Venice, Italy

I’ve been fortunate enough to go to Europe a handful of times with Michael. Each time we go, we have an amazing time and experience new places. Yet, I think this past trip to Italy and Switzerland, where we took the train from destination to destination, was my favorite. We started our journey in Venice, Italy which was even more beautiful and special in person than I could have ever imagined. Our trip was full of pasta, lots of walking, people drinking Aperol spritz and countless dogs wandering the many canals and bridges.

We stayed at a hotel where our room was right over a canal and above a seafood restaurant which we coincidentally chose for our first night’s dinner without realizing we were staying right above it. Since Venice is known for its seafood, we decided to embrace some signature dishes and went all out for our first meal. Thank you Yelp for the misleading photos of seemingly delicious seafood that ended up being a mystery platter of what we later found out were cuddle fish eggs and a fish paste spread and raw shrimp. Luckily the questionable seafood was no match for the pitcher of cold table wine which made everything go down nicely. (Unfortunately for me, I was also no match for all the wine and had a rough start to our second morning but it was nothing some fresh air and pasta didn’t fix.)

Getting lost in the labyrinth of canals and bridges our second afternoon Michael and I walked over 19,000 steps and were ready for all the pasta and wine we could handle. Which after a few days ended up being 8 pasta meals in a row…no regrets. We also spent a couple days counting dogs and lost track after about 70 or 80 furry friends.

Obviously we couldn’t go to Venice and not go on a gondola ride, which despite Michael’s unamused face was really fun and a nice way to get all around without the footwork and blisters from the previous day. We also thought that we couldn’t not have one of the orange cocktails we saw at every table so we ordered up two Aperol spritz and had to hide the fact that they tasted like cough syrup mixed with champagne.

Our last night in St. Mark’s square was beautiful and the only chance we had to get that close to the Basilica and Palace without having a few hundred people in our photos.