POTS and Pans: Remember That Time We Hung Out In Venice?

I got to return to Venice! It's definitely my favorite city in Italy so far.

My reason for going was even better than the place itself, though. I got to see Michelle and Sam who are visiting from London!!!

Oh, and I got to leave this freezing, snowy city behind for a day.

I'm just glad they don't stop public transit here when it snows. It made me a little nervous to see the trains traveling on tracks covered in a few inches of snow, but I guess it's not a big deal.

I love Venice, but it is incredibly hard to get around. I used google maps on my phone and still had an insane amount of trouble. I got lost when I was about a minute away from the hotel. After 30 minutes of wandering, I asked someone if he knew where the Hotel Bartolomeo was. He pointed around the corner. Yup. It was literally 20 seconds away around some little side street.

I waited in the lobby about an hour for Sam and Michelle. Then the concierge got a phone call and I knew immediately who was talking quite loudly into his ear and asking how on earth to get to the hotel. Luckily, I was able to help. Sam and Michelle got lost 20 seconds away from the hotel just like me.

After that ordeal, we picked up some pizza (a piadina for me) and a piece of Sacher torte and a scone thing-y.

I tried to warn them that Sacher tortes are not like chocolate cake, but they found out the hard way. I have to say, I wasn't the biggest fan of the Sacher torte at first, but it's growing on me.

Sam being a creeper in the morning.

A mystery item from the free breakfast.

Cheese!

I love all the tiny packages they have here. Tiny nutella packets, tiny cheese packets...

Anyways, back to the fact that we were in Venice.

Hanging out in front of the Duomo.

The Palazzo Ducale (Doge Palace).

Me pretending to almost fall in the water and then actually almost falling into the water.

I'm classy.

Michelle and Sam being in awe of laundry hanging in the streets and then proceeding to take one thousand pictures of it. So many pictures that Michelle managed to run out of memory on her camera.

We stopped for cappuccino and espresso as I told them it was a necessary experience to have in Italy.

These cute little birdies joined us.

Look at those smiles.

Sam discovered the beauty of the two-liter water bottle.

And we went on a gondola!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our gondola guy is totally photo-bombing our picture.

It looks like I took a picture of the same thing over and over but I swear I didn't. It's just that each canal is so pretty.

After working up an appetite by sitting in the gondola, we went to lunch.

I got the 4 stagione pizza--one of my favorites. I liked this one even more than usual though because it had spicy salami instead of gross sausage.

Michelle had simple pasta al pomodoro.

We parted in some random piazza.

It took me ten minutes to figure out which way to go to get to the train. Record time! I do love looking like an idiot as I walk around to each pathway and then turn around to try a different one, all the while staring intently at my phone and cursing at it under my breath.

I miss them already. Actually, I missed them 30 seconds after they left.

So, on the way to the train, I drowned my sorrows by ogling at all of the bakery windows.

They had so many different kinds of torrone.