Finally - VENICE!!

After a couple of mishaps with pictures, they are finally here. Because there are so many pictures, I thought I would do alittle at a time. So, the first city - VENICE.

Well, we (Pat - Warren's mom, Sue - Warren's sister, and I) arrived in Venice early Monday morning and soooo excited. I was pretty exhausted because I had a very hard time sleeping on the plane. The movies stunk, the food wasn't to great, my legs hurt, etc, etc. But, once we arrived - excitement set in. Nancy, who lives in Vicenza on the army base, met us at the airport after dropping off her husband at the airport who was leaving again for Afghanistan...sad, sad. We got in her car and were off to Venice.

VENICE!!

When we got there, we got on a Water Taxi - Public Transportation. The water taxi is the dirty white boat in the back. Here are some of things we saw while on the taxi:

It was so fun to see boats riding along the river like cars. People would be smoking their cigarettes, talking on cell phones, and driving their boats.

Buildings that were absolutely beautiful and set right on the water.

Parking spaces for people's boats.

Beautiful scenes!

Traffic signs saying speed limits etc.

Nude men standing on their balconies reading?

Gondolas

FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD!! Doesn't it look delicious. My favorite was the tomatoes and balls of mozarella chesse. YUM!

We found a place off the main strip to picnic for lunch, because picnicing is frowned upon.

All I can say is GELATO!! I had one everyday. My favorite was the Mocha Chocolate. YUM!

St. Mark's Basilica and Doge's Palace

Nancy told us the pigeons were extremely friendly and she was not kidding. They attacked!! It freaked me out and I could not believe Sue would let them on her. She pulls out the sanitizer after touching everything and is paranoid about the restrooms, but she let rats with wings land on her. I was pretty shocked and nervous they would land on me.

I did not like those birds. They freaked me out!

I love the bird on Pat's head.

See - they attack!

After the pigeon craziness, we went shopping. I loved the Venetian Glass everywhere. It was beautiful, especially the necklaces. I found one ruby and gold necklace that was amazing, but it was 120 euro, so we moved on. Sue and I found these Venetain Glass necklaces for a much more reasonable price, so we both got one. I love mine.

We kept discussing whether or not we should pay the money for a gondola ride (because it was pretty expensive), but after negotiating with the Gondola man - we did it! And I am so glad we did. How can you go to Venice and not go on a Gondola ride?


Here is our man. We could hear him singing very quietly, but you had to listen very carefully. It was so neat to see the backside of Venice.

I loved the greenery hanging off the buildings.

Such a cool picture!!

Here is one of those signs telling people only Gondolas this way.

You have to manuever the Gondolas around all sorts of obstacles.

"Bridge of Sighs"

The name "Bridge of Sighs" was invented in the 19th Century, when Lord Byron helped to popularize the belief that the bridge's name was inspired by the sighs of condemned prisoners as they were led through it to the executioner. (In reality, the days of inquisitions and summary executions were over by the time the bridge was built, and the cells under the palace roof were occupied mostly by small-time criminals.)

Good bye Venice and on to Vicenza (about 1 hour away)

We spent the night in Vicenza with Nancy and in the morning we went to Morostico a walled city.

The wall is in the background and went all around the city.

They have huge live chess tournament here. We are standing on the chess set.

This house with the courtyard was so neat. I loved the bricks and architecture of the home.

We were pretty fascinated with the bathrooms. They tried very hard to make the hole in the floor look fancy. Good effort, but still pretty gross.

After Morostico, we went to an Italian cermaic shop and loved soooo many things. We bought some items and they packed them in huge boxes. We thought it would be fine until we got to the car. We squeezed in - and were laughing the entire way home.

My pretty ceramics came in the mail about 1 week after I got home. I love them - they are my favorite colors.

That night after dinner at Nancy's, we got on a train and went to Florence. My absolute favorite!! SOOOOOO AMAZING!!