Sunday, July 19, 2009

Our trip to Venice Italy

We had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Venice Italy this past week. We are celebrating our 10 year anniversary this summer. We stayed at the Hotel Danieli. Here are a few pictures of our hotel.









Here are some more pictures of the city of Venice.






This was our view from the roof top of our hotel where they had a restaurant where we got to eat breakfast every day.



When you visit Venice you have to go on a gondola ride. It was the very first thing we did there. It was evening time and the sun was setting. I was awestruck by the beauty of the city. The gondoleer took us through many of the canals in the city and sang beautiful music. It was very romantic and a nice first impression of Venice.




Here are some pictures of the Basilica de Mosaic. All the artwork inside and outside the church were made of mosaics. The other pictures are of the bridge of sighs. This is one of the most photographed bridges in Venice. It was the bridge that prisoners had to cross as they went to prison. The bridge gave them their last view of the outside world and the legend says they sighed as they walked into the prison.





We took an elevator ride to the top of the bell tower in San Marco Square. You could see a beautiful 360 degree view of Venice.








One of the main things to see in Venice was San Marco Square. Our hotel was right next to the square. The most beautiful part of the Square was the Doges Palace. A Doge was the political leader of Venice centuries ago. The palace was built in the 13th century. It had amazing artwork both sculpture and paintings.

We took a water bus out to the islands of Murano and Burano. Murano is known for their glass making. We took this picture next to a "glass tree." Burano is known for their lace making. They make lace by hand with these tiny needles. We bought a blessing outfit for our baby boy.



We took a boat out to the island Lido where we got to hang out on a beach on the Adriatic Sea. It was really nice since they had private cabanas where you get some shade if you needed.
On our last day we went to the Academia Museum and the Jewish Ghetto. The Jewish Ghetto had a museum of the Holocaust and what happened to the Jews from Venice. It was interesting to see that part of history from another country's point of view. We also saw the Church of the Ferrari which had paintings by Donatello. We didn't get any pictures of these things since a lot of places would not let you take photos inside.

The last night we were there we had a nice dinner at the hotel.