Zzzzzz

With the Euro to dollar conversion rate the 10 pounds I've gained (okay maybe 12) are more like 13.1. But cutting down on gelato? I mean, get real.

The boys and I caught a shuttle at 7:30 AM from our hotel in Rome and jumped on a 10:10 AM Alitalia flight to Venice. Flight number 8 of our total 11. It was about 45 minutes from take off to landing - just enough for a little nap. David calculated that we'd had 10 hours of sleep in three days. (Trav, you would have loved Israel but would have been SEVERELY sleep deprived!)

The weather in Venice is great - temps in the low 80's - so we feel we are in heaven. The water taxi from the airport rocks you out at 100 Euro for up to 5 people and gets you to San Marco in 45 mins. But we decided on the 'water bus', which is local transport, takes fifteen minutes longer and is 13 Euro each. That leaves more in the budget for gelato.

Our hotel, the Bucintoro, is right off the Arsenale stop so it was just a short walk over one of Venice's bridges. Reason #34 for small suitcases; up and down all the steps of cities, Metro's and hotels. Elevators are ridiculously small.

Our hotel is amazing! Each room is decorated like the room of a famous ship and the view from the room that I share with Drew is to die for! We are just a little bit south of the super touristy area, so once you cross that little bridge, the streets are quiet and calm. Our bathroom is green marble and has one of those special feet washers! :) The only downside is that the beds, like every other Italian hotel I've slept in, are hard as a rock. I told Drew that it has to be the hardest bed we've slept in thus far and he reminded me that I haven't slept in some of the roll aways that he has.

We freshened up and hit the neighborhood around our hotel. Its not touristy so we got great images of life in Venice.

By the time we had lunch (a little tuna, some pizza and lasagna) it was evident that the lack of sleep from our whirlwind Israel/Jordan/Egypt legs were catching up. We were all very tired but Daniel especially wasn't feeling super. We agreed to 'suck it up' and last until 6PM or so and squeeze in some sights. First up the bridge of sighs, which sadly has adjacent buildings being renovated and looks a little Las Vegas style.

Of course the Campanile and St. Mark's square...

Which is not complete without feeding the flying rats...

We walked over to the Rialto Bridge, stopping to take a photo that I suggested Dave put on his 'Facebook' profile...

We tried to 'get lost' in the streets on the way back to our 4 star, hard bed hotel and almost succeeded at one point. We medicated Daniel with two doses of gelato and put him to bed. Drew asked, "Mom, can we sleep in really late tomorrow? Like until 8?"