We spent a week in Venice taking in the sites and enjoying a little bit of downtime. We rented an airbnb that was phenomenal. It was not in the main tourist area which allowed us to enjoy some of the small alleys without millions of tourists. We were also able to enjoy Venice early in the morning or in the evening when most of the tourists had gone back to their cruise ships, and when it wasn’t blazing hot.

Over the course of the week we saw the big sites. St. Marks is incredible with the amount of mosaic work that was done and we got to see the famous four horses that had been stolen from Turkey. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed so you’re going to have to take my word for it. Prior to going into St. Marks we wandered around the plaza. While walking around the church Caitlin pointed out the four tetrarchs that were on the corner of the church. I had no idea what she was talking about, but thankfully her art history background led her to explain how they represented the eastern and western roman empires and the equality of power. All summer Caitlin was pointing out little things here and there that the majority of tourists were unaware of. It was like being on a secret tour and was fascinating to watch people walk past historically important pieces all over Italy. I’m sure we missed our fair share, but that is apt to happen when there is so much ancient history.

Aside from walking  around Venice and getting lost more times than I can count (and that is with google maps) we also took the boat bus to Murano and Burano. These two little islands are famous for glass and lace work. While we ended up buying glasses we skipped on the lace. I enjoyed Burano more however as it  was beautiful with all the houses on the island painted different colors. The rest of the activities will be explained in the picture descriptions.

St. Mark’s Basilica with just a fraction of the crowds that were there mid day.

Gondola on the Grand Canal. I took so many pictures of the Gondolas. Its hard not to.

The architecture of Venice was so cool as it combined pieces from all over the Mediterranean.

Caitlin on St. Marks. The clock in front of her is famous. But I cannot remember why now. Oops.

In the Gondola. It was our chance to feel the other side of the camera lenses as people took pictures of us going through the canals.

View from the gondola. Much lower than the streets and bridges and you got to see the entryways of the houses. Our tour took us past a bunch of the private palaces of old. Many of which are turned into hotels now.

Our gondolier, he hummed a little but didn’t belt it out like some of the other ones.

We found a local cookout that was being used to raise money for one of the neighborhood churches. You could by a liter of wine, no label but still good.

No idea what the sculpture was for, but it was cool to see art still being made.

This church had some of the most beautiful marble

Super stoked about this picture. Its a RAW image with no modification. I took a ton of pictures this summer and it felt like the practice was starting to pay off.

There were a few guys busking with accordions, one guy kept playing The Godfather music, which was kind of eerie in the alleys.

Caitlin and the tetrarchs. Nobody around seemed to realize the importance, and that they had been stolen from Constantinople but made from Egyptian Marble.

Its not easy keeping these buildings standing.

From the bridge of sighs. This is the bridge that connects the Doge’s palace with the prison and provided the last views of the convicted.

Cool graffiti. If you’ve got time to kill.

The view from the Doge’s palace

Another view from the Doge’s palace.

One of the places to slip accusations anonymously.

The grand canal

There were so many gondolas going in the middle of the day that it felt a little bit like a disney ride. I thought for sure there was a chain underneath the surface of the water to pull the boats through the same route.

The canals were so much fun to photograph, each one had its own unique story. It was also really cool to see that they are still very much used to run the city. We saw garbage boats, DHL boats along with the taxis and gondolas.

Another canal.

Caitlin in Burano.

We wondered how you got to choose what color your house was, as no two houses in a row were the same color.

Laundry

An old church in Murano, the floors were amazing old mosaics and this guy looks like he might have a few secrets.

Burano

Gondola on the grand canal. I felt like there were so many opportunities to take a postcard shot.

In the glass museum of Murano there was a special exhibit of an artist who made underwater images and creates. If you’ve ever seen one of these in the wild you’ll realize how impressive this is.

Sun Set

Watching the sunset.

Caitlin geeking out at The Feast in the House of Levi. It was fun to have her explain all the important details of the painting and the artist flaunting the ‘norms’ of the time when he painted it.

This is the gondola shop, it creates and fixes gondolas. This was our view as we drank wine and ate cicchetti (small slices of bread with different toppings).

The mask shop. This guy runs the shop and a school where they make the masks. There were so many beautiful masks it was hard to choose just one. It also made me want to come back for Carnival.