I have to say, I'm unimpressed. I really don't have much to say about Venice but I'll give you some pictures and funny stories. I left you off in my Swiss blog with us driving through some crazy mountains and whatnot. After we left Gimmelwald we had about eight hours of driving to go to get to Venice. We went over a massive mountain - up into the clouds. It was terrifying and beautiful all at the same time. Again, more tunnels. At one point we came up on some cows next to the road that I had no idea were there until they were right next to us because we were up in the clouds. We have video of some of this drive. We'll share it when we get home.
At one point we drove through a tunnel for about a half hour to 45 minutes. I have no idea. It was a really long tunnel. When we came out the other side all the street signs were in Italian. We started to doubt out directions and wonder if we had crossed into Italy at some point in the tunnel. No. We didn't. We were just in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland! We still had a long drive to go.
Crossing the border into Italy was our first experience with the Italian people. And it was fantastic. We weren't sure which lane to go through to cross. There were lanes for regular cars, big trucks, RVs, and so on. Brandon directed me to one because it said something about passports. We were obviously in the wrong place. The border officer walked over to us and said, "Why are you in this row??" I immediately pointed to my husband and said, "Because he told me to!" The officer jokingly scowled at him and showed him his handcuffs in a mock threat to arrest him. Brandon apologized and the officer allowed us to pass through. No arrests have happened yet and we choose to keep it that way!
Directly after crossing the bridge into Venice we returned our car to the rental company. You can't drive on the island and I don't want to drive in Italy anyway. Italians drive much like Mexicans. No regard for lanes whatsoever. As we drove through the countryside we were treated by views of vineyards, beautiful Italian buildings, and a very large castle.
I'm actually not sure how to describe Venice for you, my friends. It's not super big. We walked most of it. Of course there are canals through the whole thing. We bought a "bus pass" which got us rides on the bus boats to get from one side to the other. We didn't do the gondola rides. They're very expensive and everyone has told us to skip them. However, it was fun to sit and watch them float by with the tourists taking pictures or joking around with their driver. At one point we saw a Husky's fan float by and Brandon yelled taunts at him in a friendly manner and everyone had a good laugh. One thing I will mention about Venice: If you ever visit, remember to pack bug spray! The mosquitoes are ridiculous. I should have known. It's a city on water. Where mosquitoes gather. Oh well, I'm all bit up.
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| This is some closeup of mosaics. I absolutely love them. |
The streets of Venice are great fun. If we didn't have anywhere to be it was great to just walk and see where we end up. Usually it was St. Mark's Square. The streets are all more like alleyways, some big and some small. Some were very very small and we weren't sure if we should even go down them. It is so easy to get lost in those streets. If we tried to find a specific place we became incredibly turned around and unsure of what "street" we were even on. If we just purposely lost ourselves for fun then we found ourselves at St. Mark's. Weird, right?
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| The Genesis Dome in St. Mark's entryway. This is all mosaic. |
St. Marks Cathedral is one of the most amazing churches I've been in so far. They say that Mark's body is buried there. I'm doubtful. However, everything else is pretty. And stolen. Pretty much everything in that church had been taken from Constantinople. Did I spell that right? This seems to be a common thread throughout all of the Catholic churches we have visited. You'll see stuff about that in my Rome blog later on. The cool thing about St. Mark's, though, is the art. The entire inside, and a lot of the outside, is covered in mosaics. The oldest in the back of the church, to the newest in the entryway. They all tell Bible stories throughout the entire church. My favorite was what is called the Genesis Dome. You can see why in my picture.
Food here in Italy has been really good. We're having a hard time getting out of the tourist areas where the food isn't as good as true Italian food. But we've hit a few good gems. Our first night in Venice was a score and a miss all in one. We had a fantastic cheese platter that came with some bread, jam, and honey. The jam was so yum with cheese. But then our risotto came and it was the saltiest thing I've had in a very long time. I just had to shovel it down my throat as fast as possible it was so bad. I don't even know what other flavors were in it because there was so much salt. We also shared a bottle of wine and I swear the wine here has to be stronger than the wine at home. I'll just leave that as that. Something very disappointing for both of us: breakfast isn't much of a deal here. It's just coffee (which is the best ever) and a pastry. Breakfast is our favorite meal of the day. It's actually hard for us to handle being in a county with no real breakfast!
So that's pretty much it about Venice. It's hot and muggy. I bought a super cute dress and a fan. I have no regrets. We are loving the Italian people. They are all so much fun. Right now we're in Rome. It's amazing. But that'll be for the next blog. Until then, my friends!
