Venice

We loved all of Italy... and each city had different things about it that we liked, but I loved Venice. I had heard things like it was overrated or too touristy, but I loved it. Venice and Cinque Terre were definitely my favorites from the trip. Our favorite thing about Venice was the off the beaten path stuff... wandering around the back canals and alleyways. So quaint, cute and picturesque. 

Here's a glimpse of what we saw and did in Venice...

Doge's Palace and the side of St. Mark's Basilica

 Chad with St. Mark's Basilica in the background

 Bridge of Sighs

 St. Mark's Square

 view from the famous Rialto Bridge

 we walked in a grocery store one day and were just amazed at all of the choices of food and things we hadn't seen in a while. Chad loved looking at all of the meat... we stood in this section for a few minutes :)

 we did buy a block of provolone as a snack... oh how we love and had missed cheese

 One of our favorite things to do in each city was get some food to-go and then find a place to have a picnic. It was wayyyyy cheaper than restaurants and the food was still delicious! 

 I loved this little courtyard and drinking fountain right next to our hotel. It took Chad and I a little while to get use to filling up bottles and drinking right from the tap. We were nervous about it and just didn't trust it. 

 Our awesome hotel was on one of the less busy canals a few away from the Grand Canal (It's the one on the left with the red awning). I loved all the bridges and waterways. I just think it's the neatest thing. 

 pasta!

 Rialto Bridge

 this was probably our favorite cannoli we ate our entire time in Italy... delicious

 This was another one of our dinner picnic views...

 and as I mentioned before, we ate a lot of gelato. The picture of the gelato below was probably our favorite gelato our whole trip. It was from a little shop that we ate at several times while in Venice.  

Next up... Cinque Terre!