Venice|Italy

The city of many islands: Sept. 21-23



Stop 5 of 7

Tour Day 8

Burrr! Smalls was still a little frozen from Munich. A beautiful drive through Austria was a great start to our day followed by a stop in the northern tip of Italy for lunch.
Our tiny window looking down the alley.
The warm Italian countryside welcomed us. Our bellies were starting to get antsy as we knew lots of tasty Italian food was to come!

Pizza Stop

Just as we stopped for a nice long lunch in a quaint town in Northern Italy, Smalls defrosted. Pizza, wine, and an outdoor market were a great introduction to Italy.
Walking through a lovely market to pizza
Dave and Asa did a great job making sure we all got on and off the water bus. 

Venice

Before stepping foot on the magical city of Venice, we took a ride on the water bus. We felt like locals on this crowded ride, and we loved every minute of it. 
Nancy and Tom getting their first photos of Venice

An Evening in Venice 

And we were off on our first night in Venice! We turned a corner here, a corner there, up some stairs, and back down before we arrived at Rosa Rosa.  A delicious much needed group dinner followed by a romantic gondola ride with our very own authentic musicians- we were in heaven. 
We did it! We navigated our way back to our hotel with some of our friends. 

Tour Day 9

We started our day with a grand walking tour of Venice with the wonderful Elizabetta. A couple hours with Elizabetta around Venice made us feel like we were in an outdoor museum! 
Piazza San Marco- an amazing square surrounded by beautiful architecture. 

Venetian Mask Maker

One of the last stops was visiting a Venetian mask maker. To his surprise, Tom was selected to be the mask model. Tom tried on mask after mask while I tried my best to capture every moment. 
Mask maker, mask maker, make me a mask! Tom was so happy to participate in the presentation and try on masks made by a real Venetian. 

Discovering Venice 

Good-bye Elizabetta, time to get lost exploring Venice. We visited an outdoor market filled with locals, turned some corners, ate some food, turned more corners, had gelato, and headed back to freshen up before the Interpreti Veneziani concert! 
Dave was right. It's okay to get lost in Venice.  

Date Night :)

A delicious authentic dinner per Dave and Asa's recommendations followed by the ensemble's performance of Vivaldi was the perfect way to end our last night in Venice. 
Great performance and an experience of a lifetime