Tuesday, September 8 ... it was time to say goodbye to Tuscany and sip our last cappuccino here. We checked out and drove the mini Cooper back to Florence. We thought we had plenty of time but we barely made our next train stop on time! We drove the car back to the car rental instead of the garage because we followed the wrong map. Mike parked the car on the side of the street and told me to get the luggage out while and that we needed to hurry! He ran inside and found the car rental employee and told him we had seven minutes to catch our train. People were behind us by now blowing their horns and asking where we are from. When I said Pennsylvania, one angry man said, "Do you do this is Pennsylvania? You need to move the car off the street and let us through." The car rental man came to our rescue and drove the car off to its right place of return. Mike and I grabbed our carry ons and prayed we would make our train ride!
We did but just in time!!!!!! We laughed at the coffee size again but we were just grateful we made our next ride!!!!
We arrived in Venice! Another new city and this time it's surrounded by water. You have to figure things out as you go! We got off the train and walked to catch a water taxi to into Venice.
Our next and final destination was Venice and we had reservations at the Hilton! High class and I knew Mike would love it here!!!! The water taxi took us right up the side of the hotel and off we went!
We grabbed lunch just down from the hotel after checking in our luggage!
This is the city of water. It's crazy how the buildings are built in the water. We walked around to explore.
We were able to check in to our room later that afternoon and our room was awesome!!!! High class and a window to open and watch the boats right outside our room!
We rested and got ready to go explore Venice. We took a water taxi across the canal and went for dinner!
Hilton had their own water taxi on a schedule that we could go back and forth from our hotel into the city. We rode a water taxi over and walked to Piazza San Marco Square. This was a massive area for tourist to walk around and eat and hear music playing on the street.
In the streets were many different shops and places to eat. We walked and walked and crossed little bridges to get from place to the next.
We had a gondola ride on our bucket list and it was amazing! Mike and I on a boat floating along the Vencie Canal!
Some have car garages and others have boats!
Stores are right along the canal and I was amazed at the clothing and candles just along the water.
We did not tour any of the big buildings inside. Instead, we walked the streets and stared at the tower and enjoyed being tourist!
Venice has a lot of leather and the bags were so cute! I got one for each of the girls!
Mike loves to put himself in settings and when he reads books he visualizes himself somewhere like that.
This was a moment for him. I was ready to go get dinner but he wanted to sit, watch people and eat chips and have a drink and take it all in.
We did find dinner and here's how. When we were in line for a gondola boat ride, there was a couple waiting in line with us. We got to talking and they were from NJ. They were also there for their anniversary trip but this was their second time in Venice. They ate at a restaurant they loved so much and invited us to join them there again that night. We didn't know what we wanted to eat but they gave us the restaurant name and off we went on our boat rides.
We walked the streets looking for a good place to eat and decided to go see if we could find that specific restaurant. We walked in and the hostess sat us down. Right next to the couple we met earlier! We laughed and had a good time! Mike loved the place!!!! It was in old train cars made into a restaurant. All older men were the waiters and the food was excellent!!!!!
Mike just loved watching the men work and serve food and make people happy!!!!
We miss the kids so much and FaceTime has been fun! We were six hours ahead of them so we always had to keep that in mind. Ashlyn and Austin were with family, cousins and at Jere and Hadassah's house while we were away!
We brought the water taxi back to the hotel and it was time for bed!
I can't wait to give these little leather bags to the girls!
