Cento di questi giorni!

Congratulazioni to our recent graduate! And buon viaggio! When we lament all of the time Max spends traveling, we temper it with the promise of fabulous vacations using accrued miles and points + decided family time in Italy would be a perfectly phenomenal way to reward the hard work + accomplishments of 13 years of homeschooling!

 

Max was already in Europe on business so met us at FCO to head straight to the train station to head north to Venice.

Mass transit, from trains to buses on land and on water, was so convenient and reliable.

Especially when we realized our train tickets were for our own little room with snack and beverage service included.

At this point we'd been up for ~30 hours and got a little loopy.

And the crash came hard.

And then we were in Venice! We didn't stay in the old city + so had the added adventure of packing into a very crowded, but punctual + short, bus to the edge of the Grand Canal each morning whereupon we'd find the appropriate (and sometimes completely incorrect) stop for the vaporetto, or public waterbus. Honestly, the system was pretty straightforward, but in the extreme heat and overwhelming crowds, I admit I didn't quite get how it all worked until late on day 4.

Sometimes you'd get the coveted shady seats with a view.

And sometimes you were in the direct sun, temps approaching 100, with the boat engine filling every space in your body with its shudders and growls.

This is taken from the vaporetto looking back at the floating bus stations, some for buses up the canal, some that went around the circumference of the island to get to the stop, and some that went to completely different islands. 

And then we were in the labyrinth of Venice

We embraced the fine art of getting lost - including alleys abruptly ending in canal water with the only option turning back.

We adored the tiny ones as they were much less crowded and we often didn't have exact end goals in mind. (Except when trying to make the last bus after midnight - which did make wrong turns and vaporettos taken in the wrong direction decidedly less charming.)

We appreciated seeing small DHL + FedEx boats, floating vegetable stands, cranes on barges, store stock deliveries. It is easy to see Venice as a magical tourist land, but we enjoyed seeing how a water city actually functions, too.

This was only day 1 - and each day Luca and I bet on how many photos the other had taken. He was usually slightly ahead with 400 - 450, but I was never far behind! The next post will have more of the stunning beauty of the city, the glass island of Murano, the colorful island of lace, Burano, the historic city at night as well as a quick trip to the cemetery island.

There were many, many (many,many,many) stairs.

Back on the mainland of Venice we went looking for pizza and stumbled on a fort from the early 1800s that also contains a impressive library, art sculptures, and a modern cat sanctuary.

Miles of walking later, we stumbled back to our hotel room where we promptly fell asleep still chewing an authentic Italian pie.

Sogni d'oro. ZZzzzzzzz