Venice!

We took a day trip to Venice yesterday - my first time visiting there.  It was thronged with tourists, but so cool, I could see why.

We started by enjoying some fresh pasta.  Yummy!  Ben found this place through Trip Advisor.  It was take-out, but that was fine because we had great weather, and the sit-down places really gouge you on prices.  Then some amazing gelato.  I had the pistachio which tasted so fresh, nutty, and creamy - definitely the best I've had so far.  Another Trip Advisor find.

We waited in line to visit St. Mark's Basilica, but got turned away at the door.  On a Saturday in the height of the tourist season, they arbitrarily decided to close up at 3pm.  Go figure.  We visited the Doge's palace instead, which was incredible, and still got to see the gold mosaics at the entry of the basilica, which are amazing.

The incredible opulence of the palace and civic rooms, the long-lived Venetian dominance, the history of trade, wealth, power, religion, culture, exclusivity - it was a history major's delight.

Georgia got tired of posing for photos...

Aside from gelato, the thing the girls will probably remember best about Venice is our first Letter Box adventure.  Georgia's teacher introduced this to them a few days ago.  It's like an analog version of geo-caching, with rubber stamps.  You get the clues on-line, then go find a box in various places around the world.  So we gave it a try and found the box in a park in Venice.  Ben's eagle eyes found it.  Fun!

We've had three outings on the last three weekends.  Psyched to be taking full advantage of our year abroad and Ljubljana's central location.