Venice

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Once off the train in Venice, I was so glad to have everything in backpacks. We were able to walk to our bed and breakfast...only got lost once, so what should have taken 15 minutes was more like a 30 minute walk. Thank heavens we stopped for Gelato #1 right off the train, which gave us each a little boost. Getting lost in Venice is the status quo - thank heavens I had a map to figure out where I had taken the wrong turn! Our accommodations were very nice, and the staff was quite pleasant. We had a room off the interior courtyard, which was nice and quiet. Once we showered and changed clothes, we were off to find some dinner and wander around. We found a nice outdoor cafe for some pasta, cheese pizza, Fanta and wine....Gelato #2 followed shortly after! The next morning we had breakfast in the courtyard, re-packed our bags and stowed them at the hotel while we wandered around Venice before our train left. We simply wandered, allowing ourselves to get lost, with the only goal being that we end up at Piazza San Marco so we could take a vaparetto back to get our bags by 2:00. We did some shopping, had a very nice lunch, Gelato #3 then caught Vaparetto 83 back to gather our bags. Then we were off to the train station for our next train to Florence - this time we had absolutely first class accommodations for our 2 1/2 hour trip south.

To explain the large quantity of gelato to be consumed on this trip: a wonderful, dear friend, who's birthday is separated from Nolan's by only one day, gave Nolan "two gelatos a day in Italy" as a birthday gift....so we have taken a photo of every single gelato consumed to make a Gelato Colage as a birthday gift for him. Let's just say it's a good thing we did a lot of walking and climbing in Italy!

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Photos

Gelato 1
The first gelato, right off the train in Venice!

backpack
Nolan's backpack got so heavy by the end of the trip...but no complaints from my tough traveler!

gondola
We opted for a vaparetto trip instead of a gondola to spend our money elsewhere...so this is our token gondola photo

grand canal
We had a beautiful day in Venice

Piazza San Marco
Nolan's comment: too many pigeons!

people
My main comment: too many people!

skull
This cool sculpture was along our vaparetto route near the Peggy Guggenheim museum

vaparetto
It was a really cool journey around the Grand Canal on the vaparetto