day 10 . . .

i absolutely adore having my expectations surpassed.  i have no idea what i really thought venice would be like but wow.  my socks got blown off. i want to go back again. and again.

kidlet and i made a list of things we wanted to see and do.  hers was short and to the point.  she wanted to take a ride in a gondola.  i wanted to visit st. marks square and see the bridge of sighs and the rialto bridge.  i know it's not a lot but by this point we were wearing down and we thought that would be enough.  and it was.

the first place we headed after taking the vaporetto, aka water taxi,

from the port to center of town, was to find a gondolier.  the first place we checked, did not have an opening until much later in the afternoon.  our little hearts sank.  was this something that needed to be purchased before we left home?  then a nice venetian sent us to another site and we were off on our expedition.

meet our gondolier:

 

he didn't speak english but we didn't care.  look where he took us first!!!!!  the bridge of sighs.  color us both happy.

 and then around the block a couple of times while kidlet and i sat with our mouths open.

and did i tell you we walked through st. mark's square on the way to meet our gondolier?

yay!!! and then we hiked across town down the tiniest streets with massive crowds . . . yet still fun, until we found the rialto bridge:

having a few euro left jingling in our collective pockets, we decided to stop for some pizza in a tiny little establishment off the beaten track.  yummy, yummy pizza.  and to finish, a glass of amaretto with hazelnuts at the bottom of the shot glass.  let me just die in peace.

so that, other than the 24 straight hours it took us to find our way home, was our little summer vacation.  but never fear, you have not seen the last of it.  my little finger snapped the shutter approximately 862 times. happy.  happy.  happy.