Three Days, Three Cities, Part I: Venice

When I first found out we were moving to Italy, I had a day of on and off sadness about how long we would be apart from our families.  Even though I was beyond excited, I couldn't help having a pity party about how we would "never see any of our family for the entire Italy tour."  I was being normal dramatic Amanda while T was being his normal calm self, talking me off my emotional cliff edge.  After my pity party, I realized we would definitely be having visitors at some point while we were in Italy because who doesn't want a free place to stay in Europe??!  Well I got my wish because my super awesome sister-in-law, Alex, came to visit this past weekend!  Heck, we aren't even out of our hotel room yet! She was spending some time in France and zipped on over for a fun-filled visit.  Even though she is a seasoned Europe traveler, this was her first time in Italy!  We spent the last three days of her visit touring Venice, Verona, and Milan.  This post would be one hundred pages if I combined all of our epic times in one post, so I will be separating posts by city!

Stop #1: Venice, the city of water. 

And boy did it live up to its name.  What a magical place!  Venice is always somewhere I have wanted to see, and it was everything I expected times 1,000.  The city is divided into six sections which were described to us as six large neighborhoods.  We took a guided tour of the Jewish Venetian Ghetto,  which was an excellent decision.  This neighborhood, also the first actual European ghetto, was instituted in 1516.  The Ghetto was around for more than two and a half centuries, until Napoleon conquered Venice, and allowed the Jews to live freely.  The area had very minimal tourists unlike the hot spots of the city, such as St. Mark's Square.  We had the cutest tour guides ever.  Here they are filling up their bottles from the public wells in the ghetto's square.  They were full of information, especially on the iconic gondola boats!  

Another fun fact: the American word "ghetto" comes from the Venetian word, "gheto" which is in reference to a foundry where types of metal were stored in the same area the Jews lived. #historyisfun

I loved that we chose to take a tour of the less traveled roads of Venice because this is where I snapped my Pinterest worthy pictures.  The roads intertwine with bridges, canals, and beautiful pathways that take you through out this beautiful city. Every tiny bridge has a unique view of different boats and buildings.  I couldn't even keep count of all the bridges we passed over! 

Cute brother/sister pair right there.

Lovey dovey. 

Loved the picture above.  The white flowers compliment the blue shutters and salmon color of the building so perfectly.  Plus, this was an off the beaten path road which seems to be the best way to experience Italy. AND there was a cat peeking through one of the windows. 

 How Italian Vogue do we look?

The picture above is my favorite from the entire weekend.  This is what I envisioned Venice to look like.  The rustic buildings, small canals, and gondolas.  What a dream.  We didn't ride a gondola this time, maybe next visit! 

After we had our guided tour we had some time to explore the city as we pleased.  We made our way to St. Mark's Square, (Piazza San Marco in Italian).  Again, I was in awe of the grandeur of the city.  My favorite part was getting to see Saint Mark's Basilica.  As a practicing Catholic, Italy has given me the opportunity to see my faith in a whole new way.  It's extremely moving to be in the presence of a cathedral so beautiful, all built in the glory of God.  Unfortunately we did not have  much time left before our train departed, so we could not go inside, but I will definitely be going back!  Here is the only decent picture I got of the Basilica. Stunning!  

Here is my hubs navigating us through the crazy roads of Venice.  Thank the good Lord for google maps because we may have never made it out of the maze of roads that make up the city! 

As we neared the train station, we crossed back over the Grande Canal and had these beautiful views, 

Venice was the perfect city to start our three days, three cities excursion.  T and I hope to become "master Venetians" so when our friends and family come visit we can give them the low down! Especially because Venice is only about a 45 minute train ride from Vicenza, I am sure we will become pros in no time.

Day 1=Molto Successo 

Until Next Time, 

Always