May 13th-14th
On Friday the 13th (ooooooo) we were picked up by a driver that Brian's company had hired and he drove us to Venice! It was only a 40 minute drive... the way they drive there. If you've never driven in Italy you're lucky. They drive sooooo fast and prefer not to waste time with blinkers! It was a little scary but we all made it in one piece. Unfortunately the driver dropped us off at the wrong hotel. There are two hotels there with similar names, The Antony Hotel and The Antony Palace. We realized it was the wrong one after the driver left. The front desk staff was nice enough to contact the shuttle and have them pick us up. We were pretty hungry by the time we got to our "real" hotel so we decided to go eat. If you know anything about me, you know that I LOVE sushi! Brian does too but I don't think it's to the same extent. We have this debate going. I think sushi will be different in each country we go to, he thinks "sushi is sushi". So I convinced him to eat sushi that night with me! Let's just say, it's not the same in Italy as it is in the U.S. It's way better in the U.S. After dinner we headed back to the hotel to get to bed for our early day in Venice the next day!
On Saturday we got up early, checked out of our hotel and all 3 of us headed in to Venice on the shuttle at 8:30 am. Yes, that is early for us! We had to check out of the hotel before 11 and since we didn't plan on being back until about 3 we were able to keep our bags at the front desk but we had to take Candi with us. I was worried about having a little dog in a crowded city but she actually did really well!
So when people talk about "Venice" they are generally talking about the island, not the mainland. Our hotel was on the mainland but of course we wanted to see Venice the island! We got to the island at about 9 am after driving over a low bridge to cross the water. We decided to head towards the Piazza San Marco... well Brian decided that's where we were going because I had never been to Venice and he had! We followed the signs and saw some amazing things along the way! Venice is a very busy place during the day but it was beautiful and quiet in the morning. We found a little piazza where there were lots of dogs that Candi could play with. We saw some adorable shops with the most amazing Carnival masks. One of the coolest things was of course the canals. There aren't any motorized vehicles on the island of Venice except near the train station and bus stop. Everyone that lives there either gets to where they need to go on foot or by boat! It was really amazing. Most of the canals you could just walk right up to and there weren't any rails or anything. Many businesses used boats to get shipments in and out of their businesses through doors that lead right out to the canal. It was really cool!
On our way to the Piazza we decided to take a ride in a gondola! It was still early so there weren't many boats or gondola's on the water yet so it was perfect. The gondolier (yes, that is their official job title) stood on the back of the gondola while we sat facing the front. Candi was a very good passenger too because she didn't wriggle or try to jump out of the boat. :) Our gondolier showed us some famous buildings like Marco Polo's house, Mozart's house and some beautiful palaces. See the pictures to see what I mean. When he wasn't showing us the architecture he was humming! We had so much fun. I would absolutely do it again and I would recommend it to anyone visiting Venice.
Our next stop was the Rialto Bridge. It is one of the most famous spots in Venice and it is the oldest bridge across the canal! There are shops lining the center of the bridge from one end of the canal to the other and there were tourists (like us) everywhere. By this point in the day Venice was a bit more crowded than in the morning. We took some wonderful pictures on the bridge and Brian bought some paintings. My favorite is mostly shades of blue with two gondolas and a gondolier floating in the water. It's beautiful and tranquil and reminds me of how I felt during our gondola ride in the quiet Venice morning.
Next up, Piazza San Marco! Yes, we finally made it there along with a million other people. Piazza San Marco, also known as St. Mark's Square, is HUGE! Along it's eastern end is St. Mark's church which is absolutely mesmerizing. Pictures just don't seem to do it justice! We walked around the square a bit to take in all the sites. By this point I guess Candi had waited long enough so she decided to go to the bathroom right in the middle of the Piazza San Marco! I guess she didn't really grasp the wonder and amazement of the Piazza quite like we did. :)
After cleaning up, we headed towards the water in search of more photo opportunities and food, which often coincide. We passed a few stands that were selling the same things we had seen in all the shops except for one stand that caught Brian's eye. All day we had been looking at these ornately decorated Carnival masks that were stunning. Of course they would have been difficult to carry around all day and take on the plane with us but they were mesmerizing. Brian found a stand that at first glance carried some of the least bedazzled masks we had seen. On second glance we saw the beauty and care with which they were crafted. Every mask was of a brown color but they each had very unique shapes. There were suns, moons, half masks and everything you couldn't even imagine. They were more haunting than the sparkly, feathered ones we had seen before. We both really liked them so Brian bought one! See my photos for a picture of the mask.
After a bit more walking we finally found a restaurant that served pizza! Other than our first night in Vicenza we hadn't had any pizza in Italy so we had to make the most of our last day. We each ordered our own, I took leftovers (surprise) but Brian was able to eat all of his considering it was a very thin crust. I of course took pictures of our pizza too (thanks mom) so you can see what we ate! Candi was ok for the most part. She did let out a random bark at a pedestrian out the window which startled the other patrons in the restaurant. Other than that she was a regular European dog sitting under our table... and chairs... and feet...
When we were finished eating it was time to head back to the bus stop to catch the shuttle back to our hotel. :( We decided to take the water taxi back. It's more of a water bus because you get on the boat that you need and it makes stops along its designated route. It's very loud and bumpy which Candi was less than thrilled with but it was a really fun experience. We got off near the train station and made it to our shuttle with 5 minutes to spare. Whew! Then it was time to say bye to Venice, get our things and head to the airport. I had a fantastic time there and will definitely be visiting again... soon hopefully!
I wouldn't normally write about our shuttle ride back but we met a very inspiring person on our shuttle who I think is worth mentioning. He was staying at our hotel and was from Columbus, Ohio. Brian and him bonded over sports and he was telling us about all of the incredible places he had travelled to recently and was planning on going soon. He even said he was a personal trainer when he was in the service! He then said "before they forced me to retire" which surprised us because he seemed to be no older than 45! His next sentence shocked me completely. "Yea, imagine me, a personal trainer, super healthy... and I'm the one who gets diagnosed with terminal cancer." He didn't go much further in to it but he said he had always wanted to travel and hadn't had many opportunities so he was doing it now. He had just finished a cruise that started in Spain and was going to South America next. I found him so inspiring and full of life. I have thought about him every day since and I can't help think that we were on the same shuttle as him for a reason.
Once we got back to the hotel we had some time to kill before the shuttle arrived to take us to the airport so we napped. :) We made it to the airport and on our plane with no major incidents. I was really sad to be leaving! I could have spent a week there easily! It was nice to get back to Budapest however because we had been there for 2.5 days before we went to Italy so we had some settling in and exploring to do and that's exactly what we did!
P.S. I got a comment about my last blog post that I use too many exclamation points... guess who told me that! So hopefully this one reads a little smoother. I tried to be discriminatory with my punctuation. Let me know how it reads please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;)
Thanks for reading!
<3 Steph
