Day 3 ~ Venice

We took the hotel shuttle into Venice this morning since we are staying on the mainland about 15 minutes from the city. We began the day with breakfast and some simple wandering around, stopped at a few shops, took photos, and enjoyed the beautiful little details that abound in this amazing city.

Venice Garden 

Vines on an old building

We stopped for a quick lunch in Campo Santo Stefano then headed out for a gondola ride, Sarah’s highlight of the day. We went across the Grand Canal and through some of the smaller canals west of Saint Mark’s and it was incredible. Our Gondolier was friendly and funny and spoke enough English to give us some history of Venice and tell us about all of the interesting sights.

Us on the Gondola

Gondola approaching a Venice bridge

The Galleria Dell’ Academia was right around the corner from where we were dropped off so we decided to visit there next. They were running a temporary exhibit on sketches by Leonardo Da Vinci with lots of interesting details about his life and work that are rarely seen. His paintings and final inventions are widely publicized but this gave a glimpse into all of the preparation required for him to produce all of that amazing work. By the time we came out it was almost sunset so we headed towards St. Marks Square.

Venetian spires at sunset

From there we wandered north toward the Rialto Bridge, grabbing some dinner on the way. After dinner we checked out the Rialto Bridge we made a few final purchases and wound our way back through the maze of canals and pathways to catch the bus to the hotel after a fun, long and tiring day.

Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge at night

Happy Halloween and good night!