Venice

I know it is a week late, but better late than never. :)  During orientation at MCI we had an option to sign up for a group called ESN and they have great deals for short trips and things to do around Innsbruck.  They had a trip to Venice for 39 euro for the day so we hopped right on that!  So, on Saturday, 4/20/13, we woke up at 4:30 in the morning to get to the bus at the train station.  The bus left for Venice around 6 am and we arrived in Venice around 11 am.  We then had to take a boat into the city, which was amazing!  We had until 6:30 pm to explore Venice and I think that was just the right amount of time.

The first thing we did when we arrived as find a cheap pizza place.  The food in Venice is not the cheapest, but we ended up finding a place that was reasonable.  We then walked around a bit and sort of "got lost".  My mom told me the best thing to do was to "get lost" and explore the back roads of the city because they have the best cafe's and shops.  Of course we went to the tourist sites as well, Piazza San Marco, St. Mark's Campanile, Rialto Bridge and St. Mark's Basilica.  The Piazza San Marco and St. Mark's Basilica was filled with tourists because it was a Saturday and there happened to be a cruise there at the same time.  Also, there was a graduation being held in the Piazza as well that day.  It was very interesting to see how people were dressed for graduation.  Some of them have wreaths around their necks and some where dressed in the most ridiculous attire.  It was quite amusing.  The Rialto Bridge was also filled with tourists, so we only stayed at these places long enough to see them and get a picture.

We walked down so many back roads and found the best gelato, which I was ecstatic about. :)  I got tiramisu flavored and it actually tasted like the real thing, with the kahlua in it!  We walked all day and found a great cafe with some amazing coffee as well.  I got one that had chocolate shavings on top!  They also have a lot of places with glass objects because they are known for glass blowing there.  Everything was beautiful to me!

The weather was not the best on the day we went, but I still had a great time!  I took some amazing pictures of all the canals and some of the gondolas!  Unfortunately gondola rides are very expensive, so we did not take one, but it was still very cool to see the different gondolas and how they are decorated! It rained on us a bit, so we ducked into many stores and I ended up buying a leather purse that was a decent price and I am in love with it!!

At the end of our day we sat down at a restaurant and had a glass of prosecco.  We then found a small cafe that had wraps so we could take it to go to eat on the bus for dinner.  All-in-all, I had a great time in Venice and for a great price!  I am so happy I am able to experience all I have been able to.

More to come...Gute nacht!