First stop in Italy was in Verona to see Juliet’s balcony. And to have my first of MANY gelatos. There are vineyards everywhere in Italy, so pretty. And because there are so many vineyards in Europe wine is cheaper than water!!! So basically I had wine with every meal, I was being economical. 😉 Verona was a very pretty small town. A great place for a quick stop and to have lunch. Its on the way to Venice from Switzerland.
Venice is the most beautiful pictures you can imagine next to the Swiss Alps!! My roommate, another girl, and myself decided to ditch the optional dinner offered by our tour and go by ourselves to Venice for the night. It ended up being better and less expensive. The optional dinner was $85 and included walking around, no thank you. We split a pizza, had pasta, and wine for $32 plus the shuttle, not bad. If you are not staying on the actual island most hotels offer shuttles to take you there and back. They are usually pretty cheap. We got a little lost in the canals buts that’s ok we made it to St. Marks anyway. It was beautiful at night with the lights and safer than I thought. We walked around the canals and narrow alleys all night. However we walked in the safe alleys not any that weren’t lit or looked scary. The main alley ways have street signs on the corner of houses and signs that point you to St Marks square. Best restaurants to eat at night are next to the Grand Canal; they are all cheaper at night. Don’t eat at the same restaurants during the day they are very expensive. Find a nice one tucked into the canals.
Our dinner- 
Venice at night:
The next day we came back with the tour group and had a gondola ride. I heard they were not great but it was for us. We had a guy serenade us from another gondola with a little guitar. It’s best to go to a gondola place than ride in a personally owned one- that way you know you will get a longer ride and not ripped off. The canals didnt smell like Ive heard either.
After our gondola ride we got free time to walk around in Venice. The stuff that I had read on Venice made me think you had to take boats to get around, you don’t. Its a very walkable island with bridges connecting everything. So we just walked around the island. We went back to the Rialto bridge and Grand canal and then hung out in St Marks square until we left for our cruise to Burano.
After our free time in Venice we went to Burano on a boat. It was so pretty! Colorful picturesque houses. They use to not have addresses so they would find their house by the color they were. Now they have updated them.
Here are some I put filters on. Its from the app camera awesome on my iPhone. The originals are on the left.The originals are pretty awesome themselves but I also like the filters. 
Travel Lover 