Venice (Saturday 10/24)

Last Saturday we left Austria and drove down through the mountains into Italy, towards Venice. Unfortunately we didn't give ourselves much time in the city itself, and we got lost trying to get there (!) but we got a good taste of it.


Driving through the Alps down to Italy

Italian countryside


Driving across the bridge towards Venice


Views from the water ferry boat we took




There were many huge cruise ships leaving Venice to cruise the Mediterranean


Andre and some gondolas


One of the ferry boats like we took to reach the city

The main thing I wanted to see in Venice was St. Mark's Basilica, the famous cathedral there. However, we arrived to find it had just closed for the day! Needless to say, I was most upset!! However, we tried to enjoy the beautiful outside of the building and the square where it sits.


St. Mark's Basilica



The Square, which was packed with people, restaurants and shops




Leaving Venice that night

We explored the canal/streets until it got dark, ate pizza and then caught the ferry boat back to the parking deck where we had left the car. By then we were really tired, but still had two hours to drive over to Florence to our next hotel. Then we happened to get lost again in Florence trying to find the hotel...NOT. A. GOOD. DAY. Can you tell that I don't have fond memories of that particular "adventure"?! I was so tired when we finally found the hotel at 11:30 pm, that I promptly burst into tears when I saw our room didn't have a bathtub, only a shower! Andre was very sweet and phoned down to the front desk to ask if they had any rooms with "a bath". The guy at the desk said in broken English, "Yes sir, we have bar, what drink you want?" Andre just looked at the phone, hung up and we both burst out laughing!

At least we ended the no good, very bad day with giggles!