Venice, Italy

Venice, Italy (Stop #1 on the Cruise):

I've finally returned from my Mediterranean cruise.  I've headed back to work, picked up my pooch from puppy camp, and put all my stuff away.  What's left of course are the pictures of the beautiful places Brandon and I visited for our belated honeymoon.  This wasn't your typical beachy cruise.  The places we visited blew my mind with the natural beauty and history.

We chose Costa which is an Italian cruise line for its affordablity and amazing ports.  We took a 9 hour train ride from Germany to Venice and spent the night in Ca' Lucrezia hotel which was literally around the corner from the train station.  It was a perfect location, but forget to duck into the first alley and you will miss it.  That night also happened to be Brandon's birthday so we had a birthday dinner of spaghetti and lobster.  Yum.

The Venetian Carnival masks.  I may have to visit Venice for Carnival.  I've heard it's crazy!

The next day we woke up early to walk the streets of Venice.  It was pretty much what I had expected, but a little less exciting.  We didn't have much time because we had to get to the port of call to board the ship by 5pm so we had to make sure to do the essentials.  I was hell bent on riding a Gondola.  We found a guy that was dressed in a striped shirt and hat and told us he'd take us around for 80 Euro.  It was very pricey and maybe a little overpriced but we took it.

This is similar to what the interior of our Gondola looked like.

Heading out into the Grand Canal.

View of Rialto Bridge.

They really do wear these shirts.  And the sound of Venetian accordion songs were in the air.

Our Gondola driver took us all the way to the San Marcos Plaza.

Here is the Doges Palace.  A very photographed image.  I wanted to explore the inside and see the beautiful interior, but the line was just too long for my patience.

I loved the pink street lights.

Image of an astronomical clock similar to the one we saw in Prague.

We decided to go into the shopping area because of course Italy is known for its great shopping.  They had all of the usual high end stores like Cavali and Chanel.  I don't even know why I go in them but to drool.

Brandon and I did however decide to get some new shades.  He bought himself a new pair of Ray Bans and he bought me a new pair of red shiny Versace sunglasses.  They are huge and I love them.

We had lunch in the shopping area as well.  I had some wine and yummy Italian salad.  Brandon had some more of the spaghetti that we enjoyed the night before with our lobster.  Anyone can make spaghetti, but Italians really know how to make a good spaghetti.  It's al dente and the sauces are amazing, especially paired with a good red wine.

After lunch, we had to take a water taxi back to the hotel to grab our things and head to the ship to board!  This is one of our water taxi views.

Once on the ship, we checked out our room and headed to the deck to bid Venice farewell and see the whole city from above.

This is a view of Venice from the ship.

So that was our port out of Venice and our first night on the cruise ship.  We had a lovely dinner and drank a lot.

Favorite thing about Venice:  

My favorite thing would have to be just the views in general of the Adriatic Sea.  The sun was shining and the breezes were blowing.

Next stop:  Bari, Italy

If you could spend one day in Venice, what would you do?



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