Italy Post 2: Venice

Venice

We left Milan and boarded a 2 hour train ride to Venice. We arrived in Venice on a rainy Thursday afternoon.  The previous few days had been very rainy so some of the streets and canals in Venice were flooded.  It made navigating interesting and a cool experience.  We walked a few blocks to our hotel and started getting settled in. 

For those of you who don't know, Venice is a city in Northeastern Italy.  It is made up of 118 small islands separated by canals and joined by bridges. It is known for it's unique and beautiful setting, it's architecture, and its artwork.  

Our first night in Venice was very rainy and wet. We found a DELICIOUS place off a small piazza to have dinner and coffee.  After that, we walked around Venice a bit just to explore.  We returned back to our hotel , cold and a little wet, already thinking Venice was beautiful.

Our First Night in Venice was rainy and cold but beautiful. 

Our B&B from the Outside!
(A few days later when the sun decided to come out) 

Cozy and Nice Inside! 

We had breakfast brought to our room every morning! 

Delicious! 

We saw the typical Venetian tourist attractions over the next few days such as Piazza San Marco,  San Marco Basilica, the Doge's palace, the Rialto and Accademia bridges.  We also saw some lesser know attractions such as the Venetian Naval Museum and a huge, beautiful park.  Our favorite times in Venice were just wandering through the different neighborhoods, getting slightly lost, and seeing all that Venice had to offer.  

The Doge's Palace

The Doge's Palace is a palace built in Venetian Gothic style which used to be the home of the Doge of Venice (the supreme authority of Venice). The rooms inside are astoundingly beautiful and numerous.  Each is decorated with such detail it blew us away. In the palace are the rooms that the Doge actually lived in, the institutional chambers including a room for the council, the senate, waiting rooms, courtrooms, etc.  Also inside the palace is the prisons.  It took forever just to simply wander all the rooms in the palace. 

I think my favorite part of the palace was the old and new prisons and the famous "Bridge of Sighs".  For those of you who are unfamiliar with this, the bridge of sighs is a bridge built in 1612 that connected the courtrooms to the prison.  It was named to represent the sighs of the prisoners who passed through to serve their sentence as they looked out the windows one last time at the canals of Venice. 

Inner Courtyard of Doge's Palace

View from the "Bridge of Sighs"

My hubby on his way to "prison".  Bridge of Sighs. 

Front view of Doge's Palace

Saint Mark's Basilica

Next door to the Doge's Palace is the famous St. Marks Basilica.  This is by far Venice's most famous church.  It is decorated in Byzantine style.   I could go on and on about the architecture but since I actually know very little about architecture I'll let you look it up if you want to know more about it.  I was most impressed by the fact that the entire inside of this church is gold mosaics.  It is absolutely amazing.  I can't imagine how long it would take to decorate a building of this size that way.  

Another thing we thought was intriguing about St. Marks is the famous Greek Horses.  The horses of St, Marks were installed on top of the basilica in 1736.   The original 4 horses are now on display inside the basilica where you can watch as they are restored and kept looking nice. Outside there are now 4 replica horses. 

Hubby and I at St. Mark's Basilica

Piazza San Marco

Naval Museum 

One day while we were wondering around Venice we happened upon their naval museum.  It was open for another hour so we decided to head inside and see what it was all about.  The naval museum is owned by the Venetian navy and is in close proximity to the Naval Arsenale.  We only had time to see the main building of this museum which took up 5 floors with 42 rooms.  We saw some pretty unique things inside and learned a lot about Venice's rich naval history.  

So... I took like 2 pictures of the Naval Museum...this is one of them :)

Other adventures

We of course, saw many, many more things in Venice.  We found a favorite spot to sit, people watch, chat with Jay on Skype, and drink cappuccino's.   We ate some amazing food and walked 10 or more miles a day exploring Venice.  We didn't ride a gondola but we did take a ride on a Vapparetto through the Grand Canal.  

Vaparetto Ride

We walked over the Rialto bridge, which is one of the 4 bridges that cross the Grand Canal.  The Rialto bridge is the oldest of the 4.  We shopped at some souvenir shops there and bought a few things to bring home with us.  My favorite souvenir is a necklace with a Murano glass pendant on it.  

Rialto Bridge

Accademia Bridge

I wish I could have blogged while we were in Venice because you would have had much greater details on all we did.  For now, enjoy the little info I've given you and the pictures!  We had a blast and there is no other place in the world quite like Venice.  

San Marco

Venetian Ambulances :)

Yes, this really happens a LOT in Italy!! Love it!! 

I told you I thought Venice was romantic didn't I?......

Grand Canal at Night!!
Buona Notte Venice!



PS.  I am realizing as I do these blogs that James and I both have photos on our phones that I'm not using at all. Some that are far better than the ones I've chosen here so... I may have to do another photo blog post later. For now, stay tuned for when I blog about the ROME portion of our trip.  

Italy Post 1: Milan

James and I had the opportunity of a lifetime in May when we vacationed in Italy (just the 2 of us!!!!) for 2 whole weeks!  It has always been on the top of my bucket list to visit Italy.  Something about the history, the food, the romance, has always beckoned me.  So we took the opportunity and went.

We started our trip in Milan.  We flew from Kansas City to Chicago. Chicago to Frankfurt. Frankfurt to Milan.  Then we walked about a mile to our hotel.  At this point, we had been awake for approximately 40 hours and were exhausted. So we took a 4 hour nap and then headed out to explore and find some dinner.

We spent 2 days in Milan. Milan is famous for its vast historical and modern sights. One of our favorite sights was the Duomo, one of the biggest and grandest Gothic cathedral in the world.  We were overwhelmed and awed by the sheer size and details of this ancient building.  The Duomo took almost 6 century to complete (construction began in 1386) and is the 5th largest cathedral in the world.  I'll try not to overwhelm you with photos but this building is a sight to behold.  Our favorite sights are from on the roof of the Duomo among the pinnacle and gables looking out over Milan.

Another cool sight was right next store to the Duomo, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, an ancient and glamorous arcaded shopping gallery.  We didn't buy anything here but it was neat to walk around and take in the architecture of this beautiful building. Take a look and pretend you are there.  

 

 

  
I think my favorite evening in Milan was when we walked over to a huge park and saw the Castello Sforzesco.  The sun was setting, the park was serene and beautiful and the medieval castle was breathtaking.  Walking around here with my husband was relaxing and romantic. 

The castle was named after Francesco Sforza who transformed it into a ducal residence in 1450. But it's origins date back to the second half of the 14th century. During the 16th and 17th century it was a major military fortress in Europe. The castle was actually taken over by Napoleon and partially destroyed by the French during part of its history. 

 

We saw some fancy shops, ate some fabulous foods, checked out a few more churches and walked a lot more around Milan.   Then we headed on for Venice and Rome both of which blew us away even more. Stay tuned as I continue catching up with my blog and post about both of these places.  :)

Packing, House Hunting, and Travel

 Packing

On  a rainy Monday morning, April 15th, we met our movers at our POD storage unit to begin the process of unpacking and repacking our belonging for our PCS (permanent change of station) from Hawaii to Fort Campbell.  We hadn't seen our belonging in a year and a half and it was fun to see it all again momentarily before it got re-packed. It was a smooth day and our movers worked hard and were very friendly. We were really pleased with them!   

Jay hung out with us at our POD that day. He was supposed to go to a friends house but the poor family all got the stomach bug the day before!! So he tagged along and actually behaved himself VERY well.  He played on our couches until they were packed and made a fort with a piece of cardboard.  He even brought that cardboard home with us for our last two days in Hawaii!  I'm not sure why we buy kids toys....

All in all the packing went as smoothly and quickly as we could have hoped for.  If all our belonging arrive at Fort Campbell  in one piece, I would say that this was a WONDERFUL move! 

If you look really closely...
Jay is under the "box tent" on the couch!

Mommy and Jay took a trip to a nearby store and got some Chocolate!!

House Hunting

On April 17th, we said our last aloha to Hawaii.  We boarded an overnight flight to Salt Lake City and then on to St. Louis, MO.  Jay did a great job sleeping a total of 6 hours out of the 8 hours total flight time.  He is a good little traveler!

In St. Louis, we met my family with our car that had been stored at their house.  After eating lunch with them,  we drove the 6 hours to Ft. Campbell, KY.  The next day we began our house hunt in and around Clarksville, TN.  We had a list of houses we were very interested but when we got to our Realtor's office we learned that half of them were already sold.  So, we looked at the remainder of the houses on our list that day.  We went home disappointed, especially after learning the one house we actually liked was an estate sale.  To be approved our offer would have to go through 7 parties!! It could be a lengthy process and we needed to find a house in the next 2 days.  It wasn't an option for us. 

We re-grouped that night and came up with another list of houses we wanted to see. The next day, we got at it.  To our great joy,  we found our future home!!  

Our new house is a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath house with a basement and a 3 car detached garage.  It sits on a 1.6 acre lot!  We are very happy with it.  We have plans to remodel the kitchen and paint a few rooms but all in all....it's PERFECT! 

Our first place!!

Travel

Besides our flight and drive to Fort Campbell we've also been around MO visiting family.  Last week, we saw Alisha's family in Columbia.  This week we are with James' parents near Kansas City and later this week, we will visit James' brother and sister in Wichita, KS.  We are a little sick of living out of suitcases but we are loving the time with family.  We also better stick with it a while longer because we have a lot of  travel left before we will be settled in our new home! 

James and I will head to ITALY next week!! 

When we get back my little sister will get married!! 

So many exciting things are happening so stay posted for pictures of Italy and a beautiful wedding among other things! 

Getting ready to get on the plane at the Honolulu Airport!

Freezing in Clarksville....he didn't even take
off his hat to have lunch! 

Shopping at Trader Joe's in St. Louis

Enjoying Stephen's Lake Park with daddy
in Columbia!