I had the best experience this past weekend. An experience of a life time! I went to Venice, Italy during it's annual Carnevale festival. I arrived very early on Sunday morning and left late Monday night and saw so many wonderful things in the time I was there. I'm not going to say a lot because I have a lot of pictures, so you should read the captions and they will explain. And for those of you that have been trying to comment, I figured out the problem so your comments should save now. This was the first day, February 3rd.
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| This was one of the first churches I saw in Venice. I was so lucky because the weather was perfect. A little cold, but absolutely beautiful. |
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| It seemed to me that pretty much all the canals looked fake. Like we were on a set for a movie. |
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| The architecture is also quite beautiful. There is no where else in the world that you can find a place like this! |
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| For those of you that don't know, one of things that Venice is known for is their glass. Well to be more specific, they are known for the island just off Venice Island, called Murano Island. They make such beautiful glass. I saw these while walking along the grand canal. Just decorations outside a restaurant. Hand blown decorations. |
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| I came across this bridge while wandering around. It was filled with locks. It only took a second to realize that is was a bridge of love locks. They were all specially made by people in love with names and dates, etc. I can't wait to return one day with my own love and put a lock on the bridge. |
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| There is one main canal that runs through Venice. Give you one guess as to it's name. The GRAND CANAL! Who'd a thunk it. Anyway, it really is quite large. It pretty much zig zags through the entire city. |
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| This was one lock in particular that I liked. Simple yet full of love. It is things like these that reassure me that there is happiness in this world. |
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| And then there was this one. The piazza was so jam packed full of people, you could hardly move. It was insane!!! |
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| This was a view of the Piazza San Marco. The first view anyway. |
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| There were even people on the balconies of the Basilica of San Marco. |
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| There will be many more to come, but this was one of the first photos that I took of someone in costume. The costumes were just out of this world! |
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| Even the babies had costumes! I love the face of the one in the pink. She was really unhappy. |
After all our walking and what not, Rose and I went to our hotel, which was on an island just next to Venice, Venice Lido, because it was much less expensive. If only I had known that the hotel was about 1.5 miles from the waterbus stop. We walked all the way there before we realized there was a bus. We got up the next day, had breakfast at the hotel and then took the waterbus to Murano Island to watch the glass blowing. I warned you there were a lot of pictures.
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| On the way back from Murano, we basically got a tour of all of Venice. On the map, this part is considered the "ghetto". I want to live in this ghetto for sure. Please can I live in this ghetto. |
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| So this was probably my favorite sculpture from Murano. I'm not sure if you can see it well, but it's two bodies together as one. It's beautiful. |
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| And then there was the couple taking their wedding pictures along the canal. It was pretty funny, I was on one side of the boat and all of a sudden I hear, "WEDDING PICTURES" and I went running to the other side where Rose was to see this couple! SO PRECIOUS!!! |
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| It just amazes me that through all these years, such beauty still remains. |
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| And then there's me on the waterbus on the grand canal. |
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| We had seen this church from a long ways away the day before but it wasn't until we took the waterbus that we were able to get close enough to get a good picture. How beautiful is this! |
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| I just had to get a picture of myself with some of the ornate costumes. |
And so the costumes begin!!!
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| This guy was just hanging out along the water, waiting for people to take his picture. It really was an extraordinary costume. |
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| This guy was just awesome! I couldn't tell it was a man from the back, that's how well dressed/skinny/gay he was. |
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| A picture with the grand canal in the background. It's kind of funny, the last time I was in Venice with my mom in 2010, I was wearing the exact same jacket. Sometimes, I love the fact that I never grow! |
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| I just thought this was a great place to take a picture. It was beautiful lighting and the bridge, I mean come on, how can you beat that. |
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| And one last picture of the grand canal as the sun was setting. What a beautiful city! |
My next adventure is... FLORENCE!!!
I leave on Thursday night. Expect to see some pictures when I get back on Sunday. I can't wait to see Michelangelo's David!
