Today begins our journey down the Italian peninsula toward Naples. We hadn't realized it when we purchased the seat reservations, but this train passes through about every major Italian city one might want to visit. Beginning in Venice, we then head through Bologna, Florence, and Rome before arriving in Naples - and all that in 5 hours. Praise God for high speed trains! We're writing this post from our seats (9C & 9D) on car 7 of train 9419. It's a packe...

Our last morning to wake up on dry land! We had an early breakfast and went for one last walk through Venice before leaving for the cruise terminal. It was already getting warm, so we were looking forward to the pool right away. It really is amazing how empty the city is before all of the shops open and tourists hit the streets. We checked out of our hotel and got some advice from one of the hotel employees to hop on a boat called the Alilaguna to go straight to...

Today was a pretty laid back day! After seeing several sights yesterday, we took today to wander the city. We started the morning by making our way to the Rialto Bridge, a bridge built in the 1500s that crosses the Grand Canal. We passed under this bridge on our ride yesterday, which was definitely better than seeing it along with hundreds of our nearest and dearest (slightly sweaty) friends. One of the best parts of Venice is the fact that every corner you turn ...

Yesterday, Sarah spoke of a labyrinth in the gardens of Verona. Today, we made it to the actual labyrinth of Italy...the streets of Venice. When Jon and his friend Nick studied abroad in Greece during college, they backpacked around Europe and spent only an afternoon in Venice. That timeframe, coupled with the city's many canals and narrow winding streets was just enough to freak them out. Thankfully we will have more than 5 hours to see the city (and recover...