Today was quite the exploration day. To begin our stay we decided to explore the land, locals style. So of course we had to get on boat. They have these things which are basically the water equivalents of New York City taxis. You get on at one spot and you can travel down the canals all the way from one end to the other. We decided to hope on at the stop near our apartment and ride it all the way to the very tip, well as far as they would let us go. It was amazing to just ride down the canals and see the different levels of water damage on all the houses. There were even some crazy old historical buildings that used to house the Venice royalty. Overall I wish I could have just stayed on the boat all day. But sadly we had reached the mouth of the canals and descended upon land.
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| Smaller Canal View |
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| View from the water |
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| View down the canal |
As we got off around lunch time we decided to hunt for Pizza, obviously, but instead found a little awesome park in which I took a trip back to my younger childhood. In this park they had the coolest miniature zipline which of course my Brother and I had to try. That was pretty interesting considering I picked that day to wear a dress.
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| Swingin' |
Warning: About to talk about toilets again...
Toilets in Europe are apparently very interesting to me because I am yet again going to mention the bathroom system of Venezia.
After our park detour of course my Mother and Brother needed a little bathroom break. So we looked on a map to see if we could find one but nah, why would thy put restroom locations on a tourist map? What a crazy idea right? Anywho we eventually found a couple bumper stickers(yes, I'm not kidding) that had WC (water closet) written on them with an arrow. So we followed the arrows. And we followed them. And we kept following them and following and following. Catch my drift? Basically we walked half the island before actually finding one. During that search, Kody had booked it to about 50-60ft in front of us. So when he eventually finds the bathroom and takes a sharp right down a hidden alley..of course we freak out a bit. So we go down a few streets and find the bathroom ourselves and was just gonna walk in. BUT NO it costs 1.50 euro. I swear! Toilet prices! Ridiculous! Eventually we find Kody and carry on with our trip.
Our next stop is the famous Piazza San Marco. The cool thing about the Piazza is that during high tide it gets completely covered in water just like the rest of the island, but people bring out their boats and canoes and just float. It's oh so pretty in pictures and I wish I could have been there to experience it. Instead Kody and I, being the big kids that we are, tell Mom and Pop to find a shady place to sit and we would go pizza hunting. After around 30 different turns in the back alleys of the Piazza we eventually found a little hole in the wall to buy pizza from. And let me just mention this man was THE HAPPIEST Italian I had ever met. He was just overly excited to present me with the newly baked pizza and Kody and I could not get over his joyfulness.
Next we got some gelato before going inside the church. After the church my mother and I come outside to see Kody and my dad surrounded by a group of Bambino's aka a elementary school group.
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| So many kids |
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| Ice cream time |
After that we of course had to go get more gelato. This time at Cafe Eden.
Our next stop happened to be Designer Street of Venezia. There was every kind of designer name label you could imagine. Some like Prada, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton were the largest. Some even had multiple stores, one for men, women, purses, kids. It was insane
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| Prada Purses |
Our last stop that we stumbled upon was an outdoor gallery that had painted images of American icons except they were screwed up in a violent or inappropriate way. Here are a few of the G rated ones.
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| Lonely Robin |
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| Puking Spiderman? |
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| Playboy Hitler |
For the nights end we found an empty dock and sat with our feet in the water while watching the sunset and boats hurry past. Finally pasta for dinner. What a beautiful way to end our first night
