Italy: Day XI (Florence, Venice)

Friday, July 29^th:

The Grand Canal of Venice:

            Venice is an absolutely wonderful and beautiful place, but before I get to that, I will go through the day. We woke up pretty late in Florence after a long night, but spent some time in the San Lorenzo leather market picking up some Christmas gifts. It is a pretty unique place and is filled with tiny leather shop stands and all the different Fiorentian leather in every color you could ever have wanted. I wished that we had a little time to explore the San Lorenzo church which houses the tombs of the Medici family, but we had to catch our train and head off to Venice! The train was pretty quick, and before long we were crossing the only transportation bridge onto the island of Venezia.

Gondolas on a Venetian Canal:

            My first thought on Venice was “Why would anyone ever come up with the idea to replace roads with waterways and build a floating city?!” but I am glad that they did. The city is often very crowded, but with all the wandering side streets and walkways, it is easy to get yourself lost. Lost is all relative, however, as the city is merely a mile long island. We thought about taking a water-taxi to our hotel, but declined due to the high expense, and instead walked almost forty minutes over countless stepped canal bridges with our luggage before finally arriving. Our spot for the next three nights is the Hotel Marconi, in an amazing location right next to the Ponte Rialto and the Grand Canal of Venice!

St. Mark's Square, St. Mark's Basilica, and the Campanile:

            The rest of the day was pretty leisurely. We checked out some of the famous glass shops of Venice, explored the various fish markets, ate some Salami Pizza Rolls, and wandered over to St. Mark’s Square to get our bearings. Piazza San Marco is the center of Venice for tourists, and sits next to the beautiful Basilica San Marco. We decided to save that for later days, and instead went up to the top of the Campanile that overlooks the square to get some views of the city. The elevator whisked us to the top and we finally realized just how beautiful this city really was. Every direction we looked we were afforded with birds-eye views of the hundreds of churches and apartments, all in Renaissance style, seemingly all on top of one another. Gorgeous!

Views from the Top of the Campanile:

            We also noticed while we were up there that a concert was being organized in the square below, and they were performing a sound test. After listening for a little bit, we realized it was Sting from the Police! We snapped a few photos of him before heading back towards the hotel and trying to get lost. We eventually got hungry and stumbled upon an amazing little hole in the wall restaurant called Antica Trattoria Poste Vecie. I went all out here, and ordered Sauteed Clams and Mussels, Spaghetti with Cuttlefish Ink, Cuttlefish Venetian Style with Palenta, and a bottle of Sereole Soave local white wine. What a feast! Venetian style pasta is pasta covered in Cuttlefish ink, and it is phenomenal.

The Entrance to Antica Trattoria Poste Vecie:

            After dinner we enjoyed some post-dinner beers at a tiny café-bar right on the Grand Canal called Birreria Rivo Alto where we were served right next to the canal itself. What an amazing spot to sit back and relax and enjoy the weather. We wandered over back to San Marco to enjoy a bit of the Sting concert before heading back to our hotel. Luckily our hotel had a table set up outdoors that still was in range of the WiFi, so Max and I spent the night surfing the web in possibly the coolest place imaginable, right alongside the world famous Grand Canal. Unbelievable.

A Gondolier at Night: