We disembarked and said goodbye to the Voyager of the Seas bright and early the last morning in Ravenna, Italy. There’s essentially nothing in Ravenna but the port so we had a 3 hour bus ride through farm country to the Venice airport. Our hotel was just a few minutes away so we took a cab from the airport where we checked in at the Courtyard by Marriott Venice Airport. 

We didn’t start off the day on the right foot and so we were tired, grumpy and not getting along at all. We silently ate pizza in our hotel room from a restaurant down the street and we ALMOST chose to stay at our hotel for the day. But ultimately we decided that we’d never forgive ourselves if we didn’t go explore the city.

So we figured out the public transit (sorta, it’s still unknown if we actually paid lol) caught a bus and omg. What a freaking dream.

We only spent about 4 hours walking around, which obviously isn’t enough, but when we came around the corner to St. Mark’s Basilica we both had tears in our eyes. It was so magnificent and stunning and we were just truly grateful to be there experiencing it. 

We did some shopping and bought myself a genuine Italian leather wallet that I still smell regularly to remind me of Italy, got my mom a coin purse and watched a glass blower make tiny little Santa figurines. I’m still kicking myself for not buying one! It was mesmerizing to watch him manipulate the glass and while I really wanted to take a video, it wasn’t allowed so I obliged.

We were just making it back to the city bus line when the rain started to come down! And it POURED lol

I’ll never forget when we got to our hotel when I found out an acquaintance from church had passed a couple days before in an ATV accident. I remember just sitting down in the room in shock trying to process what I had just heard. 

Once we cleaned up, we walked down the street and shoved our face with pizza and pasta because DUH VENICE.

Let’s just say we were very grateful that we decided to go and explore instead of fighting in our room all day. We WILL be back, unless it goes underwater first 😬🥴

Have you been to Venice? What was your favorite thing about it?