It's not really raining...

Today was the perfect day to be in Venice. The morning started with a 30 euro buffet, but it was free thanks to Auto-Owners. The buffet was filled with fruits, cheeses, meats, and most importantly, Nutella. Any buffet with Nutella on it is fine by me. I have found that every time I travel to another country, they have a breakfast item that does not quite fit; in London it was baked beans at breakfast, here it was french fries, though french fries may be more reasonable, at least they’re a potato. 

At 9am, we left for our guided tour of Venice. There was a light sprinkle but our tour escort said that it wasn’t really raining. Optimism. I guess you can see some sun behind those clouds.

We rode a boat over to San Marco Island.  

Once on the island, we met our tour guide, were given headsets to hear her (made me feel very secret service and I suspect dad did too), and began our walk. 

It wasn't very long before we crossed our first bridge, and by looking down the canal, saw the Bridge of Sighs, so named because it was the last look of sky for soon to be prisoners (they sighed while crossing). 

And an unobstructed view of the bridge. I don't get why the buildings were covered. They were doing a lot of work in the area, I hope it was that and not just advertisements.

From there we walked a few more feet to Piazza San Marco

St. Mark's Square is a pretty big tourist destination. Our guide warned us to keep our bags close and for the guys to not put their wallet in their back pocket. It was packed.

 and into Palazza Ducale (Doge’s Palace (Doge means Duke)). If there is one thing I learned about this visit, it is that Italians, particularly Venetians, are very modest. 

Just kidding. The ceiling of the palace was hand carved and hand painted with 24ct gold by such artists as Titian. It was the most extraordinary thing I have ever seen. As soon as I get back home, I am ordering hand-carved, hand-painted pieces for our ceiling (hope you’re game for that Jenny). We could only take pictures of the stairwell, but trust me, it was everywhere. And if the ceiling wasn’t enough, the entire palace walls were the same. 

From the Palace we crossed the Bridge of Sighs into the prison. Kentucky has nothing on this old, Italian prison. Though we did hear a story of an escape by Giacomo Casanova. Still, the place kind of gives you the creeps. I can understand the sighs. 

Safe to say, dad was not thrilled by the prison. Our tour guide was hilarious during this portion. She was so worried about losing someone, she followed people to the bathroom to make sure they hurried. I got fussed at by her for wandering around during the bathroom break, I think she thought I was leaving, I was just going to take more pictures. 

From the Palace we went into Basilica di San Marco, the cathedral. It was nice, also covered all in gold. 

It was a very quick walk through that I’m glad I didn’t have to stand in line for. From the cathedral we headed to a glass blowing factory. Fun fact, Murano Glass, famous blown glass, was first created in Venice and then the factories moved to the island of Murano. It was neat, way too expensive and not that spectacular. 

But I did enjoy taking pictures on the bridge in front and walking around the street outside. 

Once everyone had finished shopping, we walked to our gondola ride. 

It was nice and relaxing and the day had become beautiful. 

Though our gondolier was not very entertaining, he kept asking other people to look at the side of his boat like something was wrong. 

Once we were done there, we were on our own. My dad and I made our way through the city to the Rialto bridge at my request. I had wanted to go to the market but once we got there, my attention turned toward food. We had pizza, it was pretty good. We discovered after our meal that refills were not free. Each drink cost us 7 euro, we had three; our pizza was only 11 euro. 

Then, we set off to find a hat store at my dad’s request. He didn’t know where it was but knew it was in the general area of half the island. 

We wandered. 

A lot. I was surprised he was wanting to walk around that much, we spent at least an hour looking for the story. And when we finally found it, it was only a few blocks from the Rialto Bridge. While he was in the store, he couldn’t find a hat he wanted. As soon as we left though, across the street, he found a hat. I used the time wandering to buy souvenirs. 

After buying his hat, we were ready to head home but not before finding some tiramisu gelato. What can I say, when you love something, you love it. And I love tiramisu! We found our way back to the boat and headed back to our hotel room. 

About an hour later, it was time for dinner. We walked down Guidecca, the island we’re staying on, but couldn’t find anything that caught our fancy. After talking with the Auto-Owners representatives, we set off to the Zattere island to find a restaurant. Take a left, a right, and a right. Directions seemed easy enough. The restaurant was hidden. I had an amazing lasagne alla bolognese, though my dad’s meal wasn’t that great (he had salmon that the bones were left in, food’s not that great when you have to work to make sure you don’t choke). 

We came back to the hotel after the interesting dinner to have a night cap of a cappuccino for my dad and a hot chocolate for me (the most amazing and rich one I’ve had). 

Now we’re in for the night. Tomorrow, we get breakfast again and then board our cruise ship at noon. I think I may sleep in a bit. Until tomorrow...