Venezia!

Our train arrived this morning around 9:30



When we left the train station, we discovered that the vaporettos are on a one-day strike, so we set out on foot for our hotel. We are really, really glad that we went with the carry-on backpack route. We saw a lot of tourists this morning dragging their giant suitcases up and down stairs and through the alleyways.

The streets in Venice are really confusing, but fortunately our hotel is near the Rialto Bridge, so we just followed signs to Rialto. We arrived too early for check-in, but we stored our backpacks and got directions from the wonderful Piero to a place to get coffee and some breakfast. Beth and I had tea, Matt had a cappucino, and John had a latte. We shared a croissant, a creme-filled croissant, and a coiled bun with raisins.



After breakfast, we wandered randomly around Venice, through the fish market and fruit market, and looked at little shops. We stopped in a candy store and bought a reusable bag to replace the plastic grocery bag from Les Halles de Lyon.






For lunch, we stopped at a little cafe and had bruschetta. I'm still not sure what was on all the bruschetta, but there was ham on two and pepperoni-like sausage on the other, little orange mushrooms, vegetables on one, cheese, etc. The Coke was in cans in this place, and the cans are taller and skinnier than the ones at home.




Tourist stop of the day was Piazza San Marco and the Basilica San Marco.







After touring the church and walking around the plaza, we wandered back toward the hotel, stopping for gelato on the way. The kids loved their first taste of gelato:



We went over the Rialto bridge, and did a little more shopping. Beth bought some miniature masks for herself and a friend, and also a glass duck.



We are staying at the Pensione Guerreto, a lovely little hotel near the Rialto market. Our room is on the top floor (75 steps!)



For dinner, the hotel sent us to Birraria, a cute little restaurant in Campo San Polo. We all decided to have pasta:



Beth had the bigoli, I had the tagiolini, John the spaghettoni alla Mediterranea, and Matt the spaghettoni con le seppie. All were delicious!

We did a ton of laundry this evening, since traveling light means that we were starting to run out of socks and underwear (and Matt was out of shirts, for some reason, even though I think he packed the same number that I did.)