European Escapades: Venice, Italy

We flew to Venice late Sunday night....arriving at our hotel at 1am...after a taxi, then a water taxi. So TIRED!!!! We decided to sleep in Monday morning so we wouldn't kill ourselves. The hotel (Hotel Flora) was quaint and fun. We had several pictures of it, but I decided on one....to show you HOW SMALL the elevator was! Truth? We could only ride one person with our suitcase/carryons when coming and leaving the hotel. With no luggage, the three of us could barely fit. Awesome!

We had so much fun in Venice...but since we got up late, it was already too crowded to tour St. Mark's and the Doge's Palace....but, we did get a few pictures outside.

The one thing Holly wanted to do in Venice was go to Burano. It's such a cool island with all the colorful houses! But, as we walked up to the water-bus area, we learned that they were on a 24 hours strike. Yes, the 24 hours we were there. Lovely! There was one place you could catch a water-bus, but it was on the other side of the island! Only a 25 minute walk!!! LOL Yeah, right...if you knew the way. Now, I'm a good map reader, but Venice is insane!!! Let's just say, we had a fabulous time getting lost in Venice on the way to the water-bus! it took us about an hour, but we had some fun photo ops!

 

Now, I must tell you the story of this picture. This lady, in the boat, with the dog...we saw her like 4 times on our journey through Venice!!! If only we'd knows she would eventually end up near the water-buses, we totally would have asked for a ride!!! 

So, we FINALLY got our tickets and onto the HOT water-bus ride to Burano...we ate lunch and roamed the streets. I just love this little island. I loved it when Heath and I went, and I loved it again this time!

When we returned to Venice, it was nearing sundown. And with the perfect light, Holly captured this amazing photo...one of our favorites of the entire trip.

We were actually on the way to the Rialto Bridge....where we got these pictures.

This last one...was right before I fell down a couple of steps on the bridge...I was quite embarrassed, and still am not sure exactly how I slipped on the marble and concrete steps! EMBARRASSING! (I was totally okay, didn't hurt at all, outside of my pride!)

We were SO tired at this point...but had to wonder through Venice to find St. Marco Piazza...it was just around the corner of every turn...right!?!? We walked so long, we had to find food before we got to St. Marco's! And eventually made it back to the hotel! 

Tuesday morning, we woke SUPER early so we could catch our private taxi to the train station! (we were taking the train to Florence to meet the ScrapMap group!!) This pic of me is riding through the canals of Venice....to the airport!!!

Yes, you read that right...the taxi took us to the AIRPORT...we needed the train station!!! Luckily, we left SUPER early b/c of our bad luck in transportation so far...so we had PLENTY of time to get to the station. Here we are happy when we got there!