Day 6: Venice!

{Saturday, May 31, 2014}

Today was an awesome day in Venice mixed with some touristy sight-seeing, some relaxation, and some major enjoying of Venetian vino!

First, we started out our day zig-zagging the alleys to get to St. Mark's Basilica. We slowly took our time, stopping in a lot of small stores and pastry shops (to sample one of everything pretty much...I'm obsessed with cannoli and these cream puff thingys). I absolutely had to purchase a cheap touristy hat. It was SO hot and I forgot to put on sun-screen. My head and face were burning, and the sunglasses were not enough. So in all the pictures in this post, please ignore the awful-shaped hat on my head.

We made it to St. Mark's around lunch time. It's definitely the #1 touristy spot in Venice - and for good reason. This church is INSANE. It is gigantic, and on the inside, easily more than 70% of the walls, ceilings, pillars, etc...are covered in mosaics.

I DARE YOU to not walk in, tilt your head back, drop your jaw, and say "WOAH." It's not possible. Every person has the same reaction, because it is just that awesome. I have no more words that can ever do it justice, so here are some pictures...

My adorable parents in front of St. Mark's Basilica :)

Every part of the ceiling and arches are mosaic. Every color. Mosaic. Someone did that. Insane to think about and see.

It's not paint...it's mosaic. Just...incredible.

I can'at even imagine how long that all took to create.

Don't mind my really crappy manicure chipping away...but this is to give you an idea of just how small each tile was that covered the entire Basilica.

After going through the church (which, by the way, is free - but to get into several smaller parts of the church, it does cost an admission fee), we climbed some stairs to get up to the balcony. The views are beyond incredible.

I mean, every picture we took looked like we were standing in front of a green screen. You imagine that Venice is beautiful, but until you step foot in that city, you have no idea how beautiful it is - it almost looks fake in pictures. But it's not. It's very very real. I could have spent a couple extra days in Venice just lounging on a boat, or sitting in a Piazza people watching.

Loving the square in front of St. Mark's. SO much great people watching. If I could, I would have brought a pool lounge chair and just plopped myself smack-dab in the middle of it all to just people watch and sun-bathe all day long. Maybe a little gondola man could stroll by and sing a song and deliver me some Prosecco? No? I need to make this happen somehow.

We strolled around a little more. Our plan was to take a gondola ride until we met with a friend from the states for dinner/bars, but that plan didn't go as we'd hoped.

Ahhh...Venice and the oh-so-romantic idea of gondolas: they're not as great as you'd think. I would actually advise anyone going to Venice to NOT do a gondola ride. Here's why:

     1. They are ridiculously over-priced. There is no set-price. But you will never find it to be less than 80 euro for a 40 minute ride. And that ride doesn't even take you down the Grand Canal. It takes you down tiny little alleys that smell like urine and pigeons. We happened to be in Venice during one of their holiday weekends (The Ascension), so prices were much higher. For the Gondola to take 4 of us down the Grand Canal, we were looking at upwards of 200 euro for less than an hour ride. And there's no negotiating prices. It's just so not worth it when the best sights to see are OFF the gondola.
     2. The gondola "drivers" (are they drivers? I don't know.) don't sing like you see them do in the movies. IF you get a gondola driver that does sing, you must ask him first, and they charge you extra. Usually around another 40 euro.

Once we decided against the gondola ride, we made our way to the famous Rialto Bridge. Lots of cute little touristy shops on the bridge, and beautiful views!

Rialto Bridge

We had some time to kill, so we stopped for some appetizers at a restaurant overlooking the bridge. As usual, food was delicious, and I was LOVING the Prosecco. When in Venice, order Prosecco! It is their drink of the area!

No make-up, sweaty hair, crappy tourist hat...but Prosecco makes you forget all of that :)

After appetizers, we made our way back up to the top of the Rialto Bridge to meet our old friend, Kristen, and her family for a barista tour. Kristen used to work for my parents when they owned our sporting goods store. Mom always said that Kristen was one of her absolute favorite employees because she was always so upbeat and fun. Kristen actually babysat Zach and I when we were younger, and I do have a memory of going to Disney World in Florida with her. She had moved there after high school (I think) and when we went down for vacation, she spent the day at the park with us. She is just as sweet as I remember! Her husband, Barry, and daughters, Delaney and Hannah, also were with her. They had done a Mediterranean cruise, and decided after it to stay in Venice for a couple of days before heading back to the States.

As soon as this barista tour started, with our hilarious Venice-native, Alessandro, it was clear that most of us might not remember the whole night. The wine was flowing, whole-body-shaking laughter being induced, and it was only 6:30.

The whole group in our first bar on the tour.

Kristen and I with Alessandro, our guide. Hilarious old Venetian man that basically just rolled his eyes and laughed at us all night. I don't think it was a tour for him, more like a "how about I get paid while drinking with some Americans" type of thing.

Alessandro then took us to our 2nd bar, and he informed us that we were going to experience it like REAL Venetians. And that was by getting a glass of wine, and drink it standing up in the alley. Because REAL Venetians don't have time to go into a bar and relax. They drink on the go! We thought he was kidding...but he so was not...

Yeah, we literally were drinking in the alley. Haha!

That damn hat got around throughout the night. 

We were too busy chatting, laughing, and catching up with Kristen's family to take any more pictures, but at the end of the bar tour, the sun was setting and I managed to get some pretty amazing pictures down the canals...

I'm so happy it was a crazy coincidence that Kristen's family and ours were in Venice at the same time. It was so much fun to spend time with them.

Our time in Venice was short, but we are savoring every minute of it.

Tomorrow, we head out to Florence!

Ciao!
xoxo

p.s. We spotted an American steak-house in Venice. I just had to take a picture because I find it completely hilarious to see what Italians think America is like:

The Wild West, and an eagle with the American flag behind it. Yup, you got us spot on, Italy! ;)