Venice was a really cool city because it is all on the water and there are NO cars. To get around they have Vaparretos which are basically buses on the water. It is such a beautiful city, and it is actually sinking which is sad because I guess that means someday it would be a city any longer! It was very touristy, but that wasn't all bad for us because we love the little tourist shopping bazaars. And the one by the Rialto bridge (right by our hotel!) was amazing. Great murano glass jewelry. Murano is one of the islands of venice, we went there to see glass blowing demonstrations. It was cool to see them make a figure out of a ball of hot glass. They make it look so easy, but im sure its actually very difficult. We also went to the Jewish ghetto in venice. It was the first ever ghetto in the world. Now it is mostly young people and artist types, but there is still a small orthodox community in the area. We were walking along the river and saw some of them eating matzah and they saw us eyeing it and asked if we were jewish and then they invited us into their restaurant and gave us Passover food (homemade matzah!) and wine. It was very nice. They also invited us to Shabbat dinner that night but we knew we would be stuck there all night and wanted to experience venice so we didn't end up going back. But it was cool. Other tourists came in off the street and they offered everyone food and were so welcoming. The food in venice was nothing great, especially since shira doesn't eat seafood and that was about 90% of their menu. I had a little run in with a sea bass, I wont go into detail, but I don't think Ill be eating sea bass for a long while... All in all, we had an AMAZING time, wish you all could have been there too! Its crazy to think I just jet-setted around italy for a week with my sister! And Ive basically been doing that for the past 4 months (albeit not in quite as nice accommodations, thank you daddy!) I come home in less than 3 weeks!! Hopefully will see you all soon!!