Our Italian Fling! First Stop: Venice

In just four days, I've learned an incredible amount about this little jewel. That's not saying much, considering all I knew about Venice was that they had gondolas.

The first thing we found as we arrived was "Snowdude and the 7 tall guys". Seriously. We got pics.

There's two sections to Venice: island and mainland. The mainland part is called Mestre, whereas the island side actually bears the name Venice. And it's not an island. It's a lagoon with 188 islands separated by canals and joined by 400 bridges. 

The most famous of the bridges is Rialto, which comes from the Italian phrase for "high river".

It is a veritable maze of byways and bridges.

The main thoroughfare being the Grand Canal.

It just so happens that we were there on Saturday, Royal Wedding day. If you look closely, this group of boaters were wearing Harry & Meghan face masks. Others were wearing corgi masks. So we got to experience the royals, after all. 😁

We didn't ride the gondolas because: 

1. It was hot

2. It was €80-100

3. It was hot

But we saw plenty of them.

Once we got away from the main touristy area, we found some really beautiful plazas and amazing architecture.

And the coolest hole-in-the-wall restaurant.

It had a clawfoot bathtub for a cooler!

There's a lot to learn about Venice, like the fact that it has been sinking for centuries and they consistently have a high tide season where the walkways will literally be flooded every time the tide comes in. Or that there's two things that you'll never find here: cars and basements. 😁

That's barely scratching the surface. Venice's history is so rich, it'll take more than a few days' visit to really get the sense of the place and the people.

But this is a start.

😉