Day 2: Our last day in Venezia

The next morning we tried to get up early at 7:30 a.m.....that didn't happen.  We slept with the large windows open and ended up waking up to church bells ringing from Saint Mark's Square.  It was absolutely amazing. We started our day at 9:00 a.m. (3:00 a.m. back in NC).  We began our walk through the streets of Venice and ended up stopping at a store to buy a bikini for myself because we realized on the plane that we both forgot to pack bathing suits!  We continued to the Rialto Bridge which is the only stone-built bridge across the Grand Canal.  It was of course covered in shops/vendors....all selling the same thing.

Shops on the other side of the Rialto Bridge

Rialto Bridge

Our next stop wasn't planned but it was well worth it.  We went inside of a church we came across that seemed to be pretty bland from the outside...but when we stepped inside we were awe-struck. Cameras were not allowed...but I snuck our camcorder to record some of it.  The cathedral ceilings were spectacular.  There were original paintings and sculptures all over the place.  We signed our names in a book stating who we were and where we were from.

"Brittany Lawing & Nathan Lawing - North Carolina, United States" 

We continued walking through the town towards Gallarie de Academia.  We were going to go inside until we realized how much it cost.  So we got some lunch (pizza and beer) and just sat and chatted.  Every single place you go to eat here, the main (if not only) option for drinking is either beer or wine.  Some places it costs more for a Coke and water is served in a bottle (sparkling or still).  Not going to lie...I'm getting pretty tired of beer and wine.  But this is their culture.

We continued on and took pictures throughout the city.  We came across many produce stands, artists and performers.  There was also a lot of homeless people...  We walked through shops with signs that read "Prada," "Louis Vuitton," "Chanel"... It was pretty awesome!  We walked into Louis Vuitton and walked back out pretty quickly after we saw the prices!  I mean, I realized it was expensive...but holy crap!  haha.  We ended up making our way back to St. Mark's Square.  We wanted to go to the Basilica (which is a big church in SMS) because we had heard it was free.  But that's just to get in the sanctuary.  We found out after hiking a bunch of steps that the terrace that goes around the outside of the Basilica was charging like 5Euro a piece.  So we turned around.  We admired the sanctuary and then left.  We were both absolutely exhausted.  So we took like a four hour nap.  We then got up and got ready for dinner.  We used a voucher we received when checking-in for 15% off at the hotel's restaurant across the street.  We both got spaghetti and meatballs.  It was probably the best I ever had. 

After dinner we went to find a gondolier.  We found a guy by himself so we were able to make a good price with him.  It was very romantic and pretty much what I had imagined, but experiencing it for myself totally surpassed my expectations.  He showed us where Marco Polo, Mozart and Casanova had once lived.  We had to lean hard to the right whenever we went under bridges because the tide had come in and the water was pretty high.  He brought us around to the Grand Canal and back under the bridge of Sighs.  He told us that if we kissed while going under the bridge it would be good luck!  

On the gondola after an amazing tour of the canals

He dropped us back off near St. Mark's Square.  We decided to just sit and people-watch.  It was fun watching people try to make it across the flooded square.  Some would walk right through it how they would normally walk, some tip-toed, some stepped with their heels and some took their shoes completely off.  It was perfect weather that night too.  The moon was big (like a big pizza pie, lol)  and the breeze was only slight.

Truly beautiful this night...

 Oh! I forgot about earlier before dinner, when we were just walking through the city we stopped at this cafe/bar that seemed to be more mine and Nate's style.  There was a younger crowd outside the door.  The windows were large and open.  Nate and I grabbed a seat near the window so we could watch the different people walk buy.  I got the most amazing sangria I think I have ever had at this place.  Nate got an Italian beer...and I convinced him to get whats called a lemon chello.  I had heard it was sweet and tangy...turns out it was just plain horrible. 

We finally went back to the room and packed our stuff up and took showers.  We had a pretty special night that night.  The next morning we got up at 6:30 a.m. to wait on our transfer to pick us up.  It was a lady this time.  She had arranged for a water taxi to pick us up from the hotel.  It took us directly to the train station.  We got there early and she explained our tickets to us and how we find our train when it arrives.

We went to get a croissant and some water for breakfast while we waited for our train to arrive.  When it finally pulled up we dragged our bags to the very first cart..."first class."  They gave us some snacks and drinks on the ride.  We made a few stops before arriving to Florence.  Nate said the landscape reminded him of Iraq but greener.  We stopped at the train station in Bologna...which was cool.  We kept on after that and got to a point on the track where we kept going in and out of tunnels.  There were some Americans from Chicago in front of us that we talked to for a little bit. 

We finally arrived in Florence.