City of Bridges

We have never vacationed for this long before. I was a little nervous that we would get tired of travelling and we wouldn’t enjoy each city as much. Thankfully, that hasn’t happened! We are already nearing the half-way point of our European Adventure, and are even almost done with our time in Italy. Time sure does fly when you’re having fun!

After a wonderful day in Florence, we woke up to one of the most amazing hotel breakfasts ever. They even had nutella packets. I may have taken a few extras…

We took off for the train station late morning and boarded our 2 hour bullet train to Venice. We had checked the weather and were expecting it to be raining, but we were pleasantly surprised to pull into the city with only a few clouds and no rain in sight. We quickly found our hotel, which is a quirky place and quite hilarious. The “street” to get to our hotel is probably less than 3 feet wide, with winding staircases to each floor. We even had to check in at another hotel nearby. We are on the top, fifth floor of our building and our room is the only one up here. Our hotel is an adventure in itself!

on the train from Florence to Venice

first glimpse of Venice!

This is the sidewalk down to our hotel.

 

The last staircase up to our room

Getting settled in our room didn’t take long and we quickly took off to explore Venice. With no cars out here, it’s fun to just walk the streets and meander through the narrow alleys. After getting some great pictures of the canal and several little foot bridges, we decided to ask a gondola company how much their rides were. They told us their price and we walked away thinking…wow…maybe we won’t do one after all….when we heard one of the gondoliers coming after us. He had quickly dropped the price significantly because they weren’t busy. Instead of waiting and trying to bargain again the next day, we jumped right on and thoroughly enjoyed our spur-of-the-moment splurge that is a must-do in Venice.

Ponte Rialto

 

We finished up the afternoon by wandering on our way back to our hotel to grab some things before finding some dinner and wifi. Our expected rainy day turned into a surprisingly beautiful day full of memories in our new favorite Italian city (although Florence is still way up there and we, of course, still love Rome too!). What’s not to love about Italy? Sigh…

 

We’re praising the Lord for good weather, tons of fun-filled days behind and ahead, and the promise of getting to hug and see our dear family and friends very soon, all while thinking about what lies ahead for us as we return to the States!