Italy Recap - Venice

A couple of weeks ago, we got back from a 2 week vacation in Italy.  We had been wanting to go for some time and it was amazing!  We had such a great time and we're already thinking about our far-in-the-future return trip!  We'll see how long it takes me to write up a recap of our entire trip.  For now, we'll start with part 1 - Venice.

We arrived in Venice on a Saturday afternoon.  Since there are no roads (or cars) in Venice, we took a water taxi from the airport to our hotel.  Sometimes the boats can go right up to the canal-side door of our hotel, but the tides were too low so we got dropped off elsewhere and wandered the "streets" of Venice until we found our hotel.

(Clicking on images will show larger version)

 Venice Airport - leaving by water taxi

first glimpse of the "streets" of Venice

the Grand Canal

gondolas

walking to our hotel

After checking in we did some more exploring.  It's very different to be wandering around a city that has no cars and no real roads.  I found it easy to get yourself lost (which put me totally out of my element!  I like to know where I am and where I'm going at all times).  We visited St Mark's Basilica and St. Mark's Square.  The Basilica (church) is beautiful (you'll see - even though I wasn't supposed to take pictures inside).

 this is the view from pretty much anywhere in the city

St. Mark's Square

T and me in St. Mark's Square

 my mother-in-law and brother-in-law feeding pigeons in St. Mark's Square

this one liked G's head!

St. Mark's Basilica

detail of the Basilica

inside St. Mark's Basilica

top of the Basilica

One of the best things we saw in Venice was Doge's Palace (Doge = Duke).  We didn't really plan on going, but we walked by at one point and there was no line, so we decided to see what it was like.  It was out of this world!  We spent a good 2-3 hours in there and probably could have spent a little more time.

 Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace)

T and me at the Palace

staircase going into the Palace

detail on the ceiling - most of the palace was like this!  That is real gold

the prison within the palace

outside the prison

We also did the touristy gondola ride - and I'll be honest, I could have done without it.  It was only 30ish minutes long and they don't talk to you about anything and you don't really see anything different from what you can see walking around.  We did however also do a combined walking/water tour.  We spent 3 hours with a tour guide, walking around the city and then took a 1 hour water taxi tour - that was much more interesting and you got to see a lot more of the city from the water.

 walking tour

Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo (right) and Ospedale San Giovanni e Paolo (left - a hospital)

 inside the Basilica

more from the walking tour - view from the Rialto Bridge

Rialto Bridge

Grand Canal

T and me along the Grand Canal after our walking tour

boat tour - St Mark's Square/Basilica/Doge's Palace from the water

Basilica di Santa Maria

cruising the Grand Canal

Rialto Bridge

On our last full day in Venice, we took a trip to one of the small islands in the area, Murano.  Murano is known for its glass-blowing.  We took a tour of one of the factories (where we saw a man make a horse in about 60 seconds - you'll see that too).  Then they shuttled us into their factory store (obviously) and there you could purchase one of thousands of very expensive glass products.  We then spent the afternoon walking around the island of Murano and eventually made our way back to Venice.

glass blowing factory on Murano

 making of a horse #1

making of a horse #2

making of a horse #3

horse done

inside the factory shop

T outside the factory

Murano

Murano

We got up early the next morning and walked the streets of Venice with all of our luggage, ready to grab the water-bus to the train station so that we could head to Florence, the next stop of our vacation.


Here are some other various pictures from our stay in Venice:

P (father-in-law), S (mother-in-law), and G (brother-in-law) walking along the canal

I never got tired of taking pictures like this

 gondoliers

This yacht belongs to Paul Allen of Microsoft.  To give you some perspective, the sailboat you see on the side, is a 40-foot sailboat

there was also a helicopter on board

That's all until next time!