The Blood Blog: Venice- Seafood for Breakfast and a Magical Gondola

Venice was my favorite stop of the whole trip. Rome was awesome (and was Aaron's favorite) because it had the oldest stuff and the most landmarks that we had heard of. You could be walking around Rome, turn a corner, and BAM! There's an ancient monument you have seen tons of pictures of before! The downside to Rome was that it was a bit stressful to navigate, and we had tour reservations at a few places that meant we had some nagging worries that distracted us from the sites.

Venice was way more laid back. The Island is only 3 miles long and 2 miles wide, so it is hard to get impossibly lost. We took the whole thing on foot. We knew that Piazza San Marco was the big tourist attraction that we wanted to hit. Other than that, our plan was to wander about and enjoy all the beautiful alleyways and as many of the 400 bridges as we could find.

The door to the right was where we stayed. Our apartment was on the main floor, which I think means it floods sometimes.I couldn't tell from the inside. They keep it up well.

This Airbnb was hosted by a guy named Vlad. He wasn't quite ready for us when we arrived, and looked super guilty as he told us to come back in 15 minutes in his thick Venetian accent. We joked that he was probably disposing of the bodies of his previous guests. Fortunately, there was no murder involved in our stay.

The courtyard at the place where we stayed. Our door was directly to my right when I took the picture. So pretty!

We used the 15 minutes to walk back to a store where we could buy water. In addition to scarce bathrooms, Europe also does not believe in free water. We thought we would find water fountains at the Rome train station- false. Surely we can refill our bottles at the Venice train station- false. Oh well, we'll get water at the apartment- nope, Vlad said not to drink the tap water. Sigh. At this point, I was pretty dehydrated and was having cramps from it. We bought some water bottles, dropped off our stuff, then walked down the street to have a fancy seafood dinner.

Aaron kept insisting on taking pictures of me even though I felt horrible

I tragically was only able to eat one bite. I boxed it and ate it for breakfast the next morning, along with some ice cream Aaron brought back. It was a delightfully strange breakfast.

I was feeling really bad by the end of dinner, so I retreated to our apartment while everyone else wandered the streets to find a grocery store to stock up on more water and some breakfast foods for the next day. Fortunately, I felt 100% better the next morning. I prioritized staying hydrated after that!

It was hard to resist the urge to photograph every single canal

I have a pretty sister in law!

He was doing chicken wings to match the sculptures way on top of that building

The classic craft of Venice is the Venetian mask. There were several stores that sell hand-crafted masks, and they were super fun to look around.

For the steam punk enthusiasts out there- Venice has masks for you!

I have no clue what this statue is from. Reading the sign confused me further.

Animal Masks

Every single building was just beautiful!

We took a gondola ride, which was a great choice.

We realized that the Venetian dialect of Italian is actually quite close to Spanish. It is funny hearing two people speak two different languages, but being able to understand each other.

We loved this arm statue

Compare Stephen's face here and in the next picture

Oh the flower boxes!

Mozart stayed here during Carnival one year back in the day

Everyone hangs their laundry to dry over the canals. They HAVE to drop stuff in every now and then. Do they all have hooks to fish out their towels and t-shirts?