Early flight into Venice 6:40 am! The nice thing is were landed before 8am. We headed outside and caught the bus to Venice. There is a public bus or a coach bus that goes to the same location in Venice. It was €8 for the coach bus, so we got our tickets (always look for the validation machine -sometimes near the ticket both, sometime near boarding, or even on the bus). The bus ride was only about 20 minutes which was great. Once we arrive in Venice our hotel was right near the parking lot we were dropped off at. We went to the AC Marriot and at 8:30 am (ish) they let us check into our room. You can take a water bus from the airport to Venice for about €15 or a water taxi for about €130. If you really want to spend some money there are speed boat options (we didn’t even look at those prices!). We selected the cheapest option.

We dropped off our stuff and then decided we needed to grab something to eat. I had found a place 6 minutes (maybe  3 bridges) away at AI 133. There were a few tables outside and you could see the canal without being right on the canal (sometimes this saves money). I read a lot of posts about people being upset about paying more for sitting to eat at restaurants in Venice. This is pretty common throughout Italy. We were always surprised when we didn’t have a coperto when we sat down at a place. The sit down charges (coperto) run from €1-4/person depending on the place. I had my 2nd core to al cioccolato for the day.  As we had out breakfast and people watched we decided on our next plan of action. 

We crossed a few more bridges – I started out taking pictures of bridges but there are over 400, so I gave up.

We made our way to a mask to store to make a mask at Ca’Macana. The mask store we found had some amazing pieces that you could buy up front. You can make your own in the back of the store. The cost depends on how may people you having making masks. 1 person is €49, since we had 4 the price was €39/person. They only take cash for the mask making. Once you pay you head to the back and select your mask. There had a lot of different choices. Once you selected you mask you decided on what sort of color pattern you wanted, 1 solid background, a blend, or mixing colors. Then you make your color selection. We were then show how to blend and paint our masks. Once you do the base coat you then use a blower dryer to dry the first layer. Then it is time to choose the next colors to make your patterns on the mask. There are several samples around the room to get an idea of what you might want to do. Then you dry the paint again. Then the woman put a sealant coat on the mask.The final stage is choosing the ribbon color, if you want feathers, or gems or not. 

Next we walked over a few more bridges and made it over to the Rialto bridge, which was not packed but busier than some of the other places. 

We headed down a little alley to Pub just around the corner from the Disney store. We ordered a few appetizers to share and enjoyed the AC. 

We waited for a few minutes to get into the Disney Store (still limiting how many people go inside) looked around, but did not find anything we had to have. We did see a Mickey holding a Pizza which was cute. While we were inside Brandon talked to a Gondola driver. All over the city there are sign that day time prices are €80 and night time is €100. Brandon was able to talk the man down to €60, I am sure part of the reason was it had started to rain a little. We thought it is only sprinkling and that is a good price we should go for it. We walked down to get onto the boat. It is a little tricky getting on we were of course worried about falling into the canal (that would have been gross). Aly and I sat of the couch facing forward and K and B sat in chairs on the side. 

 As the ride went on the rain started to pick up! At one point we stopped under a bridge to wait for the rain to let up a little. We decided we were fine being wet and kept going. We passed what was Marco Polo’s house and now is a theater. We learned that there are over 400 gondolas and it is mainly passed down from father to son. The drive we had was one of the small group of drivers whose father was not a gondola driver (not sure that is the right term). He works when the boss doesn’t want to work. He has to pay the boss a portion of each ride he does during the day. I think our drive said he has to pay the boss 1/2 of what he makes. We paid in cash, so it would be interesting to see how that really works since I don’t know how anyone really knows how many rides they do during the day. There are several different gondola starting points, so you could see many different canals.

Since we were wet we decided to head back to the hotel to change clothes and regroup for the after noon. We took a little break, K and I watched Jurassic World for a little bit. Then we decided to head back out. I will continue that post about the Doge separately (lots of things to see there)!