This summer’s adventures have begun, and I’m here in Venice! As this is my first time in Italy, I keep thinking of the famous saying, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” I’ve been trying to appreciate all that Venice has to offer, after only a day and a half. Here’s what I’ve figured out so far. When in Venice, you must…

1) Eat tons of gelato. Two or three times a day isn’t too much, right?

2) Learn some history. Today we visited St. Marks Basilica, which was mostly constructed by 1092 and the Doge’s Palace, which was the “home” of many old Venetian leaders.

St. Mark’s Basilica, from the inside. There was a brass band playing music too!

Loki at Doge’s Palace, the inner courtyard

Art at Doge’s Palace

Prison at Doge’s Palace — carvings from prisoners

Biggest Family Tree Ever, at Doge’s Palace

Art at Doge’s Palace. Check out the seagull!

3) Check out glass blowing in Murano. We took a boat over to the island of Murano, where many years ago, they sent all the glass workers to avoid fires on the main islands of Venice. Today, they are famous for their beautiful glass art. We got to see a demonstration, which was neat.

4) Go out for seafood, pasta, or pizza. There’s no shortage of these to go around.

5) Say goodbye to cars. You won’t see any in most parts of Venice. The roads are either little walkways or canals. 

6) Ride some boats through canals. They have boats for everything here — trash pick up, transporting construction material, public transit like a subway, and of course, fancy gondola boats for tourists. And so much more!

7) Chase the Pigeons.  I’m pretty sure if you fed them, they’d jump all over you. Not interested in that, but they are sort of cute.

8) See some art. We didn’t hit up the art museums yet, but there’s plenty to see on the street and in the shops. In addition to glass art, there are a lot of masks for celebrating Carnival.

We still have another day in Venice, so I’m looking forward to seeing what else there is to check out around here. Definitely there will be more gelato on the horizon!