Day 8

We spent the first half of the day shopping in Florence at the leather markets, and yes, Wayne got me the purse I wanted! It was my anniversary gift...thank you Wayne!!! Really, you shouldn't have...but I'm glad you did, ha! After lunch, we went to the train staion to catch our train to Venice. We are getting to be great train travelers! I remember how confused we were the first time we did it and now we are pros! But we always end up getting there with about 5 minutes to spare. I get nervous we're going to miss it, but we always make it...nothing like a little stress before a relaxing train ride. We ended up taking the high speed train which is nice because you have reserved seats and you get there faster. This ride was about 1 1/2 hours, and I pretty much slept the whole way.

Wayne and I were both really excited about Venice because Wayne hasn't been there before (when he was studying in Rome in college, he also went to Florence, Naples, and Pisa among other places, but never went to Venice) so it was neat to be able to experience it for the first time together. As soon as we got off the train and walked out of the train station, the water was right there! It was so amazing and pretty! We took a water bus to our hotel, checked in, and then went out exploring. Wayne and I both fell in love with Venice from the very beginning! The Grand Canal is the main waterway. There are water taxis, water buses (like a huge pontoon boat) that take you all down the canal and make different stops at different locations...this is what we take a lot. And of course, the gondolas. We are going to do that tomorrow or the next day. There are also restaurants, cafes, shops, and hotels on both sides of the canal. One thing I love about Venice is that there aren't any mopeds or cars when you're walking around. So when you wander in and out of the streets and alleys away from the water, you're just walking with other people, going over cute little bridges, walking in narrow passageways in between cute buildings lined with ivy and widow boxes filled with flowers. There are shops and cafes on every little corner. And because there aren't as many "sight seeing" places as there are in Rome, we are able to just relax and stroll leisurely. It's going to be a nice way to end our trip. 

The internet connection here is so slow though so even though I have lots of other pictures, this is all I have the patience for now...will do more tomorrow.