Day 5&6: Venice

Venice was my favorite.  Which is fitting, since Venice was #1 on my "Places in the world to visit before I die" list.  So it came through and delivered everything I hoped for!  I'm actually a little overwhelmed with how to blog about it... there's just so much!  If you look through the facebook album you'll see the whole shebang.  So let's see about the basics here...

Four Things I Love About Venice:

1)  It's different.  I've never been anywhere like it, obviously.  Even Amsterdam (which is called the Venice of the north) isn't the same, since cars drive on their roads.  It's just so crazy that it's all walking and boating.  Nothing else!  It's not that big of a city (at least the main section) which makes it downright enjoyable to walk around in.

2)  You get lost.  I know, this may not seem like much fun... but it was!  Jesse read online that "Venice is a great place to just get lost" and we thought that sounded so nice and relaxing!  What we didn't realize is that people probably say that because it's impossible not to get lost!  We were constantly getting all confused and turned around.  It was seriously like a maze (which I hate) but still kind of funny when what you thought was a road would dead-end at a canal... presumably someone's driveway of sorts.  But we really did enjoy just exploring, eating, and people watching.  We visited the square, but that was the only touristy thing we were really interested in.  Other than that it was pretty chill.

3)  Gondola ride.  You have to do it once.  But we nicknamed it "canal robbery" because it ain't cheap. We payed 90euro for only 35-40 minutes.  And it seemed way shorter than that!  But it was so romantic and so interesting.  Our driver had lots of great stories to tell about the history of the island and even his own history... he was born there and his fondest memories are of playing soccer in the streets and losing balls to the water and to little old ladies' living room windows ;o)  So yeah, it's expensive.  But it was still awesome!

4)  The look.  Everything seems a little bit run down and... old.  Our gondola driver told us that it's because the city has strict rules about renovations.  They have to be historically accurate.  But that unfortunately means many people just can't afford to fix their place up to specs.  The effect is almost a "living ruins" kind of feel... and while it's a little sad on the one hand, I think it almost adds to the charm.  It makes you feel like you're stepping back in time a little.