Friday, August 2, 2013

Don't Rock the Boat Baby!

After our very touristy stroll over the Rialto Bridge and through various neighborhoods and streets, we found our gondola meeting point.





We boarded our gondola and were ready to go.  With the six of us, there wasn't room for a serenade.  I think this was probably a good decision.  But we did pass plenty of people who did have a musical accompaniment during their ride.  The downside to this little boat ride was that we did feel that with six of us it really felt off balance most of the time. And we were mainly in the back canals and in the Grand Canal.  We never were out in the lagoon area which is much more choppy waters!



Maybe it was how our weight was distributed. I can’t say it was a very relaxing ride or even comfortable, it sort of felt like being in a tipsy canoe! But I enjoyed the sights and it was a nice introduction to Venice, especially at this time of the day. 







I think Mimi enjoyed it the least, which is unfortunate since she probably wanted to do it the most. She was too afraid we’d tip over, yet you don’t often see gondolas tipping left and right.

We all survived though and can now say we've taken a gondola ride in Venice!

After our ride, we started our walk back to our hotel, through St Mark's Square, which I knew we'd be back to during the day tomorrow, but I also promised myself I would come back to tomorrow night - when it was all lit up!








This is the Bridge of Sighs...the prisoners were walked across this bridge to the prison cells...sighing at their last glimpse at freedom through the windows.  

And legend has it that lovers will be granted eternal bliss if they kiss on a gondola ride under that bridge!


We'd had a long day and decided that instead of walking to dinner, which would be back by our hotel, we'd take the public transportation, a vaporetto. Again, we were starting to feel pretty good about this whole international travel thing!  We got our tickets, validated them, got on the vaporetto going the correct direction and most importantly got off at the correct stop!  Kudos to us!




As the sun started to set the colors on the buildings took on a whole different shade!  Venice was amazing!


We found the restaurant as recommended by the our hotel.  It was a bit off the main streets.  There didn't seem to be too many tourists there, and it was mainly pizza and pasta - just what we were looking for.  The service was very slow.  And not the typical European slow, this was actually painfully, haphazard slow service.  But the food was very good and we enjoyed our meal.  I had my first Prosecco here and enjoyed that quite a bit!  That would become my drink of choice in Venice!  


After our meal we walked back to our hotel, which was only a short walk from the restaurant and we all crashed.  

Tomorrow we'd "officially" be seeing the Best of Venice!  We have a full day planned!

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