A Venetian Dream

What do you think of the new look of my blog? I think I'm in love with this background--much more than the last one!

I had planned to head to good ol' College Station this evening for the A&M vs. Arkansas State game. But Willy has been acting weird this week, and the vet was finally able to come out today. He said Willy was showing symptoms of founder, but it could also be an abcess. I'm hoping its and abcess because it's way less serious. Either way, I have to keep an eye on him this weekend. I will probably still go to the game tomorrow though. We'll see! There's your horse care lesson for the day. :-) 

On to my favorite photos of the trip. I've got a lot, so I've broken them up into two posts. We took a plane from Rome to Venice, and a nice bus to the boats. I knew it was a city with water for roads, and I'd assumed we'd have to take boats everywhere. Luckily, there were sidewalks and side streets. Only the main thoroughfares were water. Venice doesn't have any cars either, so it's kind of like being in a different time period. We arrived in Venice at just the right time to take photos and took a waterbus down the main canal to our hotel.

Lots of buildings lean in Venice. I guess because there is so much water and the whole town is slowly sinking. Also, here is one of the bridges over the smaller canals.

No trip to Venice would be complete without encountering a gondola. Here is one in all it's glory. Most gondoliers we saw wore striped shirts and hats--just like you would imagine!

This is the Accademia bridge. We disembarked here, crossed over the bridge and walked into our hotel-- the Fondazione Levi. It was a hostel where profits went to fund Venetian music. I really liked how close to the water we were. All 4 of us fit in a loft-style room, and this was the cheapest hotel we stayed in during our trip.

We were starving by the time we got checked in and it was getting dark. The sky was getting darker quickly because a storm was blowing in. We tried to find a restaurant in the guidebook, but when it started raining we ducked into a restaurant on another canal. It was a good choice. The guys had pizzas and I had spaghetti "pirate," which was mixed seafood with just a hint of tomato sauce. So so sooo good! We watched the lightning storm play out over the water, and I was kicking myself for not bringing a tripod. The photos would have been incredible. :-( 

The next day we got on a waterbus to see St. Mark's Square. I was so enchanted with Venice in the evening. It's a magical place and it looks like a movie set. So I couldn't wait to see the inside of St. Mark's Basilica because I'd heard so much about it.

This is the chapel across the canal from St. Mark's Basilica. 

This is a waterfront view of the square with the bell tower. To the right is Doge's Palace.

This is Doge's Palace. I was intrigued by the lacy architecture. Have you ever seen anything like it?

More of the Doge's palace. You'll notice I don't really have any photos of St. Mark's Basilica in this post. To be honest, I was really disappointed in the square--except for Doge's palace. First, there were hundreds, maybe almost a thousand tourists milling around. Go ahead and laugh, because we were tourists too, but it was like theme-park tourists... not like the tourists in other places we visited. Really annoying. And the line to get in the basilica was out the wazoo... it would have taken hours to get in. Plus, half of the famed square had leftover stage equipment from a concert the night before. One quarter of the square was fenced with giant walls for renovation, and the rest of the square was overrun with souvenir carts, tourists and pigeons. Plus, the outside of the basilica was covered in scaffolding for renovation. I didn't even want to take photos of it because I couldn't find anything visually uncluttered. OK, done with my complaining. We were in VENICE. How can you complain? David took this photo. We were on the other side of the line for the basilica--that's why there's hardly any one in it. :-)

Zach took some photos of the Basilica and I'll put them in the next post. Here's one of the many little bridges crossing the side canals. I just love it! It's just like a painting!

Venice is known for it's glass blowing. The nearby island Murano is world famous for jewelry and other glass things. I had no idea what they'd look like... I guess I was expecting crystal, but I was totally taken with the artistic beauty. I bought more souvenirs in Venice than any other place. Mostly jewelry that I love to pieces! I also got a picture frame and a wine bottle topper made of glass. Here are some examples of the creative pieces we saw.

This is definitely the longest strips of licorice I have ever seen! more than 3 ft. long!

Jonathan took this photo and I love it!

I'll post the rest of the Venice magic soon!