Venice!

Venice is best described by an aggregation of romantic adjectives that gives justice to a city of postcard beauty. As you're walking down the streets you see couples sharing a gondola ride, people strolling through the city singing out loud to themselves and terraces full of people sharing a lazy afternoon together over a plate of pasta and a bottle of wine - all under the warmth of the "summer" sun. We got into Venice on Monday (March 24) and immediately made our way to the Molino Stucky Apartments where we stayed during our three nights in Venice. Rania's co-worker, Giacomo, has kindly let us stay in his family's waterfront apartment, which is part of the Hilton Hotel. It was absolutely beautiful and a perfect setting for what Rania and I had planned to do for the next few days: relax. Unlike Rome and Florence, there wasn't anything in particular in Venice that we were pressing to see. Therefore our days there were all just a mishmash of us hanging out so I've included all three days in Venice in a single entry. 

Day 1: We arrived by train, but not before encountering a small road bump. Turns out Rania's train ticket was for the month before so she was forced to wait an hour for the next train which gave me an hour in Venice to sit in the sun and ooo and aaa at the beautiful canal just outside the train station. Like I said earlier, we dropped off our stuff at Giacomo's apartment and then went walking along the water to get food at one of the few places that was open at that hour in the afternoon (I guss it was about 4PM). We enjoyed a wonderful pasta meal with a glass of white wine under sun overlooking the beautiful turquoise water. Impressionist painters, like Monet, used to come to Venice for the perfect backdrop of pastel colors that marry into one another and hazy misty skies over sparking waters. We did a bit more walking after the meal then enjoyed a quite night at home. We picked up some groceries and Rania made her famous Avglemeno soup (Greek egg-lemon soup) and we tried to recreate our favourite Italian dish, proscuitto and melon.   

Day 2: We went into the main area of Venice and did all the major tourist attractions including Saint Mark's Square, the Bell Tower, Rialto Bridge and the Grand Canal. We were really looking forward to a gondola ride along the canals of Venice but we didn't realize that the going price was EUR80 so we opted out of that. Instead we did our own waking tour along the canals and into the Jewish Ghetto for lunch. 

Day 3: Another day of getting lost in the narrow streets of Venice and really taking in our last breath of Italy. We opened our bottle of wine we got in Florence and had a few glasses under the setting sun. A good night sleep to end the perfect trip to a beautiful country. 

Up next is Greece! A short trip but a good introduction for future trips that I definitely intend to make. 

xoxo

Alexis