Today was so much fun in Venice! We woke up, had some breakfast, and headed to the train station. When the train arrived, we didn’t have much time to get on and find our seats because it took off super quick. The train was so much nicer than any other train I’ve been on in the US.  It was clean, and we even got drinks and snacks like on a plane. We arrived in Venice, and right in front of us was a giant canal. We had to use the bathroom, so we went to the public restrooms and found out that we had to pay 1 euro to use it. I have never had to pay to use a bathroom before so that was an experience. We headed to grab a taxi, and I was surprised to find out that the taxis were boats. We headed on the boat to the gondolas. Once on the gondola, we headed in a much smaller and more peaceful canal. It was amazing to see the old buildings and see how beautiful Venice was from the canals. We found out that there are no cars on the islands and all of the emergency vehicles are also boats. Someone in our gondola didn’t realize how the weight was distributed so we ended up almost tipping when he tried to move to the other side of the boat. It was really scary because we thought we were going in to the cold water. After the ride we walked through some beautiful piazzas and got some pizza for lunch. This area was much more touristy than any other place we have been to, so there were a lot of people trying to sell us stuff and trying to get us to eat at their restaurants. We then started our walking tour, and this was cool because we were able to learn about the giant beautiful church and palace in the piazza. We walked all through the different islands and learned so much about the history of Venice. Some of the cool things we saw were the place where Marco Polo grew up, the first ghetto for Jewish people, and many wells that used to be used to get clean water. It was such an interesting tour, but unfortunately it was very chilly so we were excited when it was over so we could get some good hot chocolate. We also got a really delicious pastry. Then we got back on the train heading back to Verona! I can’t wait to get some more pasta for dinner and get into my warm bed.