More Venice!

[I took a ton of photos.  I'm not going to post them all here.  If you'd like to see the rest of the photos, please see my whole album HERE.]

We spent the next several hours just wandering around aimlessly.  Venice is absolutely beautiful.  We had so much fun!  As we started getting hungry for dinner, we came back to our hotel to get cleaned up.  Then we went for a gondola ride and a nice dinner.  

The gondola ride was seriously overpriced and didn't last long, but it was beautiful.  And, you can't go to Venice and not get a gondola ride.  :)

The nice dinner was at a restaurant that our guidebook recommended.  Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly as "nice" as what the book had portrayed.  It was the Devil's Forest Pub.  The food was good and the service was fine, but we were hoping for a more romantic atmosphere.  Instead, we watched boxing from the 90s.  haha... it was still a wonderful night.

The clock tower.

Then it was back to the hotel and time for bed.  The next morning, we "checked out" of our hotel and left our bags at the front desk.  We wandered around the entire city the rest of the day.  And I really do mean the entire city.  We were absolutely everywhere.  And we had an awesome time.  

The view from the tower.

We went to the top of the clock tower in Saint Mark's Square.  It was what Philip had requested for Venice.  It was only 8 Euros a piece and I think it was worth it.  We could see everything.  I'd advise going early in the morning though.  It gets crowded (long lines) really quick!

Us in the clock tower.

Then we wandered around even more.  We didn't hang around St. Mark's for much longer.  It was really crowded and not what we had in mind.  Instead, we crossed back over the Rialto bridge and went to the less touristy side of Venice.  

We ate lunch at a restaurant right next to the Grand Canal.  Birds flew right up to our table and I fed them pizza crusts.  It was actually pretty cool.  :)

Then, more wandering.  You're surprised, right?  We did a TON of shopping.  I love the blown glass from Venice, so that's what I bought a bunch of people for gifts.  I got some blown glass necklaces and wine stoppers and even a clock.  

Soon, it was nightfall.  We stopped at a restaurant with tons of celebrities' photos on the wall (everyone famous who had eaten there) and it was actually delicious.  Then we picked up our luggage from the hotel and grabbed a water taxi to take us back to the train station.  Again, expensive, but so worth it.  

Then we had to wait a while.  Our train didn't leave for a bit so we just rested and waited.  You see, we planned to take the night train to Naples.  What an adventure that turned out to be.  :S