Our group tackled both Verona and Venice on the same day, but I feel these two cities are best split into two posts.

This had to be August 5th, but my date stamps were still set to the wrong timezone I think.

Venice started when we pulled into a harbor much larger than I expected, filled with some cruise liners also fairly massive.

There were also some ships like the one above, must be for cargo?

There was also a lovely mural which was a pleasant surprise. There weren’t many murals in the places we went. I think Europe, or at least the highly developed parts, frowns on graffiti in general.

These shops were pretty intense, and scattered about. Some fun stuff, mostly masks. Looking at the second photo, maybe I should have picked up a scarf.

This is the ferry we took to get to the main part of Venice. It was only us I think, but with a group of almost 30 we dominated most of the places we went, haha.

Yep…

We ended up stopping into the main company that does glass for all of the gondoliers, as well as the streetlights. The guy was amazing, and created gold detail INSIDE of the glass so it wouldn’t come off. He was also blazingly fast… get it… he works with fire.

Yeah, they got a couple euros from me… but they were super friendly!

Touring part of Venice.

It was hot, really hot. People went in droves to find shade. The couple above lucked out and found their own little paradise in Venice.

Some more graffiti, and people of Venice. I ended up really liking this photo.

Venice, likely because of all the tourists, was noticeably less pristine. It felt real though because of this. Like a place you could just hang out in the alleyways with friends.

Seriously, beautiful canals. That is all.

There were quite a few mask shops throughout the city, none appreciative of photographers. I managed to snap a couple though 🙂

Here I am, riding in a gondola. I am goofy.

Overall Venice was really hot, and really beautiful. Definitely recommend going there, but maybe in the fall or winter. The stores would all keep their A/C on full with the doors open so that you would be enticed by the cool air to come in and shop. Clever. Ferrari even has a store there, which is funny considering there are no cars.

The above photo is one of my favorite photos from the trip, definitely my favorite from Venice. Best part, I captured it on 35mm film. I will likely add more to this post later, but wanted to get some notes jotted down. Still more days to post about too!