Once More, Gondoleri!

We began our fearless tour around Italy with a two days in Venice. 

We stayed at the Hostel Colombo for backpackers, a bus ride away from the city of Venice.

 The rooms were quite nice. 

 We ran into a little trouble with some ants in the rooms, but luckily we were only there two nights.
The only other thing we didn't like was the weird shower curtains.

 Not only were they odd, they were a bit offensive!

DAY ONE:


First, we took a waterbus (literally the public bus system is a whole bunch of large motor-boats that have floating docks as bus stops) to the Rialto Bridge. 

 And we grabbed our first slices of Pizza in Italy.

 Then we walked around and explored the labyrinth-like alleyways of Venice. 

There were a couple of times we thought we'd never find our way, and we'd be trapped!

 

But eventually we found our way to the Galleria Academie, which held works by native Venetians and great artists of the Renaissance. 

 I was especially excited to find this monumental painting, which I'd studied in Art History class. 

 After the museum, we walked around some more, taking pictures. 

 Eventually, we got dinner at an Osteria, and then made our way back to the hostel for the night. 


DAY TWO:
We had been spoiled on nice weather the day before, on our second day in Venice it absolutely poured, all day long. We still managed to have a great time though! 
First, we headed over to St. Mark's Square. 

 The lines to see the Basilica of St. Mark and the Doge's palace were extremely long, so we decided to get a quick bite to eat for lunch and go back after, in the hopes that the crowds would have thinned out. 

 When we got back, the lines had reduced dramatically from the morning rush, so we decided to see what we could see. 

The Doge's Palace

Basilica of St. Mark

 We got awfully wet, but as you can see, we were still having lots of fun!

 The Doge's Palace and the Basilica were magnificent, but my favorite part was getting to walk through the Bridge of Sighs. 
I used to think it was called that because it was a romantic spot under a beautiful bridge, but this isn't right at all. In fact, the bridge of sighs is so named because it was the bridge that led convicted criminals to the dungeons! Prisoners were reported to sigh as they looked out the window in the bridge which afforded them their last glance of the outside world.

 Going through the Palace and its dungeons worked up an appetite, so despite the freezing rain, we all got gelato! I got pistachio, my favorite. 

 Next, we made our way back to the Rialto Bridge, this time to cross it and get some lovely views of the canals.

 We walked around the city, exploring for some time after that. We came upon some really lovely things on our way.

 Most lovely of all, was this wine shop. Apparently, many wine shops in Venice will sell you wine from a tap. You get your choice of wine in a bottle size of your choosing for prices as low at 2 euro! You even get money off if you bring your own bottle!

 I got this 1.5 litre baby for 3 euro.  

 After that, we made our way to the Jewish quarter, my guidebook had recommended a restaurant there. When we found it, it turned out the place had been shut down! 

 Although my guidebook had led us astray, it turned out for the best--we found a lovely restaurant next door where we got some traditionally Venetian foods-mostly Italian foods that incorporate seafood in the dishes. 

This appetizer was described as "Venetian snack" on the menu

I got spaghetti with craw-fish.

 Then we took the waterbus home, by then it was night, and we got to see the city all lit up, just lovely. 

"Once more gondolieri, both skillful and wary, Free from this quandary Contented are we. From Royalty flying, Our gondolas plying, And merrily crying Our 'premé,' 'stali!'"

And so concludes our trip to Venice. On to Bologna!