On Tuesday morning we left Verona and headed to the train station to go to Venice. It was only about an hour train ride to Venice. While on the train we crossed water and I knew we were getting close!

When we got there and walked out of the train station right away you could see the grand canal! How exciting. We were super lucky that we happened to be in Venice during Carnevale. It is a huge celebration before Lent. It runs for the two weeks prior to Ash Wednesday and is filled with a plethora of events like masquerade balls, parties, parades, historical re-enactments and plenty of revelry. We didn’t get to attend any of that but we saw plenty of people dressed up. Which I just loved. I told Greg I’d love to go back someday and dress up for it. He was not so excited about this but said he would support me. Anyway you’ll see pictures of people scattered through out my pictures.

We decided to get on the public transportation to get to St. Mark’s Square. Their public transportation is like a bus on water. You get on a boat and it stops at different boat stops. It cost about 7 euros to ride the boat for 2 hours. The boat went through the grand canal.

When you walk out of the train station, this is the view.

On the left is one of the boats you ride as part of the public transportation.

As we went down the grand canal here are some images of the stuff we saw. It was so  cool and fascinating that it was all surrounded by water.

Jaelee got this photo, we saw our first person dressed for Carnivale on the boat.

We were pretty crammed on the boat – with lots of people but it was still so cool.

Jaelee was the most excited about going to Venice from our whole trip in Italy. She loves Spiderman and in one of the newer movies they go to Venice and she couldn’t wait to see some of the places that were in the movie. One of those was the Rialto Bridge. As we were traveling down the grand canal we saw the Rialto Bridge, she was at the front of the boat and was the first one to get a picture of it.

When we got off the boat we walked down an alley until we were in St. Mark’s Square.

Look at that church! It was beautiful. We didn’t go in it this day but we go back in it the next day. This was a funs square, lots of people dressed up and some vendors to shop at.

had to get a picture with some of the people that were dressed up, just loved it!

We found a place for lunch. They didn’t have a menu that had English so it was a bit hard to order. We used google translate but some things don’t translate great so it is still hard. I played it safe and got a pasta dish.

I can’t remember who had my camera at this time…I think it was Jaelee but it might have been Jayden that got these photos while we were in the restaurant.

After lunch we headed back out to explore.

Look at how fancy this costume is! Just so cool.

They sale masks everywhere. Jaelee got one for herself and her friend.

This sculpture was huge! I wish I had someone stand by it for comparison.

Bought myself another hat – one that was made in Italy! Love this picture of Greg and I on one of the bridges.

This is the canal where our Airbnb was at.

We made it into our Airbnb.

We rested for a bit and then headed back out to explore.

Jaelee took my camera again and got these photos.

This was really cool, it was a fresh food market on a boat.

We ended up in this square for the evening. It was getting a bit chilly. Everyone stopped to get a drink. I was too cold to stop so I took the kids and went to explore the square some. We stopped by a vendor with masks. Jayse got a pair of the goggles.

As we were wondering around I found this piece of art by the artist Banksy. He is a street artist that I have followed on Instagram. I had no idea he had something in Venice but the moment I saw it I recognized it. I took a picture of this and then looked it up later and sure enough I was right it is Banksy. I thought that was pretty cool.

What a beautiful sunset!

Loved that we could hear the bells

We met back up with everyone else to decide where we were going for dinner. Again, Jaelee or Jayden got a few of these pictures.

This is where we ended up for dinner and it was on of my favorites. The staff was great, they were playing some fun American music and the food was delicous.

Huge beers!

We did end up going into a little grocery store after this right before it was closing. It was really small but looked like a typical grocery store. We got some treats and drinks and headed back to our Airbnb. What a great first day in Venice and we had a whole other day to explore. I kinda fell in love with that place. I could certainly see myself going back.