Again, I apologize for the short length of this post but we have to wake up in just 7 hours, and sleep is crucial on this trip!!
Today was very fun, we woke at 4 this morning for a 4:45 breakfast to begin the 5 hour trek to get to Venice for the day. As it can be imagined, we were all out within the first five minutes of the drive and were for pretty much the entire drive to the docks. Once at the docks, we ate a packed lunch and then boarded the boat to travel into Venice. We took the fifteen minute ride into Venice and then all unloaded into this new, colorful, incredibly beautiful place for our tour. We walked over the bridges and through narrow walkways in our tour, learning not so much about the sights but more about the actual history of Venice, which is very interesting. Our tour ended at the glass factory, where we got to see a demonstration and peruse the gallery there. After this, we broke off into individual groups for free time for the rest of our time there, until 4:15 in the afternoon. In this time, we got gelato (I had one scoop of strawberry and one scoop of straccitella) to cool us down in the ninety degree heat. We wandered around a bit after this, seeing the Basilica de San Marco, as well as things such as the Bridge of Sighs. When we returned back to the square, we decided to, despite the price, take a gondola ride. For 20 euros each, we got a 30 minute gondola ride through the canals of Venice, which was a very fun experience. Lots of pretty architecture, and the feel was just fantastic. I could only think of movies such as The Italian Job while we were navigating the canals. 
After this, we decided that we wanted some real Italian pizza, so we sought out a place to get some to go. We had some margherita as well as spicy italian sausage pizza as we walked through Venice, which we found was quite difficult to actually know where you are. The narrow and somewhat organized pathways make it difficult to get your bearings anywhere, so we really had to navigate by “feel”. After pizza, we looked down at our watches and realized that it was time to head back to the meeting point to catch the boat back to the dock where we left the bus. However again, it was so extremely hot and humid, we had to stop again for gelato (who cares, I won’t be in Italy again soon, might as well enjoy the gelato!), this time trying the cherry (which was delicious!). After this gelato stop, as some of the chaperones said is the best way to measure time (in gelato stops), we made our way back to the meeting point to catch the boat back to the bus. Although it was sad, we had to say goodbye to the wonderful city of Venice, only to think of the next time we will visit this place...
Once we arrived home after the five hour bus ride, we were pleasantly surprised to be told that a local brat and sausage stand had stayed open special and late for us after our trip to Venice, so we all piled in line to get our dinner. It was delicious, of course, and now after a good brat and tiring day of heat, gelato, and fun, I can call it quits before tomorrow’s adventures! More tomorrow as we head to Germany...
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