Venice and Florence, Italy
After two days of fun in Venice with Tim and Sondra, we sadly had to say goodbye and catch a train to Florence. The last two days have been incredibly fun and Venice was amazing. The weather couldn’t have been better with clear, sunny skies and moderate temperatures made for an exciting weekend.
As mentioned earlier, this weekend was the start of Carnival in Venice so all the characters were out in full force. Much of the crowd was dressed in their costumes, parading around in anonymity. Shelly was a little timid around anyone with a mask and for good reason. She said “you never know if it’s a guy pretending to be a girl behind that mask and gown”… good point.
We spent most of our time in Venice browsing through shops, finding cheap places to eat, touring the local sites, and getting lost in the Venetian alleyways. The roads were so confusing that we were lost most of the time but it’s hard to get truly lost when you’re on an island. After winding through the backalleys we’d eventually find our way back to familiar territory.
Tim, Sondra, Shelly and I (taking the picture) lost in a Venetian alleyway
Another one of our missions was to find cheap places to eat because the prices were incredibly inflated because of Carnival. Yesterday afternoon we strolled into a local establishment and had an “off the menu” meal at the recommendation of the server… big mistake. At the end of our lunch, which was very good I might add, we were handed a bill for 90 Euros, which is about $140 US. After that expensive lesson we started eating $1.50 pizza slices at Crazy Pizza. The food situation in Venice was summed up best by a girl we overheard while strolling through the alleys. She said of a $2.00 slice of pizza… “I’m not even hungry, but at that price I’ll force myself to eat”… so true.
Our evenings were spent hopping from wine bars to pubs and then back to wine bars. Our favorite place was a wine bar named Enoitica Mascareta Mauro Lorenzon. Mauro Lorenzon not only named the place after himself, but he also joined in the nightly celebration with his patrons. Mauro had a wild head of brown curly hair, wore red pants, and two different shoes. He was the life of the party and we had a great time drinking his favorite wines and sampling his cheese and meat platters. If you’re ever in Venice, his place is not to be missed.
Shelly’s goal is to take a picture in front of a pig in every country we visit
As for Florence, there’s not too much to write about because we just got into town. It’s nice to get back to a normal town and out of the crazy tourist trap known as Venice. We don’t have much planned over the next 4 days as we rest up before traveling to Egypt. We may try to take an Italian cooking class tomorrow morning and see a few sites, but that’s about it. Bye for now!
Tags: Italy
nkurtz
Don’t miss David in Florence. Try to get to the museum early before the line is too long but in any case it’s the most incredible piece of sculpture I’ve ever seen. Pure Renaissance beauty.
Hey Nate and Shelly!!
Wow so fun to hear your trip news. I can’t even wrap my mind around that much honeymoon fun day after day….. It is snowing here! We’ve got 1/4-1/2 inch of ice layered with 7-9 inches of snow and still falling. Erik is stuck at a retreat in Oregon, they can’t make it home on the buses! Thinking of you xoxo Shelly
Hooray… we made the famous Kurtz Blog 🙂 We had so much fun hanging out we didnt want you to leave! We’re bummed that our Venice adventure had to end but thankful that we got to meet you guys and have such a blast 🙂 Best of luck on the rest of your Italian tour 🙂 Ciao Ciao
PS.. we went a little crazy with the Venice souvenirs once you guys left! More stuff to pack home! Oh well, good memories right 🙂
Hey guys,
I second everything that Sondra said. I had a great time and enjoyed every second in Venice. Our pictures are online (http://timj.smugmug.com/gallery/4242342#248293651)… let me know if you want any specific ones.
Enjoy the rest of your trip!
Tim
Thanks again for the great time, TJak and Future Jak! Great pictures!!!
Shelly! Hey there! So happy to see you and Nate are doing well and it looks like having a blast. We all miss ya out here and I’m glad to see Kmoe got down to Buenos Aires to catch up. nrnrTake care and travel safe. Lookin forward to the next Kurtz installment. Jeff