Venice, Italy!!!

On to my favorite FAVORITE part of my trip - Venice!!! My day in Venice was like a dream come true for me; I was fulfilling something I'd been wanting to do my whole life. I think I was in a daze most of the day, but I do remember it all and I remember how beautiful the city actually is. There isn't explanation for most of my pictures, mostly because I was wandering around snapping random shots of the beautifulness!

There are something like 500 bridges in Venice and the streets are a mix of actual street and canals. Unfortunately, the lower floors of the houses are starting to rot from all of the water so many of them are uninhabited, although top floors still have people living in them. Only 60,000-ish people live in Venice so it's a small city and easily walkable.

Of course we took a gondola ride (my favorite part!) and saw a gondola stop light and two gondola traffic jams. The inside of the basilica floored me with how beautiful and vast it was. It compares to nothing I had ever seen before (well, until I went to the Vatican that is). The weather was a bit chilly while we were there, but thankfully the rain in the morning didn't continue all day.

Just a sampling...












Oh and here's a picture of me with some of my new friends!