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Venice, Italy

Between the months of April and October (more or less) we travel a lot and I don’t always have time to sit down and write about it despite the fact that I want to since I know we are going to forget things.  Traveling is both fun and tiring; but we know that one of the reasons we moved here is to see places that we would never be able to do otherwise.  Case in point – Chris had a business trip to Paris and I drove down with the boys on Friday night (after school) to spend the weekend.  I am thinking it’s not something we’d be able to do if we lived in the States.  

Having said that - our Italian vacation was amazing, and I don’t think I would do it justice in one little paragraph.  However, here are the highlights.  We wanted to hit all the major attractions – Venice, Florence, Rome, Pompeii, and Milan.  We also knew that we have 3 active boys who can only do churches, museums, and statues for so long.  Our solution was rather simple.  After each major city we went to the beach, so in turn our vacation was first day was in Austria where we visited Riddell glass factory (really awesome), Venice, beach day, 2 days in Florence, 3 days at the beach, 4 days in Rome, guess what comes next – yep, beach again! 

I really wanted to see Venice, I don’t know why but for some reason I always thought it would be a really cool city with all the gondolas and canals.  Certain people told me not to get my expectations up and I have to admit that Venice was not all that I imagined. Yes, canals and gondolas are everywhere and we even took a ride in one but the water is dirty!  Thankfully it wasn’t smelly but I hear that most of the time canals stink, and there is not much to do in town.  I am happy that I was prepared and read up all kinds of tips which include that fact that to get into the church there is a pretty massive line but if you check your bag around the corner from the entrance, you get to skip it.  Worked like magic.  We also wondered through the Duke Museum – the size of the rooms is massive and overwhelming but it was both home and the place where parliament took place.  



View from the top of the St. Marks Basilica

Gondola ride

Admiring the gondolas

At some point we knew that we needed food.  The ice scream on Piazza San Marco (main square) was 16 euros and I am having hard time imagining any ice cream worth that much money!  However, literally one block over is normal food with normal prices.  That was the beginning of our endless pizza and pasta Bolognese for the following 2 weeks.  So in the end I am glad we went to Venice but for me it was a place you visit once (at most twice) to check it off your bucket list.




After Venice we headed to our first Italian beach …

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