Happy 1st Anniversary! :)

I still cannot believe it has been a year since our wedding! It seems like yesterday that we were at Cline Cellars celebrating with all of our friends & family. The year has gone by so fast, but it has been great, and I look forward to the many wonderful years to come. :)

Way back when we were planning our honeymoon, my first choice was Venice. At that point I had never been to Europe and I wanted something romantic, scenic and adventurous. We didn't end up going at that time, we headed to the Virgin Islands instead (which was absolutely incredible!) So, for our 1st anniversary we wanted to go somewhere special, and Venice was perfect.

Venice is relatively close to us, but it's hard for us to get to since there are no discount airlines that fly there from Geneva (we could never travel the way we do without EasyJet & RyanAir). So we decided to go super romantic and take the overnight sleeper train (which was way better than my overnight train from Madrid to Barcelona!). Soon we were off into the night speeding across Italy.

Venice was everything I had dreamed it would be. The canals, singing gondoliers, old squares full of music and beautiful buildings rich in history. Our hotel was on the Grand Canal just a couple of blocks from the Rialto Bridge, so we were in the heart of everything. We were immediately drawn to St. Mark's Square (or Piazza San Marco). This is a busy, touristy square by day and a romantic, lively square at night, when it is filled with the music of dueling orchestras.

The Piazza is surrounded by beautiful, old, historic buildings and filled with pigeons. I have never seen so many pigeons in one place in my entire life. Throughout the Piazza are vendors that will sell you a bag of dried corn kernels for one Euro (I need to get into that business!) As soon as you open the bag, birds surround you, landing at your feet, on your arms, shoulders and head. They eat right out of your hand, and before you can get a couple of pictures snapped, your food is gone! We didn't see any skinny pigeons in Venice.

It was near the Piazza that I got a really great compliment! A guy was trying to sell us tickets to a local Venetian concert, but we weren't interested. He only spoke Italian or French, so I was telling him, in very broken French, that we had other plans and we didn't want the tickets. As we walked away, a music student from Canada (who was about to warn us not to waste our money on the sub-par performance) tapped me on my shoulder and asked "Do you speak English?" He thought I spoke French! Now, I know my French isn't very good at all, so he either didn't hear much of me speak or he doesn't know what French sounds like, but all the same it made my night!

That first night we went on the "Classic Venice Bar Tour". Our guide, Alessandre was quite a character. He's a connoisseur of Venetian "bacaros", classic old bars serving traditional "cicchetti" (local munchies). He was quite a character and introduced us to some delicious local wines. Our tour was small (only four of us), but the other couple, who were from Santa Cruz, were so much fun to hang out with! It's funny, but we seem to meet more people from the Bay Area than almost anywhere else.

During our two days we did all the usual sightseeing, but this was a special weekend and we were content with simply walking the streets and really getting a feel for this wonderful city. The highlight of the weekend was a nighttime gondola ride followed by Gary dancing with me in the middle of St. Mark's Square under the stars to the music of one of the many orchestras. I must say, this was one of the best anniversary gifts I could have ever received. :)

Thanks Gary for a wonderful weekend and I look forward to all the years we have ahead of us.


Arriving in town at The Rialto Bridge


The birds of St. Mark's Square (or Piazza San Marco)


The view of Piazza San Marco from St. Marks Basilica


Traffic jam, Venice style


Our little gang on the bar tour with our guide Alessandro, in the middle, who made us feel like locals, hopping around from one neighborhood bar to another. Grazie!


On the Grand Canal, Venice's "Main Street"


One of the 2,000 alleys that wind their way through the city. The city is actually made up of over 100 islands connected by 400 bridges.


Us (& the pigeons) back in Piazza San Marco