Italy is probably the only foreign country that you can visit, walk into an authentic restaurant, and not feel bad for just ordering pizza off of the menu. Venice was our next stop on the (long) adventure...
Mark loved Venice and not just because the main piazza is named after him... that is "piAzza" not "pizza". Ok, so the piazza is Piazza San Marcos and isn't really named after Mark but he still loved the scenery, shopping (amazing silk ties-cheap!) and delicious food. The canals in Venice are spectacular and there are gondolas everywhere. Venice is small enough that you can know your way around the maze of 24 inch streets, bridges and beaches in about 2 days. It also helps to get to know the city when you cannot find your hotel and end up walking around until 11:00 PM.
Most of this trip was simply about relaxing and walking around. That is the nice thing about Venice, we didn't feel rushed to see every tourist attraction in the little time that we had. There were a lot of people however, and on small streets weaving back and forth between the canals I am sure that we were not everyone's favourite tourists as we barged through with our big american stroller.
The port area was a lot of fun to walk around at night and enjoy a famous gelato or two, or three. Another repeated activity was to head to the Piazza San Marcos at night. The three main restaurants hired string quartets, wind ensembles and pianists to compete for audience attention outside in the square. We enjoyed the lively rivalry between bands and the spectacular classical music that was played.
One night we had a very romantic dinner on the banks of a canal with gondolas going by. An accordian player gave us a serenade and the weather was fantastic. It helped that our server gave us special attention as he tried to schedule a wedding date for his nephew Matthia and our little Eve!
Our last night we travelled to a nearby farming town, Treviso, and spent the night at a bed and breakfast at someone's villa. This allowed us to be closer to the airport as we had an early morning flight, it was a very pleasant experience as well. We are growing more and more tired of living out of suitcases though and looking forward to settling in. ***(We actually have already arrived in Barcelona and have been here a week but as we have limited internet access for the moment we are still updating our blog ex post) More pictures/updates to come...
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