Venice!

I love Venice! It's exactly the way you would picture it. Everything is old, the streets are a winding maze, and the gondola drivers are in your face. We stayed in a nice hotel on the mainland because it is leaps and bounds less expensive than staying on the sinking island. Luckily, it was only a ten minute bus ride to Venice proper. We took a water boat and walked. I much preferred walking--you just get absorbed into the city that way. Our first night we ate at the Florida Restaurant. Venice is really very very touristy, so there are plenty of shops to look in. Another great thing about Venice is it is the birthplace of my favorite drink--the Bellini.
The next day we wandered around the city before our train left and picked up some Murano glass, a well known product in the area. We also saw the most amazing fresh seafood market. They were cutting swordfish steaks right off the fish carcass! I have never seen anything like it. They had it all, and then the fed the remains to the seagulls--we'll take points off for that. For lunch we went to a restaurant on the river. The waiters all stand outside the restaurant and try to steer people to a table. One group of old people really made them mad because they were only ordering drinks. You don't do that in Italy. If you only want drinks, you go to the bar and stand, you do not take a table. It's considered very rude. It was funny to watch though! Around 3pm we grabbed our stuff and headed to the train station for our trip to Florence. It was a really crappy train. Very old, think Harry Potter with the cabins and then think very old and dingy. Ah well, Florence more than made up for it!