Wedding Blog

Part 1: The New Mrs. Toucan Gets In Trouble with THE MAN

Other than the little trouble that I got in at the airport, the rest of the trip to Italy went rather smoothly. We boarded our Swiss Air flight, which I LOVED because they gave us Swiss chocolate (I guess I’m pretty easy to please!), and we were off to Venice!

Though Mr. Toucan and I both didn’t get much sleep on the plane (we took a night flight out of Boston so that we didn’t have to rush our day-after-BBQ), we arrived in Venice bright-eyed and bushy-tailed!

Mr. Toucan waiting for the water bus.

Here I am waiting for the water bus. I actually am not bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but sunglasses and my excitement hide my tiredness pretty darn well.

While our travel agent, and almost every guide book we read, told us it was worth it to spend the extra money to take a water taxi, we chose to take the water bus, anyway. Why? Because we’re cheap. We ended up having to wait for the water bus for awhile, and with all the stops it made along the way, it took us about an hour to get from the airport to the hotel. However, it really wasn’t that bad, and we saved about 80 Euros* (which is like 125 US buckaroos!)!

Our hotel, Hotel Flora, though not super fancy, was in an excellent location by St. Mark’s Square.

Mr. Toucan in front of our hotel.

and, as an extra bonus, we also had complimentary garden breakfasts every morning:

Mr. Toucan enjoying his morning cappuccino.

Though we still made sure to see all the Venice must-sees and dos like visit St. Mark’s Square:

In front of St. Mark’s Cathedral

Side trip to Murano:

“Free boat ride” to Murano. While the boat ride TO Murano was free, they sometimes forget to tell you that you are on your own to get back!

Glassblowing at a Murano Factory

See the Grand Canal and Rialto Bridge:

Visiting the Rialto Bridge

And take a gondola ride:

We were told by everyone that we HAD to take a gondola ride on our honeymoon, so I’m posting this picture. Unfortunately, on a romantic gondola ride, Mrs. Toucan does not have enough class to not show her panties to everyone on the Grand Canal. Since does not want to also flash everyone in the entire Weddingbee community, as well, the above picture is censored.

Though I mentioned this before, our favorite part of visiting Venice, was just to “go exploring,” which really means just getting lost and taking in all the sights.
I especially liked the smaller canals, because they look so mysterious and secret.

I like this picture, because if you look you’ll see on the right of the picture a road that just stops, and leads right up to a small canal. There were so many of these “dead ends” everywhere, and they are possibly the reason why the Toucans were so good at getting lost.

Canal with lots of gondolas

And lastly, I show you pictures of food, because I would say the good eats were DEFINITELY one of the best parts of the trip! Our first night in Venice, we went to a fantastic restaurant recommended by our hotel. Mr. Toucan and I still talk about what restaurant was our favorite during the entire trip, and though neither of us could really pick one, this one was definitely up there:

Delicious, delicious appetizer. My mouth still salivates when I see this picture.

Toucans at dinner

I’ve decided that homemade pasta might be one of the best things on earth.

Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of the restaurant (boo, Mrs. Toucan, boo!)! I did however keep all the business cards that we got from each restaurant, so I can start digging through them if any one wants any restaurant recommendations!