"Venice: Like A Bridge Over (Un-)Troubled Water." - Venice, Italy

Venezia, Italia - This little island was absolutely precious, even the second time visiting it. We arrived by train on the actual island of Venice itself, so we caught a bus off to the Mestre part of Venice to check into our Bed & Breakfast. We showed up a little later than planned, but luckily Giacomo (said like "Jaque-oh-mo") didn't mind. He had just finished making our beds and greeted us at the door in a black, cut-off tank top, almost-shoulder-length flippy hair, and a bit of scruff, a.k.a. the most chill dude on the planet. He was incredibly nice and helpful; he showed us to our room, showed us around the apartment, and gave us advice on what to do with our 1.5 days in Venice.

After a quick rest, we bused it back to the island and took the opportunity to just enjoy walking and try to soak in everything that surrounded us: colorful apartments sprouting out of the canals, countless bridges, ivy-covered walls, stone walkways, herds of tourists... It was a gorgeous afternoon and a perfect night. Giacomo had told us "I'd recommend just getting lost. Don't bother buying a map - even WITH a map you'll get lost!", so with that advice we merely wandered around the city. Eventually our tummies were rumbling, so we decided to sit down at Ristorante Pizzeria Dolfín. The inside of the restaurant had a very nice, fancy atmosphere, but wasn't very expensive! (This is one of the many things that I loved about Italy: everywhere you ate it looked like you were made of money, but the food was totally affordable!! The Italians are smart; they know how to do the Dining Experience right!) It was here that I had the absolute, very BEST lasagna of. my. life. (Sorry Nana!)
It had about 6 or 7 layers of fresh lasagna noodles (not as wavy as the ones we're used to in the States), a delicious tomato sauce, and a perfect mixture of sauce, cheese, and meat in between each noodle layer. I bit into it once and had to bite into it immediately after to determine if what I was tasting was truly as fantastic as it seemed! And it was! "Guys, this is seriously THE BEST lasagna I've ever had in my life. I'm going to have to break the news to my grandma when I get home. I mean, her's is good!, but this ... this is.... oh man, so great...." is what I told Mary and Caroline. So that will be a tough conversation to have when I get back...but worth it! :)

 We each had a glass of the House Red wine as well, which was a nice pairing to our meaty, red-sauce pastas and pizzas. We also spotted an attractive Italian guy across the restaurant who looked sad, eating alone, as if he had been stood up or something. We jokingly talked about walking up to him and inviting him to join us, but we never made it happen. Next time, though, for sure....

(*Mom=Mary, Mother of God;
it's an endearing and truthful name for Mary
that my friend Caroline uses and is something
that I have now come to say - We love Mom!)

We left the restaurant and made it a point to seek out some good gelato (a real "challenge" in Italy....), so we walked around some more under the night sky. As we weaved throughout the streets, we saw many statues, shrines, and paintings of Mom*! It was pretty cool that she was all around the city, being venerated and honored in random spots.
We eventually settled on a place near one of the main canals, and we just sat near the water's edge, eating our Italian treat and thinking about the craziness and awesomeness that is our lives, and of course thanking God for all of it!




After that, we headed back to our B&B around 11pm and found Giacomo still there, chilling in the "reception" area of the apartment with 2 new guests. However, he was not there the following morning when we needed to check out, which was a bit strange. Luckily we had already paid and there was no extra paperwork to fill out, so the only thing we really needed to do was leave the key on his desk. So off we went, back to the island, before our 8pm train to Florence.

The day was filled with a lot more walking (WOO! Free workout!) as we just meandered our way through the island. We happened upon the Basilica Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari church and went inside. It was a very interesting church: same style for the most part of other old, smaller-scale basilicas, but it looked as if there was a mix of politics/art and religion inside. Some of the sculptures on the walls and some of the paintings near the entrance seemed to depict something other than religion. I snapped about 5 pics before a worker approached me and said "Lady, no photo please." I hadn't even gotten to the best part of the church yet! Luckily, Mary never saw the signs and was never approached by a worker, so she was able to take better pictures. Ignorance is Bliss *sometimes*. Nevertheless, the rest of the church was filled with incredible paintings, altars, chapels, and statues, it was really incredible. (If my memory doesn't deceive me,) My favorite chapel & painting had to be the one that was all the way to the left of the main altar: It had a huge painting in which a group of apostles were gathered near the pillars of a building, discussing things and being enlightened by the Holy Spirit and whatnot, and the view could see that Mary and Jesus were in a room above them, by themselves, where Mary's Coronation took place in the most humble and beautiful way. It was so beautiful and precious, I felt as if I could actually feel a part of the love that exists between The Queen of Heaven and the Son of God. Amazing. Incredible. Words-don't-suffice.

We continued to head towards Piazza dei San Marcos and walked over the Grand Canal, checked out some shops, and got a massive pizza slice for lunch. Thick crust, pepperoni, peppers, and "sausage" (I think it might have been just a hot dog - ewww....), the length of my forearm, and as wide as both forearms put together; needless to say, it was delicious and a quick, cheap, hits-the-spot lunch. With our tummies full, we completed our trek to Piazza San Marcos. There were hundreds of tourists (and probably just as many pigeons) walking throughout the plaza, eating lunch on the sides, lining up to go into Basilica dei San Marcos, taking pictures... There was a wonderful small classical quintet playing music outside of one of the restaurants, so we listened to that for a while and watched a cute little 4-year-old girl dance excitedly with her father. We approached St. Mark's to see that there was a huge line, and not knowing how much it cost to get in or how long it would take us, we decided to not go inside so that we'd have enough time to make it to our train.
So we walked around the outer edge of one part of the island for a while, and then  we went on a gondola ride!

Only it wasn't an actual gondola ride: it was a "taxi" service that transports you from one side of the canal to the other, cost 2 Euro, and last about 40 seconds. Nonetheless, it was in an actual gondola, so I guess it still counts! One the other side of the canal, we visited  church of Santa Maria della Salute, which was also incredible.

Each chapel was so unique and beautiful, and the main altar lay at the back of the rounded church. We took pictures and then put away our cameras to go pray in front of this glorious altar and tabernacle (shown right & above). We exited and continued our roaming walk through this other part of the island. This side was a lot calmer and less tourist-y, which was a nice, relaxing change. 

 Eventually we sat down in a plaza on the steps of a building, where the plaque read "Guardia di Finanza" (Italian financial police??). There was a father and his ~4-year-old son next to us, playing with a cheap little squishy ball. We enjoyed watching him gently toss it to his son, his son excited with wide eyes and anxious to catch the ball, but then dropping it due to lack of developed hand-eye coordination. Sooo cute. After about 15 minutes, the little boy went to throw the ball back, but accidentally lobbed it straight up into a flower plant hanging off the ledge of one of the building windows. His dad smiled and waited for his son to figure out what had happened. At first, he looked at us, so we shook our heads and showed him our empty hands. 10 seconds later, a frown appeared across the little boy's face as he began to cry and run to his dad, realizing what had happened. His dad grabbed him and sat him upon his knee, consoling him for the duration of his 30-second sadness. What a precious moment. Soon he was back to laughing and giggling with his dad. And soon after that, some dude popped his head out of the door and said "Um, you speak English?" "Yes...." we replied. "Okay, you cannot sit here. You have to leave." Aw man! "Okay, sorry! Grazie." The father and son had to leave as well. And with that we went back to our meandering adventure.  

We headed back toward the center of Venice to catch our train to Florence. It was sad that we only had 1.5 days in the petite, tranquil island of Venice, where the bridges are many and the water is plenty (dirty) and un-troubled. However, it was going to be nice to be in Florence for 3 nights and not have to worry about constantly unpacking and re-packing every day. So with that, we headed south to continue our Spring Break / Holy Week adventures! 

Grazie, Venezia! Arrivederci! Ciao!