Venice

During our trip to Italy in 2018, we were probably the most excited to visit Venice! Our flight landed in Venice so that became my first experience with Italy.  Venice ended up being my favorite city that we visited on that trip.  James keeps saying that the reason it wasn't smelly, like we'd been told it would be, is because we had cooler weather and some rain.  That may be, but in any case, I loved it!  I loved riding around the city in vaporetto, I found it very relaxing.  I loved seeing all of the historical buildings.  Venice is a floating museum.  Before the trip, my friend brought me a bunch of books about Italy.  I had read all about Venice and the places we would be seeing.  I had also been watching lots of movies filmed in Italy.  I was excited to see the different places where Dan Brown's Inferno was filmed in Venice (that's one of my favorite movies).  I was excited to eat dinner on St. Mark's Square and hear the battling orchestras at each of the different cafes.  We arrived in Venice on April 30th and left on May 1st.  We visited St. Mark's Square, climbed the Campanile, toured the Doge's Palace and St Mark's Basilica, and walked across the Rialto Bridge.  We saw the Horses of St Mark's and the Moors banging the bell of the clock tower.  We ate at the oldest cafe in the world.  I was really looking forward to Venice, and it didn't disappoint!

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City Pass

Doge's Palace

St. Mark's Basilica

The Airbnb where we stayed in Venice

The Airbnb that we stayed in was near the vaporetto stop "Tre Archi" which had 3 bridges close together like these in this photo.

walking to our Airbnb

Our Airbnb was pretty dated and smelled funny, but it was clean.  The worst part about it was that we didn't realize we had to turn the hot water heater up ourselves, so James and I both took a cold shower before Micah figured out how to work the water heater and turned it up so he and Jancy had hot showers.  Also, there weren't silverware in the drawers and we had bought yogurt for breakfast.  But, the location was really good, so there were trade-offs.  Still, if I went there again I'd probably try a different Airbnb or maybe try out one of the very pricey hotels in Venice.

All the toilets in Italy looked different from each other.

I loved seeing all of the unique things as we rode down the Grand Canal.

We saw lots of gondolas.  They cost $80-100 per ride so we didn't ever ride one, but I was tempted...

The Bridge of Sighs is behind us.  The Doge's Palace connects to the prison by the Bridge of Sighs.  It's said that as the prisoners were walked from the Doge's Palace over to the prison they took one last look out the window on the bridge and sighed as they were losing their freedom.  We were able to walk across the bridge and look out the window also.  And we sighed.

This is Rialto Bridge.  It is the most famous and oldest bridge in Venice.  There are shops on either side of the bridge.

This is St Mark's Basilica behind us.  

The Grand Canal headed toward Rialto Bridge.

James and I on St Mark's Square with the Basilica in the background.

The orchestra at the cafe we ate at.

Micah and Jancy deciding what to order.

This is someone's garage.  People don't drive cars on the island of Venice. If they drive over from the main land, they park at the train station or bus station and ride the vaporetto.  A few people have their own boats but you don't really need one if you use public transportation.  I bought passes for us to ride all of the vaporetto for the full time we were there.

Church of San Giorgio Maggiore.

Victor Emmanuel II Monument

The Campanile Tower on St Mark's Square.  We paid to ride to the top of the tower.  There are beautiful views of Venice from the top.  The tower was built in the twelfth century.  It collapsed in 1902 and was rebuilt in 1912.

St Mark's Basilica

Some of the artwork on the basilica

St Mark's Square - always crowded with tons of people.

One of the cafes with orchestra on St Mark's Square

St Mark's Basilica

Micah & Jancy on St Mark's Square

St Mark's Square.  The two "Moors" (bronze figures at the top of the bell tower) still strike the bell on the hour (since the fifteenth century).  We made sure to be on the square when they were striking the bell so we could see it.

The Campanile Tower

The cello player in the orchestra at our cafe

We are standing on the Rialto Bridge.

There are lots of pigeons on St Mark's Square.

Another cafe with orchestra

Venice is famous for their glass from the island Murano.  This is a shop selling jewelry made of Murano glass.

Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute

This is the short little toilet in the restaurant we ate at.

We ate pizza here, a pizza place off the Rialto bridge.

The Rialto Bridge

This is the grocery store where we bought breakfast.

The Accademia Bridge

The train station

We paid the train station to store our bags for the day.  Since we were moving to new cities every day, we couldn't leave our bags in our room while we toured the cities.  So we ended up leaving them at train stations a lot.

Waiting at a vaporetto stop to get on a vaporetto.

Riding the vaporetto.  We spent lots of time riding down the Grand Canal, and once we rode around the island to the other side of the Grand Canal also.

St Mark's Square

Some of the ornate decoration on the Doge's Palace

The Courtyard in the Doge's palace.  The Doge was the supreme authority of Venice.

View from the Campanile.

View of the courtyard in the Doge's palace

One of the ceilings inside the Doge's Palace

Weapons in Doge's Palace

A hall inside the Doge's Palace

Looking out the window inside the Bridge of Sighs

The window in the Bridge of Sighs

The prison attached to the Doge's Palace

These are all more views of Venice from the Campanile tower

view of St Mark's Basilica from the Campanile

The bell in the Campanile

Micah pretending to make a phone call from the top of the Campanile

St. Mark's Basilica

The Treasury in St Mark's

Replicas of the bronze Horses of St Mark's are outside the basilica, but the originals are inside.

These are the original Horses of St Mark's (fourth century)

These are the horses used in the Inferno movie.  In the background you can see the Moors and their bell in the clock tower.

View of St Mark's from the Basilica

The Moors

View from the Basilica with the Grand Canal in the background

The horses were stolen from Constantinople after the Crusades.  They were taken by Napoleon in the 1700s and then returned to Venice in the 1800s.

This is a vaporetto.  They are like floating buses and are the main source of transportation in Venice.

Our lunch spot in Venice.

The best spots on the Vaporetto are in the front of the back because inside you are looking out windows so you can't see as well.  It takes about 45 minutes to ride from one end of the Grand Canal to the other end.  The train and bus stations are on one end and St Mark's Square is on the other end.  We would get on the vaporetto and wait for spots in the back to open up, and then just sit and relax and watch Venice float by.

When they were doing construction on buildings they covered them with large advertisements.

A vaporetto going under a bridge.

This sign says Cows by the Water.  We took this photo for Jancy's dad because he runs a farm.

We enjoyed gelato in every city that we visited except for L'Aquila and Ragusa, and some cities we had gelato multiple times!

Riding under Rialto Bridge

Our train ride from Venice to Florence the afternoon of May 1st.  We enjoyed some gelato and pizza on the train.  It was a beautiful train ride!

The train station in Venice

Our train from Venice to Florence

A view out our train window

A couple last views of St Mark's Square

Some of the movies filmed in Venice:

A Haunting in Venice

The Italian Job

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Part One

James Bond's Casino Royale

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Inferno 

Spiderman Far From Home