Venice 2011

So here are pictures from our first 3 days on our "Felixwalds Italy Trip" I thought it would be easier if I broke up the trip by city. Our family, my Mom and Dad, and my Brother, his wife and almost 2 year old son all went on this wonderful 10 day trip across Italy. We had a great time.

We started our journey in Venice......

Well first I have to talk about the plane ride. It will go down in the hall of fame of worst flights we have ever taken. Not because of the airlines...no...because of Camille. You see Evelyn got sick as we were leaving for our trip. She was coming down with a cold and running fever. I gave her some medicine and she slept the entire way. Camille on the other hand cried the entire first flight. It was miserable. We felt so sorry for the passengers around us. Lance and I took turns handing her back and forth. She just could not get comfortable. Now, I think maybe she was coming down with the same cold and just didn't feel good. Evelyn was sick pretty much the entire trip with fever, runny nose, and a terrible cough. And by the end of the 10 days we all had it.

Well once we arrived in Venice I could have jumped out of my skin I was so excitted. We took a shuttle to the island and the plan was to take the water taxi to our stop to our apartment. Well the water taxi drivers were on stike that day, which seems to happen often, so we took a water taxi that was outragiously expensive. The first views of Venice brought tears to my eyes. I just could not believe we were there and looking at all of it's beauty. We made it to our apartment and were dissipointed with our place. Location was good, but the place was small and not as clean as we would have hoped. Oh well. The remainder of the first day we spent resting and getting groceries. The next morning we headed out to see the sites. We stopped at a great market then walked over the Rialto Bridge straight to St. Mark's Basicila.

You will not see any picture of the inside of the basilica because they do not allow. It was really pretty, and we saw were the remains of St. Mark lies. Do you know the story? Well apparently St. Mark died in Egypt and the Christins went to retrieve his body. The way they got it out of Egypt is by wrapping pork around the casket, knowing the muslims would not touch it. And they brought him to Venice and built a church around his remains.

We hung out around St. Mark's square. Which it was nice but not all that I thought it was going to be. Then we ate on sandwich row and had the best sandwiches of the entire trip. I would do anything to have one again. Then we went into Doge's Palace. By this time the kids are exhausted, so we had to go through the palace at warp speed. At the end of the palace you go through the prisions and cross the Bridge of Sighs. It is called this because once people were sentenced to prison they had to cross this bridge and it is said they would sigh as they crossed. We stopped at a great little pizza place on the way home and picked up supper. Then we headed to bed.

The next day we went to Morano Island to see some glass blowing. That was really really cool. These people are so talented. The industry sadly is decreasing because there isn't a large demand for morano glass since the chinese can make it much cheaper. Once we got back each family We ate a delicious lunch on the island, but it was not so relaxing. The girls were tired and could not sit still. They played in the courtyard close. Lance and I took turns eating. That night everyone went their own way for supper. We walked the market and picked up some souveniers, then we stopped at a little sandwich shop got some food and sat at the foot of the Rialto Bridge and ate. As we were sitting there a gondola passed in front of us with a younge man and woman in it. As they approached the bridge he asked her to marry him...and she said yes. We witnessed the entire thing. It was so cool.

I sum up Venice in one word....picturesque. The views are unbelievable.

The next morning we packed our things and headed to the train station. We boarded our trian and within 2 hours we were in Florence......

Ciao.....