Italy Trip Part 2: Venice

After Milan, my parents and I took the train to Venice. In all honesty, I thought I wouldn’t like Venice. I thought all the water would be smelly (I’m not really a water person, much less a canal person hehe). I thought it would be old and musty. Whoa, was I wrong.

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Venice was BEAUTIFUL.


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Everything was ornate, with old-world charm

I LOVED Venice. The water wasn’t dirty at all. It was a clear greenish-blue, and the place was actually clean. And it was gorgeous: the colorful buildings, the little streets with the bridges for the gondolas, the bright sky and the clear water. Venice was majestic and I felt like we were in a completely different world (we were!). It was also one of the most romantic places I’ve ever been to – there were couples everywhere I looked! I wish the boyfriend was there with me – we’d walk along the grand canal, listen to all the string quartets playing at Piazza San Marco, ride a gondola, eat gelato hehe.  But my parents are amazing travel companions!

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my wonderful parents on top of Ponte Dei Sospiri

Ponte Dei Sospiri, or the Bridge of Sighs, is the most popular bridge in Venice. People say this was the last view of freedom that prisoners saw on their way to jail, and they often sigh as they say goodbye to Venice, thus the name. People also say that if you ride a gondola with your lover and kiss under this bridge, you will love each other forever ♥ I like this description of the bridge much better than the origins of its name…

We had dinner at one of the restaurants right along the Grand Canal, and I had one of the best meals ever: calf’s liver. I’ve always loved liver, but I don’t get to eat it often. I remember reading Julie Powell’s book Cleaving and she described liver as one of the sexiest things you’ll ever eat. I never would’ve thought of this myself, until I read that and tasted the liver in Venice. It was divine. It was cooked Venetian style (wine, olive oil, butter, onions) and served with polenta triangles (which I wasn’t too crazy about) and drizzles of sweet olive oil:

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It’s true: liver is a magnificent, sensual dish that melts in your mouth (when cooked right!)


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my dad had the steak with balsamic vinegar


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and my mom had the seafood plate special, which was also pretty rockin’

On our second day in Venice, my parents and I went on an island tour and took a day tour of Murano, Burano and Torcello. Murano is famous for its hand-blown glass and we visited an actual factory where a skillsman did a short demo for all of us:

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this fine-looking horse figurine was stretched from a burning hot ball of glass!

Then we went to Burano, famous for its hand-made lace. The houses in Burano were so colorful:

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all the tourists came from our tour “bus” which was really a boat or a water taxi

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there were little old ladies just sewing lace, all day, every day

Then we went to Torcello, which is the oldest-populated island of Venice. We had to walk 15 minutes from the boat drop-off to get to the center, where the church and museums were. It was very hot in Torcello (actually, it was very hot in Italy the whole time we were there).

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this man provided some refreshing music

I really had a wonderful time in Venice and I’m so glad it exceeded my expectations.

On another note, since today is Father’s Day, I couldn’t let this go day by without saying something about the best dad in the whole world: mine! My dad provides me, my sisters, and my mom with everything we could possibly want, and more. He is the smartest, nicest, most hard-working, honest, dependable person I know and I am so proud to be his daughter. We have a lot of things in common and I inherited a lot of traits from him: we’re both super organized (he also keeps to-do lists!), diligent, patient, loyal, we both like making (and sticking to) plans, we’re both a little nerdy (for our Italy trip, we made an Excel spreadsheet of our itinerary – okay, maybe we’re really nerdy), and guess where I got my sweet tooth from?! My sweet dad:

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Happy Father’s Day, Daddy! I love you!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Have you ever gone on vacation expecting something different or with low expectations and was just blown away like I was with Venice?

   

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