Venice

We left Lucca today. There was still some confusion when we tried to pay so we ended up with free parking. I think karma kicked back by screwing us when trying to return the rental car in Florence. Their streets are messed up! They’ll go one way east for 2 blocks and then switch so that they’re one way in west for the next 2 blocks. Fantastic system if you’re into mazes, but not so much if you’re trying to return your franjammerrin’ rental car. I don’t know how Kevin found the garage, but he did. I certainly was no help. Finally car free, we walked to the train station to get to our next stop in Venice.

Venice is so pretty! We're staying at Hotel Dalla Mora which has a great view of the canals from our window. We’re on a mission because we only have one day here and have to soak it all in. We walked the canal then did a self-guided tour on a water ferry. I’m super paranoid of motion sickness and water is always especially bad. To be safe, I took a Gravol and wore my Sea-Bands. Success! No puking! One less tale of public embarrassment to share.

From the ferry stop, we walked to San Marco square. Unfortunately we got in too late to tour the Basilica and clocktower, because they looked awesome. We learned what we could for free then went shopping. Venice has all the cool, high-end stores: Gucci, Pucci, Valentino, Versace – you name it. I did end up fulfilling my mission for an Italian purse. It isn't Prada. The nice thing about the stores here is they have little price cards in the window with their displays. So if you’re not familiar with a store you can see if their stuff is €50 or €500. Beats going in, looking at price tags, then leaving in shame.

After spaghetti and clams #4 for dinner, we got Kevin a take-away beer and I had an orange granita, which really turned out to be a regular slurpee. Although I’m glad I didn’t go for green, because here that’s mint, not lime.

We went back to San Marco square, which is amazing at night. Especially since the crowds of cruise ship tourists have cleared out by the evening. Bands play at all of the patios on the square and you can walk around and enjoy concerts for free. We also went to the Rialto bridge, which is the oldest bridge in Venice that crosses the Grand Canal.