Thursday, March 25, 2010

venice

i feel so incredibly blessed. ben and i just got home from an amazing trip to italy. venice was our first stop {spent 4 days there, and then took a train to florence etc}. it was just SO neat. something that i have always dreamed of. the city of venice was AWESOME. we loved, loved, loved every minute there. it was just ben & i...so we didn't get many photo's of the two of us together, but there still is an overload of pics :). so many amazing things to see and take pictures of. it was so fun being able to just plan our days and walk around with no time schedule. amazing. that's all i can say.

here's our hotel, the 'albergo san marco'...
water, water everywhere. it was just as i had imagined. the first thing we did the morning after we got there was take a gondola ride.





right in front of the cathedral on st marks square {remember italian job? this is where the dad was in the first scene}...
we went to the top of a bell tower on a nearby island {these pics are all out of order, but oh well}...


st marks square {our hotel was a block away from here}...

these next few are of the famous bridge that crosses the grand canal...





our hotel room. very European...
the side view from our hotel window. you can see the bridge that goes over the water. i can't tell you how cool it was to basically stay right on the water...



these were in ben's pasta one night!...
ignore my rain hair :)...






ben trying to figure out where we were at :)...


this next pic is for you, amber :)...





sitting on the side of the grand canal...
the house of marco polo...

ben feeding the pigeons...



now that is one huge calzone!...

romantic gondola ride :)...
we loved all the cool narrow streets in between the water canals...
there were artists everywhere...


ben standing on the little balcony on the back of our hotel...



this was our room key. i took a picture of it because i thought it was so cool...
eating lasagna {it was so good by the way}...

we were walking around one night and came around the corner and saw this painter. so cool...





the fish market...











another one of ben feeding the pigeons...






another view from a gondola ride...

nothing like eating authentic italian pizza on the grand canal...

the square again :)...





saying goodbye to venice...
on the water taxi headed to the train station for florence :)...