Checked in

Walking through St. Mark's Square

Old school style check in and keys at our hotel—which was lovely & quaint

Gimme an espresso and let's get exploring.

Eight hours and four movies later, I had finally touchdown in Venice (eeeep!)

Oddly enough I did not feel like I was far from home—in fact I felt like I had just arrived home.

It took all my will power and might to refrain from jumping up and down on my seat (the little boy in the center isle had the right idea)—so I just held in all my excitement and giddy that I had finally made it to my homeland for the first time.

My mom and I staggered sleepily and disheveled out of the airport and headed for the Vaporetto (water bus) to bring us over to San Marco where our hotel was—about an hour later church spires, bridges and   the dome of St. Mark's Basilica were all right there in front of me calling my name, "Alex! Welcome to Venezia! Come on and explore!"

A quick shower, nap and outfit change and we hit the streets and didn't stop until sunset—wellll we did stop for espresso and gelato, but I mean when in Italy, that doesn't count.

Luckily our hotel was only two bridges away from the Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square), the Doge's Palace and the Basilica—the photos above are all from the square that day and one of the 420 bridges in Venice.

Our goal was to cover as much ground as we could in the two short days we had—

we wanted to see it all and just get lost in the old, quaint, beauty that Venice is known for.

I'd say we did our job justice—we started each day at 7 am with breakfast at our beautiful & picturesque hotel, then we were off for a day full of walking and wandering the amazing city built on canals. 

-Alex