Bromantic Venice

I'm naturally skeptical of places and things that get over-hyped so heading to Venice, I was weary that the city wouldn't live up to expectations. I had also heard that it was overwhelmingly packed with tourists and terribly expensive - two expectations I hoped were wrong. To those that say Venice may be one of the most beautiful cities on earth, I agree! Stu and I also found the food to be equally priced to other parts of Italy we'd visited and the hordes of tourists mostly stuck to a small area and cleared out after 8:30 at night... 

The view stepping out the front of the Venice train station...

Avoiding hostels and touristy hotels, we opted for a 3 bedroom B & B. Getting there looked like just a short walk from the train station but we quickly learned the streets in Venice don't meet at right angles, curve unexpectedly, can vary in width from 10 to 3 narrow feet or even go through a "tunnel" under someone's second story home! That short walk took almost an hour and we arrived to find our hostess spoke no more than a handful words of English. After an awkwardly hilarious check-in we hit the streets!

The view hanging out our bedroom window!

If you've ever been to the Venetian in Vegas and walked their Grand Canal shops, it's eerie how real it feels compared to Venice. The charming canals, many bridges, boats and gondolas cruising amongst the old houses were so beautiful, the city almost feels to be a caricature of itself. Situated in a lagoon, the city is made of 117 small islands with most of the population living on the mainland and one larger island. There are no cars on any of the islands and people and goods are transported by boat down canals of varying sizes. Some residential canals are just wide enough for two small boats to squeeze past each other while the major canals seem like a highway of water taxis, delivery boats, lunch cruises and boat "busses".

Above, a mid-size canal with a delivery boat dropping supplies to the grocery store around the corner from us. And below, the main canal.

Widely considered one of the most romantic cities in the world, Venice does charm. I'm not sure Stu and I hit the romantic restaurants, opting instead for street food, like this fried fish place we were recommended. That said, just looking out the window in such an incredible setting was pretty darn romantic.

Not really being map users, we spent countless hours wandering around. Below, a narrow "street" you could easily walk right past without noticing...

On our last morning, we each separately went on a jog for some exercise before the city really woke up... Quite confusing - we were both pretty lucky to find our way home!

Above, a narrow canal and below, the waterway at night...

"The City of Bridges" for good reason...

Chilling after a big lunch at the market. Stu is a big eater, so I did my best to keep up with him as we snacked at every good looking food stand we saw. Despite our combined Italian totaling about 5 words, we managed to eat well...

At night the streets really cleared out making for some nice photos without too many tourists...

Ciao Venice! Off to Belgium for some beer, waffles and chocolate!