Third Stop: Venice, Italy

Today's post is about Venice, Italy. I looooooved Venice!

This is a picture I took of the city just as the ship was pulling into the port area of Venice.
Do you notice the green domed roof over on the left side of the picture?



It is the same roof that was in "my painting." It's hard to tell from this picture, but the domed roof that you see is green in "my painting."



This picture is of me just as I got off of the ship in Venice.
(I will probably use the word Venice numerous times....I apologize...It was just so surreal to actually be in Venice.)



Melissa and I were VERY excited to be going to Venice for our gondola ride; so excited that we were having a lot of fun on the ferry ride into Venice.
(Just ignore us in this next picture. Thanks!)




The sun was just setting when we arrived in Venice for our gondola ride.



It was so beautiful!



Did I mention that we were excited to be in Venice?

We had just gotten in the gondola when this next picture was taken. We were pinching ourselves. Melissa looked at me and said, "We are in a gondola in Venice!" And I would look at her and say, "I know! Can you believe it?"



Here we are starting off with our gondola ride. It was unbelievable. The sun had just set, and the weather was perfect.



The couple that you see in the picture with us were so lovely. They were from New Zealand, and they told us they were on holiday. Doesn't "on holiday" sound so much nicer than "on vacation?" (I loved how they talked; they had the most beautiful accents.)

Riding through the different canals in Venice was like something out of a movie. The gondoliers sang to us as we peeked in windows that we would float by. We saw restaurants, stores, and people in their houses. Some of the people would wave at us as we floated by.

The gondoliers had the most amazing voices. Since they sang in Italian we had absolutely no idea "what" they were singing, but it didn't matter because it "sounded" so beautiful. They could have been singing about the algae growing on the bottom of the boats, and it wouldn't have mattered. It was very romantic! I wished so much that Shannon could have been with us. He would have loved it.

For the first part of the ride through Venice we were in very narrow canals, so the gondolas were in single file order. But towards the end of the ride we came out into the Grand Canal, and they put our gondola beside four or five others. So we were all side by side for a little while, and the gondoliers played music and sang some more songs for us. Their harmony was unbelievable. They were just standing in the gondolas singing to us.

I am completely somewhat clumsy, so I could not imagine the balance that it took to stand up in a moving gondola. I had a lot a little bit of trouble just getting in the gondola, so I cannot imagine having to stand the whole time....much less sing or play a musical instrument. Let me just say that if I had to stand up in the gondola, we would have all been in the water.

Well, after our gondola ride, we took another ferry back to the ship.
It was the most amazing night! It was everything that Melissa and I had hoped it would be.

When we entered our cabin for the night, we were greeted by these towel animals...Aren't they cute? Do you know "what" they are?...We weren't exactly sure; we thought maybe they were walruses.



We also spent the next day in Venice, and I will tell you more about that next time.