June 30, 2017. Thursday. Venice. We’ve noticed an absence of something from the highways of Europe: billboards. In the US, they are so ubiquitous that you really don’t get a sense of just how obnoxious they are until you drive through endless miles without a single one. It’s not that Europeans don’t do the advertising thing. After all, metro stations are plastered with product and pop culture ads. But the highway landscape seems protected somehow, and it is glorious.

We said arrivederci to Rome this morning after two visits to places that were right around the corner from our Air BnB. The first was the Pantheon, built in 27 BCE as a Roman Temple. Sometime after the conversion of Constantine in the 4th century, it was turned into Christian church, which it remains to this day. So many of Rome’s buildings and spaces seem to be a fascinating combination of Roman religious/civic use and later Christian re-use and reconfiguration. We also joined to masses to see the large Trevi Fountain, which someone described to us as the Times Square of Rome (kitschy/touristy, but kind of need to do it).

After some last minute shopping (and a reverse navigation of the very tight parking garage quarters!), we hit the highways for Venice. The day was stunning — deep blue skies and puffy white clouds all around. Central Italy is really lovely — somewhat hilly with mountains in the distance. From Florence, when you turn northeast, you cross through some of those mountains and emerge on the other side in a totally flat, gorgeous agricultural flatlands from there to Venice. We hit our first major traffic jam heading through the mountains northeast of Florence, but it was only a 30 minute slow down or so.

We arrived in Venice and found parking in one of the main parking garages (which accommodated our van perfectly). After purchasing tickets, we were soon off on the water taxi to our Air BnB. The route took us through some of the more central canals and then out into the sea along the north side of Venice. We were immediately smitten. The canals are really the streets, so there are very few sidewalks as such. Most of the buildings are right up against the canals. Many buildings are brightly colored and super cute, even if not impeccably cared for at times. The breezes, the water, the waves, the colors, the boats, the gondolas — it was all magical. Even Elliot–who has been missing home mightily–said that he really likes Venice, which I consider to be a victory of sorts.

After dropping our bags at our newly remodeled flat (we were the first customers, we were told), we lazily walked to Piazza San Marco, site of the largest church and plaza on the island, stopping at almost every alley and canal, it seemed, to take pictures. San Marco is beautiful and the plaza was bustling with people and lined with restaurants. We hung out there for a while so the kids could feed the pigeons (they would sit on them and eat out of their hands) before walking to the waterfront and grabbing a water taxi up the main canal to a stop close to a recommended restaurant. The main canal was really beautiful in the soft sunset glow, with water taxis, private boats, and gondolas criss-crossing back and forth the surprisingly wide and long main canal.

The recommended restaurant was totally booked, so we opted for a little out of the way one that turned out to be simply excellent. Everything except the steak was delicious and filling — the mussels and clams, risotto, pasta, wine, salad, and tiramisu. (BTW, I [Lin] cannot believe how affordable and delicious a glass of wine is: 4 – 5 Euros is the norm, and the quality is excellent.[

A short walk back through some cute narrow streets, over little canals, and through softly lit plazas, and we were “home” — at 11 pm, of course! Our late eating continues in these lovely southern European climes.

We’ve been having an ongoing conversation about which city we’ve liked the most. We all loved the main cities so far — Paris, Barcelona, and Rome, but Venice ranks pretty high so far. As does Monaco, although we didn’t really get a chance to experience it fully. I think Venice combines the two things I love: old European cities and water. We will be back.