Europe Travels | First Stop – Venice, Italy

   In May we pulled the trigger and booked 2 flights to Venice, Italy! We had a bunch of skymiles and thought….let’s do this! Throughout the months, we picked a few places to visit and explore during our 12 day adventure. It was SO hard to decide, but I am super happy with everywhere we went! We brought 2 backpacks (carry-on approved) and 2 smaller bags and that was it! You could say we “backpacked Europe”…..but in a nicer, we booked where we stayed kinda way. 

With Chase, we get a free priority pass card, that let us hang out at the fancy airport lounge. Ya’ll, I didn’t even know this was a thing. But it felt like luxury! Just in Atlanta and we were feeling like we were on vacation. 

     Our first stop was in London, with a 6 hour layover. Once we got through security, a ticket lady told us that we were at the wrong London airport for our connecting flight to Venice. Ummmmm, what!? There are apparently 2 airports in London. So we quickly hopped on a bus to the correct airport (an hour away). And made it with time to kill. That 6 hour layover was looking pretty good at that moment! While we were in London, of course we had to get fish-n-chips. And coffee….

Another flight + bus ride + taxi…..we finally made it to Venice! This Air-bnb was perfect and had the most interesting host. He would give us directions in Italian, followed by a few words in English and then look at us like “don’t you understand what i’m saying?” We eventually just told him, “Ok yes, grazie!” or else, I had a feeling that he would keep giving us Italian directions. Haha!

We took a bus to the island of Venice and grabbed lunch at a cafe near our next air-bnb. While we were eating lunch….we ran into Derek’s elementary teacher, Mrs. Skivvington! What are the odds! Her family was staying at a hotel across the street from us. There is no way we could have tried to find each other if we tried! This was such a fun surprise! 

Then we got “hopelessly lost in Venice” 

     Before dinner, we saw this couple taking pictures with a tripod and I just had to see if they would let me take their picture for them. They have been married for 1 year and when they travel they like to get a picture in their wedding attire. So cool! So I offered to take one with my camera for them and we exchanged info. My wedding photographer dreams had come true!

Derek’s favorite part of our trip was the gondola ride! We took one at dusk and the city was so peacefully quiet and beautiful to see at that time of day. Derek asked our gondola (driver? rower?) named Nickoli, if he sang and gave us a huge grin and said that he would do his best. I think he loved that we asked; either that or he really loved his job because he was very enthusiastic about our gondola ride. He told us all about the city and sang the whole time! 

The next morning we had fresh croissants delivered to our door (amazing!) and I made my first espresso using the machine that was in our room. Americans have coffee pots and Keurigs; Italians have espresso machines. They are serious about their coffee….or should I say caffè.

That morning we packed up our backpacks and headed to our next city…..Florence! Coming soon in another blog post. Ciao!