Singing through Venice

After an easy train ride we arrived in Venice, the floating city! For some reason this thought had not hit me until we arrived and I realized that we needed to get a boat pass in order to get to our hotel, instead of finding the nearest metro station.

So excited to be in Venice

The "streets" of Venice

Once we got to our hostel we got our sea legs together and went exploring. What we soon realized about Venice is that you can't really have a set plan on what you want to do, its better to just explore and let the atmosphere soak in.

Masquerade

 

Anna, me, Zach and Andriy

We wandered the streets which resulted in getting lost quicker then I thought. The small streets lead to bridges with gondolas floating past. We found a nice restaurant to eat dinner in the middle of a small square.

Dinner time

Later on we explored the main center at night, Venice is absolutely gorgeous at night! The lights illuminating the Rialto bridge coupled with the sounds of the waves and a cool breeze made for a perfect evening (of course a bottle of wine and gelato didn't hurt either).

Oh the lights of Venice

Although the city is a beautiful place to be during the night, the day time brings in the tourists literally by the boatload. So we decided to venture off the beaten path and take a little picnic on a beach on an island a little farther away. This reminded me of home, as it was a beach but it was windy and quite a bit colder then we anticipated!

Colorful houses

Artistic alleyway

 Later on we explored another outlying island known for its colorful houses and lace. As was the theme of Venice we wandered along the streets and canals, allowing our stomachs and noses lead us to the next step.

The greenest pizza yet

The houses were beautiful and after yet another filling Italian meal we had an extended photo shoot. (See pictures above, can you blame us, the houses were so beautiful!) Our day ended with gelato in the city center again, we turned in early again to up again for Florence!