February 14

Day 45

Happy Valentines Day.

We only had the morning to spend in Florence before we were to take a train to Venice, so we decided that we would take a bus and go visit Fiesole, a small hillside town just outside of Florence.

Fiesole was a nice change.  It was super quiet.   We definitely avoided the tourists here.
The bus dropped us off and the first place we headed to was an old church.  It was just across the road from where we got off.

Just behind the church, there was a small street that went further up a hill.  We didn't know where it would lead us, but we decided to take a walk up.   At the top of the hill, we came to a park with some pretty interesting trees, but an amazing view of Florence below.   Wow.   I loved it up here!

We walked just a short way up further and the little road ended at another old church and what used to be a convent.  We had a little walk around.

The short walk further up the road from the park

One of the tiny convent rooms

Inside the small church

Strange painting in the church.

Courtyard in the middle of the church/convent

 We continued on and found a little pathway that led away from the church.   Down the pathway we found an old graveyard and a few places that had some views...

The path down from the old church/convent

A view of Fiesole

Roman ruins down below us.

 Well, we ran out of time to explore much further.  We walked down some side streets and then hopped back on the bus to go back to Florence.   We then went to the train station and said good-bye to Florence as we headed to Venice.

Stepping out of the train station in Venice was like stepping into a whole new world.  You step out and right there was the main large canal, full of all different kinds of boats.  Another place that felt very surreal to be walking through.   Our hotel was just a block or so away from the train station.  With it being Valentines Day, there were a lot of guys selling stuff in the streets, particularly they were selling roses.   It was a bit of a nuisance to have them constantly harassing us.  Cam did buy me one rose one the way to the hotel.   Our hotel was on a tiny narrow street (I could touch the buildings on both sides if I stretched my arms out wide).   Our room had all glass lighting, I assume was made in Murano, and the walls were entirely covered by fabric.   It was the perfect room for Valentines Day.

The very first thing when you step out of the doors of the train station

Our hotel room on Valentines Day.

After dropping off our luggage and checking into the hotel, we decided to take the public transit boats down the main canal.  There we can get off at the far end of Venice, walk around a bit, grab a bite to eat for dinner and then attend the music concert we had tickets for later that night.

Standing on the big bridge by our hotel that goes over the main canal

The famous Rialto Bridge.  Unfortunately it has a lot of graffiti on it. It looks like Venice has a big graffiti problem. More so than any other place we visited in Europe.  So sad.

Sunset in Venice

Some pretty amazing stores.  Already closed, so we just looked through the window. That dress looks like something out of a fairytale.  How fun would it be to wear something like that?

Couldn't find a restaurant we liked near the location of the concert, so we just popped into a little pizzeria place. The food was okay.

First time having gnocci.  It was on my list of things to try while in Italy.

Waiting for our concert to start inside this old church.

The music concert was so nice.  The music was beautiful.  Although I must say that the guy who played the cello stole the show... I've never seen someone so into the music he played.  The guy moved his head around so much, it was like watching someone have an epilepsy attack.  I wonder if he has whiplash after each performance?   And his facial expressions were priceless.   He made it a very entertaining performance.  We loved it.
We walked back to our hotel afterwards.  Venice is like a maze!  Especially at night.   We took a lot of small streets back cause we couldn't seem to find the main one and there weren't too many people out and about still, so there was no one to follow.

It was a great Valentines Day.   I can't think of a better place to spend it and it was only made better by spending it with the one person I love so much.