standing near the channel looking toward San Marco (on left).

How nice would it be to have an apartment there?

The Grand Canal… When I think Venice, I think of this.

Beautiful…

The gondolas waiting for customers… 80 Euro for a half hour!

We opted not to get a gondola ride because it is so expensive.  I mean, I’m all for spending the money on something if it means never getting to do it again but I’d rather wait and do a gondola ride with my sweetie so that we can enjoy the romance of it together.  There’s just something about sharing a gondola with your sister that just doesn’t offer the same appeal…

San Marco’s Piazza was a lot like Grand Place for me in Brussels, Belgium.  You walk in and it’s breathtaking.  I’m telling you now, the photos do not do it justice in any way, shape or form.  This place is magnificent and the architecture is so beautiful.

Our first glance at San Marco.

The gorgeous Basilica in San Marco’s Piazza.

Hello Venice!

Side story for you here about those boots on my feet in photo above…  All day today, walking around Venice in my Uggs, people stared at my feet.  At first, I thought it was my imagination but then Trina said to me, “Do you see everyone staring at your feet?” and I was like, “YES! I thought I was imaging it!”  So, my quest is to find out of maybe Uggs are either (a) “over” as a fashion trend in Italy, (b) people who live here just don’t see them often or (c) because the sun was out, wearing Uggs seemed weird? :)  Anyone from Italy have some insight for me?

In any case, we did some funny jigs and some Flip videos here…  It was the gelato and the sun I am sure - it turned us into giddy, silly school girls and we were having a blast!  There were some kids playing with the pigeons that we watched for awhile and then a bird got caught in a girl’s sweater sleeve which was pretty funny.  They were screaming and laughing as people stood in a circle watching them try and extract the bird from the sleeve without squishing it…  Funny stuff!

Lots and lots of birds in San Marco.

The Basilica and tons o’ touristas.

Me on the balcony of the Basilica with San Marco in behind.

The view of the channel from San Marco.

Sipping some wine at lunch.

After leaving San Marco, we headed in behind the church to search out a Trattoria.  We found a great little restaurant that was serving pizza so we had some wine, mussels and pizza.  It was delicious!  It was so nice sitting in this little courtyard with my sister…  We were taking in the music, getting drunk off the food (haha, not the wine!), sipping on great tasting wine and watching the people wander by.  It was slightly off the tourist path but still a little touristy… :)  A great combination.

Yummy (and super large) pizza!

A canal on our way back to the hotel.

A large boat on the water in front of our hotel.

Venice at dusk.

The streetlights came on as we waited for the shuttle.

And we got back at night… Sun sets fast here on the sea!

The rest of the afternoon (after eating) was spent shopping… I bought three pieces of jewelry - a necklace and ring made of Murano glass (native to Italy) and another necklace with Swarovski crystals in it.  I’ll take some photos once I wear them and post back here!  It was nice to just wander and look around…  We also, throughout the day, snuck in two more gelatos…  The stuff is addicting!  Oh, back to the jewelry shop we were in… He gave me his contact details after talking about what I do for a living and he wants some information about how I could help him use the internet to market his business online.  I told him I’d work for jewelry… ;)  haha… I won’t really but it was fun to chat business amongst two weeks of tourist-talk.

So, we’re back at the hotel and I’m getting some work done.  We head to Rome tomorrow and then Florence and Pisa before heading north to Switzerland.  Then, it’s Paris and home…  I’m both super excited but also sad… It means that our time here is coming to an end quickly and I’ve really enjoyed this global travel.  If I could do it all over again, I would in a heartbeat and it’s made me realize, even more so, that travel is something I am super passionate about and have no plans to stop any time soon.

Ciao!

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