VENICE!!

I am so excited to share our photos from Venice!

We squeezed a lot into our Italy trip, so we had a little less than 24 hours in Venice. We quickly fell in love with Venice and were sad to leave so soon! But we made the most of our time there and soaked in every moment!

We walked the canals, took photos, watched the sunset from a bridge overlooking a small canal, window shopped, and ate seafood next to the water after dark. It was very romantic :)

The next morning we woke up SUPER early for an Airbnb photoshoot experience I booked. It ended up being an incredible way to see the city, because we had the early morning streets completely to ourselves! The city was so peaceful and quiet, with just the locals preparing for the day. It was so neat to see how everything works behind the scenes in Venice. Boats are used for literally everything, from unloading food into restaurants, to picking up the garbage.

I will do another blog post with some of our favorites from the photoshoot, so stay tuned!

Shortly after the photoshoot we had another Airbnb experience where we learned "How to Row like a Venetian." This was SO FUN! The guys who run it are locals who are trying to get people excited about using old fashioned boats in Venice instead of motorized boats. It's better for the environment, maintaining the culture of the community, as well as for tourism. Our instructor was very friendly and nice. He took time to teach us the correct rowing technique, and helped us along the way. Braden caught on super quick...me, not so much! His dog really wanted to come out on the water too, so we had him jump onboard and it made the experience even more authentic. Even though I struggled, it was fun to feel connected to the locals and their history.

Once we were back on land (sorta), we allowed ourselves to get lost and explore the city for a few hours before grabbing a bite and heading to the train station. The whole time we were in Venice we kept thinking, "It would be so fun to bring our kids here! They would absolutely LOVE it." We really hope to go back to Venice with our family someday and spend 4+ days there! It was such a charming, incredible, place!

*shot on Portra 400 Film, rated at 200 ISO