Venice, Italy

Samantha and I arrived in Venice at mid day and it was HOT.  Luckily, the Airbnb we had booked was only a short walk from the train station, though it did take us a little while to find it as the entrance was tucked between some shops and a restaurant.  It was a small flat but it had air conditioning so it was perfect.  We only had 3 nights in Venice and wanted to make sure we made the most of it.  We had some things on the agenda that we knew for sure we wanted to do, like spending some time exploring St. Mark's and taking a gondola ride, but otherwise we just wanted to explore and take in the city.

On our first day we arrived early in the afternoon, so after getting things unpacked at our apartment we walked around and just got a bit lost.  We both felt like that was the best way to get a real sense of the city.  The next day we had planned to take a vaporetto (The large motorized ferries that run along the grand canal) tour from the train station down the grand canal to St. Mark's square, and even had an audio guide set up on the phone to listen to.  Unfortunately, we took the boat the wrong way, and instead of taking the scenic route down the grand canal we went out into the lagoon and arrived from the wrong way.  It was still scenic but definitely not what we had in mind.  We then spent the afternoon seeing the sights in and around St. Mark's square.  Sam found a great restaurant for dinner that wasn't full of tourists.  The food was great and it was a relief to enjoy a nice meal not surrounded by all the tourists that we had been with all day.

The next day we did the vaporetto tour in the correct direction.  It was gorgeous.  As Rick Steve's claimed in the audio tour, it is definitely the way Venice is meant to be seen, from the canals. After the tour we had a scheduled visit into St. Mark's Basilica.  By the way, if you're going to be in Venice, you can pay 4 euros per person to schedule a time and avoid waiting in the lines.  Definitely do this! The line stretched about 2 hours the entire time we were there, starting at 8 am before the open and lasting all day.  The basilica is amazing and should not be missed if you are in the area.  That night we had an amazing dinner followed by a gondola ride for just the two of us.  It is definitely a bit kitschy but we were glad to have done it, especially at sun set as the views of the city from the canals at dusk are magnificent.  

We really enjoyed our time in Venice but we also were excited for our next stop.  Portugal was our last stop on our European adventure, and it was awesome.  We have gotten a little bit behind on these posts but it's because we have been super busy.  We are now settled in a nice hotel in Marrakech and plan to get back up to speed soon!  Stay tuned!