The Kaminsky's Take on Venice

We ended our trip in Rome with two purchases: a purse and oxford shoes.  And we even found the best gelato in Rome.  There were numerous flavors.  It took me 6 pictures to get all of the flavors in a picture!  So I boarded the train to Venice very happy.  

After a 4-hour train ride we arrived in Venice, exited the train station and was surrounded by water.  There were water taxis and water busses! It’s so crazy that all their transportation is through water and they don’t have roads for cars to drive on.  We took a water bus to the hotel and settled in.

{The pretty view from our hotel room}

We did a little walking around the city before dinner.  We were starving since none us of had lunch so we had a very simple dinner of pizza at a trattoria.

The next day was our full day in Venice.  We had a tour of the Basilica San Marca and the Doge’s Palace.  The Basilca was beautiful.  It was the first building built in Venice in the 1060s.  The ceilings are made of golden mosaics.  They only have the lights on in the Basilica for an hour each day and we were lucky to be there for that hour and see the ceiling glisten.  The clock tower is located outside of the church because it was too big and heavy to fit inside the structure.  The palace was also very cool.  It was huge! The ceilings were very elaborate with gold decorations.  The palace was where the Duke of Venice lives.

{The main square in Venice.  Basilica San Marca and the clock tower}

{Pretty staircase in the Doge's Palace}

After our tower we took a gondola ride.  He took us through the small canals and then into the Grand Canal.  It’s amazing that this city was built on the water and that back in the day they had the engineering to do all of this.  We learned that underwater is wood beams that since there are no oxygen it hardens like brick.  Then there’s a platform layer and they build the buildings!  The gondola ride was very fun.  I really liked seeing all the buildings along the canal and the small bridges. 

{The Famous Rialto Bridge that crosses the Grand Canal}

{My dad and me on the Gondola}

That night we went to an Italian restaurant called Da Mamo.  This was my favorite restaurant of the trip.  I had ravioli in a butter sauce.  The atmosphere was lots of fun because the waiters were being very funny with my family.

On our way to the restaurant it had rained a little.  Probably no more than 15 minutes of rain.  When we left the restaurant the city was flooded! Our tour guide had told us the city floods after rain but we still couldn’t believe our eyes.  In some areas the water was ankle deep!  We saw a man carrying a woman,, which was very funny and I wished someone could carry me.  After walking a third of the way, my mom and I walked back to the start of the flood and found a bridge made from tables and were able to walk to the center of the square, which was dry.  The roads are built in angles so the water flows to the sewers in the edges.  I wish I would have seen the bridge in the beginning and not gotten my shoes wet!

{FLOOD}

The next morning it was raining again so we got out right of Venice right in time.