Italy Spring Break V: "I Still Don't Believe We're in Venice."

We arrived in Venice at night which made navigating their already difficult public transportation  even harder.  As Venice is on the water, their public transportation is boats.  These are called Vaporettos and have various lines with various stops along the canals.

Our hostel was lovely and right along the water, right next to a vaporetto stop, and only a 15 minute walk from Piazza de San Marco and the Basilica de San Marco.

The view from our hostel.

 Venice was such a haunting city.  The whole place seemed a little surreal.  As if you were always just watching video of it instead of actually seeing it.

The basilica and the square were just beautiful.  The basilica was covered in beautiful gold painted mosaics.  It was just incredible to walk into a church that took over 500 years to complete and had things pillaged to complete it.

Piazza de San Marco

In Venice we mostly wandered.  We saw some churches and I became addicted to shopping for Venetian masks.  Poor Tuna had to tear me away from stand after stand as I became obsessed with finding the right masks.

The first night we ate dinner along the Grand Canal just over the Rialto bridge.  I am SEVERELY jealous of the people who actually live in Venice and get to see this every day.  I mean I'm sure tourist season is irritating as hell, but it is one of the most beautiful sites in the world.

Our dinner right along the water.

The Grand Canal at night.

The Rialto!

I was lucky enough that Jeannie gave me some money to use on the trip.  On our last night in Venice we decided to use it for a Gondola ride along the Grand Canal.

The next morning we got up bright an early to catch a train into Rome for our last day in Italy.  Venice was truly amazing.