Magic

Venice is the most magical place we have ever been. The day was filled with wandering and getting lost- in a good way. Brad experienced his first and second best pizzas he has ever had. And here we thought Village Host in Belmont would hold that title forever! I had so many sweets I nearly made myself sick. Gelato at 1030am? Yes please!
St Marks was by far our most favorite place to people, bird, and architecture watch. There was also a lot of very expensive shopping to do, but we had a gondola ride planned for the evening so we behaved ourselves. After a short siesta we made our way back to Rialto bridge to have some dinner. There were several places to choose from, with waiters who could have been mistaken for car salesmen. We could not get further than the second restaurant before we were practically forcefully sat down and handed bellinis on the house. Of course Brad, being who he is, inspected every other table at the restaurant and took note that nobody else had a bellini, and strongly suggested I refrain from drinking for fear the Venetians had a plan to poison us. I ignored him and drank not only mine, but his as well. I figured we were in Italy and if I was going to die, I would do it in style, and a little tipsy ;)
After dinner, Brad apparently turned into an alcoholic and would not let us do anything until he had a drink. I started calling him "vacation brad" because he was acting very strange with the paranoia and alcoholism. We finally got our drinks from a tiny little bar that had several drinks to choose from, but suspiciously only let us choose from a menu on the wall to the right, with choices such as "orgasm" and the ever popular sex on the beach. I asked for something good with vodka, and the bartender shouted "FANTA! FANTA? FANTA!" until somebody else at the bar said "vawdkuh" and he finally got it. We took our drinks to rialto bridge to drink and had a great time canal watching.
After some time we made it to the gondola and Brad picked our gondolier quite selectively; he wanted somebody who "looked like he knew what he was doing." We got a very nice 3rd generation gondolier from Murano, took a fantastic ride through the grand canal and small canal and heard about many of the historic sites. As we emerged from the small canal and just before Rialto bridge, vacation brad starting acting weirder and weirder and suddenly he was on one knee. I could not believe what I was seeing until he said, "Babe, we have been together a long time and I would like to ask you to marry me. Will you marry me?" and brought out the most gorgeous ring I have ever seen. I said, "OF COURSE!" Suddenly vacation Brad went away, and it was just the two of us giggling and so happy to be together in the most romantic place in the world. Our gondolier said it was good luck to kiss under Rialto bridge, and we did so as he took a picture.
It was a spectacular evening and the most magical I have ever had. Venice is my new favorite place :)
We are not in the best internet cafe and pictures are not working... so we will have to load them later, boo!
Ciao!