Venice

In St. Mark's Square

Venice was really the place I was least looking forward to of the three, but it was really wonderful. I didn’t know much about Venice before we went, which was actually pretty nice. I didn’t have a long list of things that I wanted to see, (though Allen thought we were still too busy) so we could just enjoy it.

Our first morning, we took a boat down to San Marco. Ashlyn has been fascinated with boats and water since we were in Arkansas in March, and she was able to go on her Paw Paw’s boat for maybe two hours. She constantly talks about “boaps” on the “wawer,” even when there are not any boats or even water sometimes. So, this was probably the best part of the trip for her. Lots of boats in Venice, no cars or even bicycles! We decided to have Ashlyn feed the pigeons in the square. She loved it, though she didn’t love having the birds ON her.

At the cathedral, we checked our back pack, which allowed us to head to the front of the line. I’m all for skipping long lines, especially since we had been in enough lines already. The cathedral is beautifully decorated with mosaics, inside and out. Afterward we walked over to the Doge’s palace, which is also extravagantly designed, but with paintings everywhere. It seemed that every wall and most ceilings were covered with beauty. Of course, this also included a trip to the prison, more dungeon really, which I could have skipped. Not so pretty, just pretty creepy.

View from the Doge's Palace

That night, we took a gondola ride (more boaps on the wawer!) It was lovely, and I think worth the price. It was pretty much just other gondolas on the little canal. Ashlyn loved it! She was so close to the water. She kept pointing out the other boats to our gondolier. By the end of our time in Venice, we managed to get her to say gondola, but she really preferred just boap.

Rialto Bridge from the gondola

Family picture on the gondola

The next morning we went to the Accademia, Peggy Guggenheim museum (skip it) and the Frari Church, which was really beautiful. Then we just walked around a bit that afternoon. We ended up deciding to sit down at a café next to the Grand Canal for a drink. How much could a coke be? Well, it could be 7.70! That’s Euro, people. We paid over $10 for a can of coke! So, we paid for the seat, under an umbrella, with a view. We occupied that table for well over an hour.
After another bird feeding on the square, we walked back to our hotel, with dinner on the way. We sat outside for a bit after putting Ashlyn to bed, before going there ourselves, since we had an early train.

Feed the Birds!

It was a wonderful trip, but we plan on heading north next summer!

(more pictures from our Italy trip are on flickr)