Ahhh, Venice!

Good Morning Dear Family and Friends!

First, I want to thank all of you for your wonderful messages and wishes. It means a lot to us to have so much love and support from our friends and family. We've talked about all of you this entire trip and wished there was a way that we could bring you along with us. I guess our blog is our best attempt. Although we are concocting plans to rent a big villa in Tuscany for all of us, or a few cabins in Switzerland, or... :-)

After a very long and hard travel day (11 hours from our hotel in Sorrento to our hotel in Venice), we were finally able to relax and enjoy the magic of this city. I have to say that Venice is the coolest place that we've been to. I thought that it was one big island, surrounded by one canal. But it is actually hundreds of little tiny islands with hundreds of canals. So around almost every corner is a bridge or a canal to look at. It's so amazing! Also, the streets are really narrow alley ways that twist and turn, so it's fun to wander around and not really know where you are going.

We love our hotel. It has marble floors and marble tiles on the wall (I have a new and deep appreciation for marble since visiting the quarries). All of the furniture is antique - my mom would love it! And, best of all, we have air conditioning, which was a nice surprise because in our confirmation e mail they said that all of the rooms with airconditioning had already been booked. I haven't mentioned before that the one major draw back for me in Italy has been the mosquitoes. They were worst in Cinque Terre, where we had no a.c. and had to sleep with the windows open, and bad in Sorrento when we would go out to dinner. They leave Eric alone for the most part, but they like to chew on my arms, legs and face when I'm distracted. Ugh! So, hopefully I can avoid those little buggers here.

Anyway.... Venice is so magical at night. There was a full moon, and lots of gondollas on the water. In our aimless wandering, we walked into St. Mark's Square, which is incredible beyond description. We will take pictures during the day to post. It was this huge square filled with amazing architecture and tons and tons of people. There were a few different musical quartets (pianist, violinist and other instruments) playing classical music, and people were randomly dancing in the square. So, of course, we joined in. It was very romantic. The square is lined with shops, so it was fun to window shop and compare the price of Murano glass (very famous and made here), and try to find the best deals (which we realize won't be anywhere near St. Mark's Square). It was just so much fun.

Even though we tried to make it an early evening because we were so tired, it was still after 11 pm before we made it back to our room. Today we are going to wander around and see what else there is to discover in Venice. Tomorrow we have a very exciting "Secret Palace Tour" that our friend Lillian arranged for us (Thank you!!!!) This tour will take us behind the scenes of the Doges Palace, which is also located on St. Mark's Square. We are also looking forward to a romantic nighttime gondola ride that was made possible by Eric's parents (Thank you!!!) And then it's a nighttime train to Paris and back home. It's been a fabulous trip, but we are also very excited to return home. Dad - I can't wait to see what you've done with our blog. You are always so creative and thoughtful. Hope everyone is doing well!