Ah, Venice

We have finally arrived in Italy.

We arrived at the hotel around 7:30pm and had dinner at the hotel shortly after we arrived. The dinner was delicious... We had spaghetti as the "first" course and some kind of pork dish as the "second" course. They kept scooping spaghetti onto my plate until it was full of pasta... That's the portion size I prefer for spaghetti. After dinner, we went to bed.

The next day was a full day in Venice. We arrived around 10:30am and had a walking tour at 11. After the walking tour, we wandered around the city for a few hours. It doesn't take long to get lost in Venice- all the streets look the same. You just keep walking over bridges and then you stumble across a big plaza of some sorts. During our wandering, we got some gelato, pizza, and espresso. We also bought plenty of souvenirs... But can't go into details on specifics because some of the items purchased may or may not be future gifts. They are pretty big on their masks there... Spoiler alert, we didn't buy any masks (thank goodness).

After wandering around and having a few snacks, we hopped aboard a gondola for a trip through the canals. During the gondola ride, I was able to act out a scene from Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade when he first arrives in Venice. The scene has been posted to Facebook for your viewing pleasure. I also briefly sang Mambo Italiano during the gondola ride.

The day in Venice concluded with a Venetian feast... This was the moment I had been waiting for all day. The foods that were placed in front of me were the following: bruschetta, various meats, calamari, risotto, gnocchi with tomato sauce, penne with carbonara, spaghetti with pesto, and more gelato. It was served family style for the table... When other tables in our group noticed that our food was going pretty fast, they started giving our table (me) their extra food. Those who know me know that I cannot let food be thrown out. I had to finish up another table's gnocchi, penne, and spaghetti. Oh, and there was extra gelato which was given to me. All the years of having unlimited pasta ate Olive Garden had trained my stomach to be able to consume massive amounts of pasta... My whole life has been preparing for this moment of pigging out in Italy. I came... I saw... I conquered. Even the waiter gave me a look of kudos #italiankudos

I just couldn't get over the fact they gave us 3 pastas in one meal. Oh, and they also provided bottomless wine... Megan took more advantage of that than I. During the meal, we had somebody entertaining us by playing songs on a saxophone. Some familiar tunes that the group sang along to. During one of the songs, Megan danced with this Ivan fella from our group. I warned Ivan afterwards to stay away from my wife!