Venice

Venice was exhilarating. We realized soon after our arrival that we were in Venice, a city of love and romance, for Valentine’s Day. With three kids in tow that didn’t mean a lot for Geoff and me but it did mean that we shared the town with a lot of couples! We also soon discovered that carnival would begin on our last day, which is no small deal in Venice. I’ve broken our Venice visit into three parts; this first post is a little photo tour in case you’ve never been and because we couldn’t get enough of it...we'll want to look at these photos again and again! Of course, it is one of those places that photos can’t totally capture, especially with our inadequate camera.

We were in Venice for four days. The first few days were slow-moving as we slept in and enjoyed long, delicious Italian meals on the grand canal. We had perfectly sunny (albiet cold) weather the entire time. We had given the girls each 10 Euro to spend. They were immediately drawn to the endless shops of carnival masks. We spent a fair amount of time allowing them to try them on, keep looking, and go back to previous favorites. We walked around a lot but didn't try to see a lot of "sights". We just relaxed and enjoyed being there.

We loved the architecture, a little European gothic mixed with Byzantine domes and Islamic minarets, influenced from their trading in the East.

A boat landing

The gondoliers stand on the bridges looking for passengers

The tide was really high so our gondolier had to lean way over when going under a bridge, often tipping the boat so the front tip would barely miss. They have amazing control around narrow corners and passing other gondolas through skinny passageways.

We were glad to have taken a gondola ride on the first day because as it got closer to the weekend (Valentine's Day/carnival) the canals were congested. Our gondolier didn't sing, but we heard an incredible singer and accordian player on one. It was a show in and of itself!

Saint Mark's Basilica

The Grand Canal is the main waterway through Venice, and where most of the wealthy built their homes.

Geoff and the girls on the Rialto Bridge, the heart of the city.

There are shops up and down the bridge as well as markets on either side.

A view of the Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge

The girls were admiring the painted eyes of some women we met. They were from Spain and kindly pulled out some eye-liner from their bags and made Tennie and Adele's day by painting their eyes, too.

Look how tired these poor girls look! This was taken on Rialto Bridge,

you can see the street markets in the background.

Look at my hottie Valentine!

Those are individual homes along the Grand Canal!

The gold on Saint Mark's basilica at sunset was unbelievable! We went inside at this same time of day in hopes of seeing the golden light reflect on the gold mosaics. We were the last ones in and unfortunately they weren't allowing visitors to see everything due to closing time. The inside of this basilica is stunning. There was a small mass going on in the corner where the priest was quoting Isaiah and there was a little singing...it was really cool. We wished we had more time to marvel at it all.