Stop 2: Venice, Mom's Favorite!

Day 4 was a travel day: Off to Venice! We spent a few too many hours on the train but finally made it to Venice in the evening, where we took a canal water taxi (Venice's main form of transportation) to our hotel. One thing we quickly learned is that traveling in Europe requires climbing lots of stairs with suitcases because they don't believe in escalators or elevators. At our hotel, they tried to put us on the 4th floor and our suitcases were so fat they could barely even fit through the tiny staircases. So luckily they had a room that required a few less steps!
We ate dinner on the canal and I tried a traditional Italian dish, cuddlefish---which was squid with pasta and black "ink".... basically pasta with black sauce.... yuck!! So I decided to go for some more traditional spaghetti instead.

We made a new friend at our hotel--Megan. She was actually on her R&R from Iraq, and she was by herself so we invited her to come with us. We went to Murano, the famous Venetian glass island, and then came back and walked to the famous Rialto bridge and had another Italian dinner.... lasagna this time... much better than my first meal!

We saw lots of pigeons and had to laugh when we saw this sign... which did not stop the pigeon feeders!

Day 6 we started of the day with a few of the city from above, in the clock tower! Then we visited Doge's Palace and stopped for a gelato treat. We visited the cathedral and climbed to the top of it too! Below is a picture of one of the oldest statues of 4 horses that were once on top of the cathedral.

We also did a Grand Canal tour cruise, where we got to see some important parts of the city... like Elton John's house!

Beautiful view of sunset from our canal tour

We saw lots of gondolas, but I decided I would wait to do that until I have a romantic boy to take me!

Venice was one of our favorite parts of the trip! The weather was great and it was not too crowded... I cannot imagine being their during high tourist season.