Friday, November 1, 2013

Pics from the surreal city of Venice




From the moment we arrived to the city in a water taxi. (basically what we would call a ski boat), the city of Venice is surreal and hypnotic.  We spent our last two days of our Italian vacation in Venice and it was amazing.


We were fortunate to stay in a lovely hotel right off St. Mark's Square.  St. Mark's Square is the piazza in front on St. Mark's Basilica.  A church becomes a basilica when a saint is buried in it.  According to the Venetians and our tour guide, the body of St. Mark is buried inside the church! 






Our first day in Venice was spent going on a tour of the Doge's  (Duke" Palace built in the 1400s, as well as the connecting Bridge of Sighs (the bridge connecting the prisons of the palace to the place where the prisoners met their sentence.   We also visited and shopped in a store famous for their handmade glass.









Prisons & Bridge of Sighs








I almost forgot.....we went on a gondola ride at sunset!





























We were serenaded!!
























































Venice was famous for their masquerades.



















Our last day, my birthday, many of us took a trip to the neighboring island of Burano, which is famous for their handmade lace.  It was a gorgeous town where all of the buildings were painted in bright colors.  We shopped and had a delicious seafood lunch of many, many courses, some of which were risotto with shrimp and spaghetti with clams.  It was all wonderful and an amazing way to spend my birthday.



Taking a ferry to Burano











We went past other mall islands.








Other towers lean here!















Can you tell what this is?!!


















We ended the evening with farewell drinks (or ice cream) on the square.  Normally it cost a fortune to sit on the square, but this was Globus' gift to us!  My mom and I agreed that we had a wonderful time and we met lots of wonderful people.  We had made it an early night because we had to take the water taxi back to the mainland by 6:00 am in the morning.










ciao bella città! Spero di rivederti!