Alora!

Alora (guessing you spell it that way) is an Italian interjection that our guide Stephania taught us yesterday. Since then we've been saying it all the time. It means literally nothing and it's something you say when you don't have anything to say. Like Americans say "sooo..." or "ummm...".

This very second I am sitting on the steps in St. Mark's Square with an Italian band playing next to us. The square is packed! It's sunny and hot and just perfecto!

Today was a long day of sightseeing. We keep saying we can't believe this is only really day one! We have done and seen so much. Today we toured St. Mark's, the Doge's Palace, St. Mark's Basilica, the Museo Correr, shopped on the Rialto Bridge, took a gondola ride around the Grand Canal (where our gondola driver was singing his own little tune of "Bella bella bella mozzarellaaa!"), saw a glass blowing demo at Murano, strolled through the smallest of streets around Venice eating gondola shaped pizza.... now Jill is in the middle of St. Mark's feeding pigeons! One just perched on her shoulder!

Francesca cried in the middle of St. Mark's today. LOL! We took a picture in front of the palace and then she looked at it on the screen, said it was so beautiful and broke down crying. Everyone was like "OMG, what's wrong?!?!" and she got all embarrassed and giggled it off. She is so cute. But that just shows you how overwhelming this place is.

Mom and dad, you can stop worrying now. She only cried for a minute. ;)

We have a 5:15 boat ride back to Lido. We had the option of staying in the square but apparently it gets expensive and super touristy. So, we are opting to go back to the main street in Lido where we were yesterday for the night.

I took about 300 pictures so far. Everything is just so picture-worthy. You just can't believe what you are looking at.

Jill started collecting photos of every good looking Italian man we've seen. Seriously, Jersey guids got NOTHING on these guys.

Off the enjoy the last half hour we have in the square. We are having a blast.

Alora.

P.S. Gelato update:

4) Yogurt flavored
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