A magical day in Venice

Even with the tourist traps, the crowds, the endless souvenir shops and the occasional yukky smells, Venice just draws you in. we took the train from Noale into Venice and, within an hour of arriving, I was conducting all of my transactions in Italian. Never mind that all the people speak English, they do love it when you speak to them in their own language! And it's such a beautiful language. And the people are so friendly and so full of life!
 
  My absolute favorite thing about Venice is getting lost on the little small streets, going nowhere in particular. My second favorite thing is the smell of the leather stores....intoxicating! My third favorite thing is window shopping at the gourmet food shops. I love seeing all the meats and the different pastas, made from so many colors! I know the Murano glass is everywhere but it's truly beautiful and after a few stores, I start imagining that I'd wear it with everything. I also quickly imagine that I would regularly make use of a purple sparkly Carnivale mask with feathers on it. Wouldn't I use that at least once a week? Ha ha! There were three things I wanted to do while in Venice: 1. Visit Piazza San Marco 2. Go on a gondola ride 3. Eat a cannoli. We accomplished the first two, but were too full from lunch to manage the cannoli. The gondola ride was fantastic-although a bit expensive, it was worth it! We had a great gondolier - Fabio - who told us about the city, the buildings and the architecture (he is also an architect but can't make any money doing that so he primarily works as a gondolier) while he safely navigated us through the canals. We are all tired from a long day in the sun and on our feet. Soon it will be time for some pasta and maybe a drink... Posso avere un bicchiere di vino rosso per favore? Buona notte mi amici!