Day 9: Mango

Today was Sarah's first day really seeing Venice. We had saved the tour of the Doge's palace for today because we thought Sarah would want to see it to. The palace has a beautiful courtyard and rooms decorated with gold. My favorite room had very large, highly inaccurate maps on the walls. Amy really enjoyed the rooms with red and gold walls. Sarah liked the Senate Hall because it was huge, and Sarah thinks bigger is better. There was also a collection of weaponry, including some swords that were far too large for anyone to draw and some pretty crazy horse armor. (photo of us in the courtyard below.)

We went to lunch at a nice restaurant where I had some very al dente ravioli with smoked ricotta and Sarah had her first Italian pasta. Amy tried the melon and ham that we have seen many locals eating. Amy did not think it was that great.

Next we visited the Basilica of San Marco. Amy and I had already been, but Sarah enjoyed the tour. Afterwards we wandered the streets and took Sarah to our favorite glass shop. At the shop we asked the shop keeper his favorite gelateria. He pointed us to a gelateria where we'd already been and had tried the dark chocolate which was the winner of that day. Amy and I both got the dark chocolate, which was still excellent, but we felt we could not pick the same flavor twice. I also tried the mango, Amy's second flavor was raspberry, and Sarah had the mango in addition to the lemon. All three of us picked the mango as Flavor of the Day.

As we wandered further into the city, we ended up in the Jewish ghetto, which was preserved in honor of those people that died in the holocaust. Here we enjoyed a beautiful square and some monuments. (photos below)

Finally we went home after a stop Aat our local grocery store. Tomorrow we head to Milan!

By the way, Sarah claims this seagull (shown below) is not fat. Your thoughts?