{Flashback}: Day 3

The nice part about having kids is that because they wake up early we get to start our day earlier than the other tourists. It's great. We hit Rialto Bridge and the Rialto Market, one of the most touristy places in Venice, first thing this morning. It was neat to see the Venetians already hustling and bustling getting ready for the flow of people.

You know me. I love me some food and I LOVE me some European markets even more! Tim has once said to me, "You and your pictures of food...." Oh! The happiness it brings to me...

The Rialto Market is where all the locals buy their food and where restaurant owners buy their food for the day.
You better believe I bought some food too! This is one place in Venice where the sellers don't really speak English and yes, loved it!

I bought uva, pere e mele and stuffed it in our backpack for our day.
{P.S. Markets are a great way to cut down on costs of food when traveling. Eating out for every meal can get really costly plus not to mention kinda gross. And a major plus, how can you say no to fresh food and an authentic experience abroad??}
Marisa was so squimish and scared of the seafood section. She kept saying she was scared of the octopuses and crabs. She doesn't like seeing some of them still moving either.
In general, Venetians are so warm and friendly, which I will talk about later, and these seafood sellers were no exception. When they saw that I was taking pictures they immediately hugged each other, looked at my camera, and said, "We are the most handsome men in Rialto!"

After the market we decide to wander over to Santa Maria della Salute. Along the way we some pretty interesting things.

I happened to look over and down at the girls when I saw this...

I quickly fell to the floor flat on my stomach to get this shot. I wonder what they were talking about...

Salute is located directly across our hotel. It is a stunning sight at night from the hotel's quaint dock. We walked around inside a bit and casually hung out outside for awhile. Fun place for the girls to climb, wander, and run to their little hearts content.

{Side note: Since Barcelona, and out of necessity, I have grown a hard outer shell here and I can now dish it back like a European; with a little room for improvement, of course. In Shannon's words, "You have found your mojo!" Yep, I think I have. There were, of course, gypsy beggars here and there in Venice and of course, right at the entrance of the Salute. Looking straight ahead and ignoring the gypsy I walked through the door only to have her reach out her arm to casually bump into my legs so I can stop to give her money. She was fake crying, moaning "Senora...Senora...", and being so annoy. I suddenly had this really, really strong urge then to turn around and ... kick her cup.
I know, I'm a horrible person what can I say.}

I like the water bus stops in Venice. Way different than our red buses in London! It was fun to stand and wait for our boat to take us right across the canal to our hotel.

For dinner tonight we ate at a really yummy restaurant called Le Cafe. It was the best place we had eaten at so far. Nothing in Venice, food wise, blew our socks off, but it was still definitely really good. Italians can't mess up pizza and pasta!
On another side note, I kind of wish I was Italian. The language is gorgeous and imagine all the better eating I would be doing... oh, pinch me.