Venice - December 2-3, 2006 -#1

Where to begin. As soon as we arrived at the airport we had to take a coach to the city, which took approximately 45min. It was a quick drive so that went well. When we started to cross the water to the city I couldn't believe it. I don't think I have ever seen something as beautiful before! Once got off the coach we had to find our hostel...that was an adventure. We took the water taxi around the city, down the grand canal and looking around it was amazing. I loved that there were no cars...I loved having to take a boat everywhere!!!

This is a picture of me in front of one canal as we were walking around trying to find our hostel. The search...finding the place was not very hard because Angela printed out the directions when she booked the room. However there was a little adventure...yes, it could not be a complete trip if there wasn't one thing that happened. The hostel was under construction and was not there. The workmen who were renovating the hostel told us we had to go to Hotel Astoria, BUT we were not told how to get there. There was another girl there from Russia who was looking for the same hotel because she had booked in the hostel as well so the workmen called the manager and he came and brought us to the new hotel. This hotel was in an even better location than before!


There is about a 2 minute walk from our hotel to the plaza de san marco. I knew that it was supposed to be huge but walking around there was cool. We went into the Basilica and we went up to the roof where we could see the whole plaza from a different view. I am standing on the top of the basilica!!! We also went through the museum which was in the basilica and learnt about the history which was cool.

After walking around the basilica, we walked next door and went into the Palazzo Ducale (Doges' Palace). This was built starting in the 14th century. Look at how gorgeous this building is from the outside.

Next stop was ... Rialto Bridge which crossed the Grand Canal. You can't really tell by the picture but the bridge is huge! You can get such a great view when you stand on the top of the bridge. One other thing which I have totally fallen in love with is the gondolas! I think this photo is great because you can see the bridge as well as the gondola! We didn't take a gondola anywhere because of a few reasons, which I am not going to get into, but I am definitely going back here on my honeymoon!!!

We walked around all of Venice and saw more historical places as well as visited many cathedrals which were all gorgeous. It was a lot of walking but everything was amazing that I didn't even realize the time was going by quickly. After walking around all day we were really hungry so we stop at a nice little sweet shop...yeah I know really healthy but when you look at the next picture you will see why this shop caught our eyes and we wanted to try the sweets!!!

I think that is the biggest meringue ever!!! It was delicious but I couldnt eat the whole thing because it was way too sweet. I am sure my dentist would be happy about me eating that meringue. Angela and I decided we need to go back to the hotel and have a nap since we had been going for over 36 hours with not a lot of sleep. We had a nap for a few hours and when we woke up one of the guys staying in our room was back. His name is John and he is from Scotland and he was really cool. The three of us decided to go out for a nice pasta dinner. As we were walking to find somewhere we had to walk by this scenery...yes it was torture!!! How gorgeous!

Finally the night came to an end around 12:30am. We had to be back at the hotel at 1am or the doors get locked and we wouldn't be able to get in. As we were walking back we had to pass through palazzo de san marco which is so gorgeous at night!!!

After a long filled day we ended day one of our time in Venice!!