Today was our first full day in Venice and what can I say. Venice is filled with charming little shops located within narrow windy sidewalks.

After breakfast, we thought we would try and find our meeting place for our Venice in One Day Walking Tour. We started out a little early (about 9:30am) and thought if we got lost, we would still have enough time. We actually had no problems finding our way and ended up at St. Mark’s Basilica. The outside is amazing with such detail and color; we couldn’t imagine what the inside would look like.

After spending a little time walking around, we thought we would wait at the meeting place which was right by the Giardini ex Reali (Gardens). While Stacy walked around and took pics, I just sat and took it all in. The pigeons started coming in as well as the sparrows and I decided to buy a box of crackers and feed them. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I love the animals, and really, this was fantastic. Poor Stacy was not having as great a time as me, however, she did pick up the occassional cracker and feed it too them. They were flying up and feeding directly from my hand…Stacy was freaking out. I tried to convince her of trying it, but she would have nothing of it.

Finally, we were able to begin our tour and our guide (who was VERY pregnant), guided us around a small part of Venice telling us a little history. The Tour was fantastic and our guide, amazing. I am surprised at how much passion they have when telling their stories about Venice. This tour was even better as it was all in English. Also, I just wanted to point out that our guide could not take us inside St. Mark’s as it was flooded…apparently the water was very high due to the tide and since the Basilica is sinking, it floods every now and again. Our plan was to come back in the next day to check it out.

When the tour ended, we were starving and thought it best to grab lunch. Included in the walking tour was a boat tour and that was going to be starting in a few hours. Our guided pointed out a few restaurants and we decided to have lunch at one of them…both of us ordered Lasagne – which was only the BEST Lasagne either of us has ever eaten. It was 10 layers of goodness that we both ate in silence…man it was good.

After lunch, we walked around a little more and headed back to the meeting place again for our boat tour. We again arrived early and had some time to feed the pigeons. This time, Stacy got up the nerve to have them eat out of her hand. Now for those of you who know Stacy, this was a BIG thing. I posted pics for proof.

The boat tour was another fantastic moment and our guide showed the same passion. We drove down the Grand Canal while she pointed out some of the buildings. We saw the oldest building in Venice, which was build in the late 900s. We then cruised a little in some of the smaller canals while we had Processo.

After the boat tour, Stacy wanted to find Harry’s bar (the place where Bellini was invented), which we did but will return the next day, and she was looking for a specific book store, which we didn’t find. As Stacy would like to say, we were ‘exploring’…but really, we got totally lost and it was getting late. All we were doing was walking around in circles…and what do we do when that happens???…we eat Gelato. But seriously, we couldn’t find our way back. We had to ask directions a few times and finally, after what seemed like hours, we found the B&B.

We told Lorenzo (our host) about our day and how we fed the pigeons and his response was….’oh no, that is forbidden’. It is like around a 100E fine if you are caught, so the question is – what do I do with the other bag of crackers I bought???

It was an actioned packed day…a great day. Tomorrow we head to Burano/Murano to check out how glass is made…sounds like it will be another great day.

Selena