Allison's Wonderland

Day two in Venice.

Well not really since most of our day yesterday was spent on the train. Jen and I woke up pretty early and headed downstairs for some breakfast. No sign of Creeper Creep. WHEW! I had myself a croissant, Nutella, Orange Juice and another croissant with cheese. YUM! The reviews on Trip Advisor complained that the breakfast was terrible, but honestly I thought it was good. Jen and I both pocketed a croissant for later that afternoon. This was the tradition of Whitney, Jess and I on my first visit to Europe. Just a cheap little snack. We’re smart travelers like that.  We headed to the water taxi which supposedly goes down the Grand Canal and jumped on the first boat to San Marco Piazza. After a few minutes, I realized we had gotten on the wrong boat. I think it was just all the excitement that got me confused. This boat did not go down the Grand Canal, but instead went around by all the industrial buildings. Oh well. We met a nice couple from Manchester, and I chatted it up with them. I love English people. Especially in a country where they mostly speak Italian. Once we arrived in San Marco’s, Jen and I were completely in awe. There were people absolutely everywhere, but like I said before the energy in the place was out of this world! We each got our picture with this guy who was totally dressed up head to toe. I think he might have been American, because after I got my picture he said “Thank You” in a non Italian, or British accent. San Marco’s is absolutely amazing. Jen and I braved the line in to Basilica San Marco and were again in Awe.I think that is one word to describe our whole trip. Just pure and simple “Awe”. This church was gold and black and had onion shaped domes like the famous church in Russia. So cool. Once we were finished with our 15 minute tour of the church we headed out to the main square. Like I said there were people everywhere, but I think the pigeons may have outnumbered people. I absolutely HATE pigeons. They’re just gross birds. Yucky.



We wanted to go the bell tower, but the line for that place was out the wazzoo. So we decided against it. We pulled out our Lonely Planet Italy guide and decided on the Walking Tour of Venice. We crossed probably about 60 bridges in total because the canals are everywhere. I have never been to a more unique city. There are no cars allowed because there are no streets. Only narrow walkways and narrow canals. Many of the canals do not allow motorized boats. Just the little Gondolas. The only way to get around is to walk or take a boat. Jen and I walked over Ponte deAccademia and arrived at another church. We decided on a snack break there as it was about 1:00 and we pulled out our croissants and Nutella. Perfection. While we were at the end of the little island we saw this big grass/wooden bull being pulled out into the Grand Canal. Come to find out they were going to burn it on the last night of Carnevale which was today. We so wanted to see that. We walked along the streets a little further and decided to grab some Gelato at Da Nico’s. A recommendation from Lonely Planet. I decided on Tiramisu and Jen got Cookies and Cream. We wanted to sit on the dock overlooking the Island of Lido but when we sat at one of the restaurant's tables where we ordered, we were quickly instructed that there was a Service Charge to sit. AKA RENT. Whatever…so we got up and sat down on the concrete where it was free. REBELS!

We walked all over the place and I will say there were many times where we got lost. Our Manchester friends instructed us that we HAD to get lost in Venice. Not a problem. It was fun though. In all our wandering I found two awesome pins and two way cool masks for cheap. Jen also found some, so getting lost was definitely a good idea. We saw San Rocco’s Chiesa, and Chiesa etc. We saw LOTs of churches. They’re everywhere here. We finally made it to Rialto bridge which was our ending destination. It was stunning. There were people ALL over the bridge, but there were people all over everywhere. I liked it though because it made you feel pretty safe. I found this awesome store on the San Marco side of the bridge that had amazing jewelry for a decent price. I bought myself a bracelet. I needed a good souvenir just for me! Jen and I were getting super hungry and super tired. We probably walked a total of about 4 miles. On our way we had to take picks and some drunken guy wanted to get in our picture. He reeked! He also tried to do the side boob grab while in the photo and neither Jen or I let that one fly. Weirdo. Jen and I both had pizza on the brain. We found a little restaurant close to our hotel that didn’t charge you to sit and the Pizza guys were pretty cute and flirty. Guess what the specialty pizza was for the day? Pizza with Hotdogs and French fries on top. Yuck. Did not try that. We headed back to our room and guess who we ran into in the lobby? Creeper Creeps. SCAYEE!! We booked it to our room. We each had a little nap and freshened up for the night. We wanted to experience the Carnevale night to its fullest. Little did we know what was in store.

We started our night walk to San Marco’s square. Everyone was running around in costume and just totally nuts and drunk. Jen and I were totally sporting our new masks and wore them pretty much all day and all throughout dinner. We found a cozy little restaurant named La Venezia. It would’ve been really romantic if I hadn’t of been with Jen and was with a guy. HAHA….but Jen will just have to do. We both ordered the special which was Lasagna, Chicken and veggies. It was really pretty good. I liked it. I was again, NOT impressed with the service. I felt like we were a huge burden and since we weren’t some old couple they treated us like little kids. Venice, you do not rank very high on the world’s friendliest cities. Just saying. After our three course dinner we headed outside to make the trek to San Marco’s. By this time it was about 10:30 at night and I don’t think I realized how nuts it was going to get. We started walking and then our walking group became a mob. We made it to this square where it was absolutely nuts. It looked like a movie. People were everywhere dressed in masks. I grabbed hold of my pepper spray super quick just in case. If anything had happened, how would I explain it? “Umm…officer it was the guy with the mask?” Yeah. We make it to the square and I immediately grab Jen’s hand. It seriously was like a war zone. People were throwing wine bottles and beer bottles. One grazed my foot, but thankfully didn’t break. I turn Jen towards me and ask her if she really wanted to go see the burning of the bull. We both were like, umm…nope. Not if it costs us our lives. HAHA….so we started to head back. It was nuts just trying to cross the Piazza. Like I said. War zone. We were really close to the University too, so it was a bunch of University students who were nuts. Last night of Carnevale so I guess they had to either go big, or go home. Jen and I were gonna skip. Maybe if I had been in a bigger group of people I would’ve tried to go all the way to San Marco’s, but it just didn’t seem worth it.


We didn’t want to go straight back to our Hotel either because that would’ve been super lame, so we set out to none other then Casino de Venezia. We had free tickets so why not? The place was high security. We had to check in, they had to take our picture and no cameras or coats allowed. I felt completely out of my element. We went up the second floor where there were a bunch of high rollers who were wearing tuxedos and looking quite serious. The floor was pretty much completely silent as people gambled their money away. I’d be serious too. Jen and I walked around and took in the sights. After about 10 minutes we were bored so we left. Not big gamblers here. At this point it was about midnight so we made our way back to our hotel. No Creeper Creep in sight. Thank goodness. Ahh…bed never felt so good. We were a pair of worn out little gills!