We caught a train from Florence to Venice. There were a LOT of tunnels as we made our way through the mountains. On the other side of the mountains, the view was more like Iowa/Nebraska. We played a game of Euchre – Jay and I won. We have all decided that train travel is the best.

When you get off the train in Venice, you walk out of the station and see a canal full of boat traffic. Zero cars. Zero motorcycles. Zero bicycles. Only boats. It feels like another world. Venice has always been a bucket list destination for me. We are here!!!

It took us a minute to find the Alilaguna ticket office to get our assigned water taxi, but once we got on the boat, it was SO COOL! We met our Air BNB host at another water taxi stand and he took us to the apartment.

I took a couple videos of the boat ride but they aren’t loading to the blog site. I will share them on Facebook separately.

Step one. Start laundry. We packed light (you may have noticed a lot of the same clothes – gross).

It is super foggy today so the views are not really views. We couldn’t even see the top of the bell tower at Piazza San Marco. I am hoping the fog clears a bit so we can do our Murano/Burano tour tomorrow.

All of the little alleys have shops. The Murano glass shops are all amazing. And the Carnival masks….incredible. When I booked this trip I didn’t realize that Carnival here was such a big deal. If I had, I would have flipped the trip and gone to Venice first. There are remnants of the party everywhere – confetti on the ground, decorations being taken down. And this lady.

Not sure how she fits through the alleys….

We found a restaurant to have dinner – Ostaria ai Fabbri. Shearer Party of 4 gave it 4 Thumbs Up. Lily would have given it 3 Thumbs Up for her vote if she had 3 thumbs.

It is easy to get lost here. The alleys are all small, not a lot of landmarks, and lots of people (although our Air Bnb host said it is a quieter weekend than normal). It took us a bit to find our way back to the apartment. But we made it. Phew!

The night view off the balcony in our apartment.

We are hoping that our clothes dry before morning. European laundry………*sigh*