Ciao Bella!

On one of the days that Susannah stayed with us, we ventured to the islands of Venice. We took the train to Santa Lucia station that morning and then hopped on the vaporetto (water bus). The vaporetto first took us to Saint Mark's square by going around the south side of the island, giving us views of Venice that I had never seen before.

View of Southern side of the Venice "fish".

This is San Giorgio Maggiore, a little church-topped island across the way from Piazza San Marco.

We then made our way to the islands. The city of Venice is actually made up of 117 islands in Venetian lagoon. Susannah and I visited three of the most visited ones: San Michele, Murano, and Burano. Our first stop was San Michele, the cemetery island.

San Michele was a little... dead (excuse my bluntness). It is a beautiful island with some pretty gardens and churches, but that's about it. Apparently, Igor Stravinsky is buried here. Each plot is very well tended and almost all of them had flowers on them. Very pleasant. Sooz and I took a quick tour around and then hopped on the vaporetto to our next stop, Murano.

Graves on San Michele.

Chapel on San Michele.

Murano is famous for its factories that produce beautiful glass works. We went into a couple of shops and marveled at the beautiful glass vases, chandeliers, and figurines. We tried to find a factory that would do a glassblowing demonstration but no luck. We grabbed a quick lunch and then headed onto our next stop, Burano.

We got a little bit lost when we were looking for the glass factories. We somehow ended up in this weird shady food court thingy. But hey, they had a pizza place named after one of our favorite movies!

Murano's main drag.

A glass statue of a woman. It was artsy.

Burano is a quaint and quiet island known for its lace production. They have many stores throughout town that sell the beautiful, handmade lace. The cute, pastel colored houses also make Burano a pleasant place to visit. Sooz and I had a fun time walking around town and just taking pictures of every cute house and picturesque alley.

Lace shops in Burano.

One of the main canals through Burano.

Cute houses in Burano. All of the doorways had a sheet hung in front of it to provide privacy, but also allow the breeze to come in.

Sooz chillin' in the shade.

Is this not the cutest house you have ever seen?

Sooz and the leaning tower of Burano.

More cute houses.

We had a fun day exploring some of the islands of Venice. I think that it is worthwhile to visit Murano and Burano. San Michele-- maybe not so much, unless you really dig cemeteries. The only thing I was disappointed with on this day is how long it takes to get to each island. I didn't realize how far apart each island is. On the vaporetto it takes about 45 minutes to get from Saint Mark's square to Murano and then it takes about 40 minutes to get from Murano to Burano. So unfortunately, most of our time that day was spent on the boat, when I wish we could have spent more time on the islands. It was also extremely hot on the day that we went. I don't know, maybe it was just me and my pregnant self, but I am pretty sure I drank like 6 water bottles that day and just sweated it all out. And nope, there is no A/C on the vaporettos. For some relief you need to sit by one of the little open windows or snag a seat on the back of the boat. Other than those complaints, I had a lovely time on the Venice islands with my sweet sister!

Il Carnevale

Il Carnevale is a celebration held every year in Venice where everyone dresses up and wears masks. The celebration starts around two weeks before Ash Wednesday and ends on Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras. Carnevale originally celebrated a time where social classes could be forgotten and anyone could associate with anyone because the masks provided anonymity.

A beautiful, sunny day in Venice!

We decided to participate in this celebration and visited Venice one Saturday during Carnevale. We didn't wear masks, but nonetheless, it was a crazy time! First of all, the train to Venice was packed! We had to stand up the whole time and next to a large group of drunk people for the majority of the time. But we had fun once we got to Venice. There were so many people in Venice and most of them were wearing the most extravagant costumes. We just walked around and looked at all of the amazing costumes, ate some delicious pizza, and then finished off the day with some gelato. It was funny because there were so many people who were dressed up just so people could take pictures of them. Some of them just stood in one place while people just took pictures of them. It was kind of weird. I don't know, that just doesn't seem like something that would be fun for me, but so many people lived for it! They must not get very much attention, so this is their time to shine! haha.

Here are some pictures of the festival. We were between cameras at the time (Dallin sold his camera and we were waiting for our upgrade to be sent to us) so these pictures are not the best, as they were taken with my point-and-shoot camera.

There were so many people there.

Authentic Venetian masks.

There were many groups of people like this, just riding along in gondolas playing music.

The Rialto Bridge

Tall Dallin with the the tall Campanile.

Attention seekers.

Scary tall guy

Specchio Magico, or the Magic Mirror!

Creepy cat people.

Ladies

Gelati!

Venice

The day after we went to Verona, we decided to get up early and take the train to Venice. It is about a 50 minute train ride to Venice and it only costs four euros each. We decided that Venice would become our new San Francisco, a fun metropolis we can go to on the weekends.

Venice, however, I must say, is much cooler than San Francisco. I think it is definitely the most beautiful city I have ever been to. Going there was... magical. It was like that magical feeling you get when you watch the fireworks show at Disneyland, but better. The city just seems unreal. First of all, there are absolutely no cars at all in the city, or bikes, or motorcycles, for that matter. It's a fairly small city and you can walk anywhere. Literally, the only means of transportation are boats! There are bus boats, taxi boats, police boats, ambulance boats, people own their own personal boats, and of course the gondolas.Our visit was great because it was not crowded at all, and the sun came out in the afternoon, and it became rather warm. All of the buildings in the city are beautiful, it was inspiring just walking around. It was actually fun to get lost in the city and explore all of the beautiful little neighborhoods there.

The first thing we did when we got there was take a cruise down the Grand Canal. We rode on the bus boats (vaporetto) all the way to Saint Mark's Square.

Me validating my bus ticket for the vaporetto on the floating bus stop/dock.

The view from the Grand Canal was... GRAND! From the canal we could see Venice from the inside of the city through its main artery. We floated by beautiful Venetian mansions, impressive bridges, and many other Venetians driving their boats through town.

The Ponte degli Scalzi (bridge).

Beautiful Venetian mansions along the canal.

Dal and I enjoying the cruise.

Parked gondolas.

The impressive Rialto bridge to the left.

Our cruise on the vaporetto took us to Saint Mark's Square, the biggest square in Venice and also the home of the famous Saint Mark's Basilica. 

The Campanile de San Marco and the Basilica.

Me and Dal in Piazza de San Marco.

Saint Mark's Basilica.

Then we went inside of Saint Mark's Basilica. Such an impressive and ornate building. The outside, though partially under construction, was amazing because it was covered in colorful mosaics and so many ornate details. The inside was also cool to see. It was also completely covered in mosaics. It was fun to look up and recognize the stories of the Bible like Adam and Eve and Noah's ark, illustrated with tiny stones making up a beautiful mosaic.

After exploring Saint Mark's Basilica, we walked around the square a bit, looked in some of the shops, and got a snack. Speck and Brie panino... yum.

Traffic.

Then we went to the Doge's Palace, also near Saint Mark's Square. The Doge's Palace is where the rulers of Venice lived and held council for the Republic of Venice. The palace is large and filled with ornate rooms of countless frescoes, sculptures, and ornamentation.

Outside of the Doge's palace.

Me in the courtyard of the Doge's Palace.

Ceiling in the Doge's Palace.

We weren't supposed to take pictures in this room, so this picture is not the best. But this is the largest oil painting on canvas in the world. It was huge! The painting depicts the last judgement.

This is the "Bridge of Sighs". Unfortunately it was covered in some stupid scaffolding. But it was a bridge that prisoners would walk over just before they would be executed. As they walked over the bridge, they would take one last look out of the bridge at the view of beautiful Venice and... sigh.

Another pic outside of St. Mark's Basilica.

We were on the south side of the island and there were beautiful views so we decided to walk along the waterfront. The sun came out and we just enjoyed the beauty of Venice.

Then we decided to get some lunch. Unfortunately, that was not a very good experience. We were stupid and just went to a very touristy place. Basically we paid 40 bucks for us to eat mediocre food that tasted like it was just warmed up in the microwave. Next time, we will be sure to do some research, listen to Rick Steves and find a good place to eat. After lunch, we decided to make our way to the train station by walking through the back streets of Venice. It was just a joy to walk around in this beautiful city.

And of course, every good day in Italy ends with gelato.

Venice truly is the most beautiful, romantic city that I have every been to. If you ever come to Italy, you must come to Venice. No exceptions. We are so lucky to be able to visit this place whenever we want.