Adventures in Italy 9: Istanbul

As I mentioned before, in order to save a lot of money on our flights to Italy and back, we had to fly Delta to Vegas, Norwegian Airlines to Rome via Copenhagen, Turkish Airlines to L.A. via Istanbul, and Delta back to Salt Lake City.

So it was that on Monday, June 20, 2016, we flew from Venice, Italy to Istanbul, Turkey, where we had an overnight layover. I had always wanted to visit Istanbul, and this gave us just enough time to go out and get a taste of it.

Our flight arrived at the Sabiha Gökçen airport, which is in Asia, and our hotel and the airport we flew out of were in Europe. Below you can see the bridge that goes from Asia (on the left) to Europe (off to the right), with the Mediterranean Sea in the distance.

Istanbul is very strategically placed on the route from Europe to Asia; and spans the Bosphorus strait, which is the only way to get from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean sea and thus out to the rest of the world. That makes it a Big Deal to countries like Romania, Ukraine and Georgia who have no other access to the ocean. It's also a big deal to Russia, as one of their few outlets to the sea.

In its long history, Istanbul served as the capital city of the Roman Empire (330-395), back when it was called "Byzantium"; the Byzantine Empire (395-1204 and 1261-1453); the Latin Empire (1204-1261), after the country was taken during the 4th crusade; and the Ottoman Empire (1453-1922), when it was renamed Istanbul.

Once on the ground, there was clear evidence that we were in a Muslim country. (We made sure none of us wore shorts that day, out of respect for the local culture). We saw some women with the full burka (only eyes showing), and others with various levels of head coverings.

Woman in a burka in the Istanbul airport

While we waited in line, I pulled out my 3-way splitter, and we all listened to Istanbul (was Constantinople) by We Might Be Giants:

Istanbul was Constantinople,
Now it's Istanbul not Constantinople,
Been a long time gone, old Constantinople,
Now it's Turkish Delight on a moonlit night. 

Every gal in Constantinople
Lives in Istanbul, not Constantinople,
So if you've got a date in Constantinople,
She'll be waiting in Istanbul.

When we got to the front of the passport control line, the man said we didn't have a visa, which was required to enter the country. There was a moment there where I wondered if it took a few weeks to get one, and we were going to have to spend the night in an airport instead of the hotel we already booked. But no, we just had to go pay someone 75€ to get a visa for all of us and then we made it out.

As arranged, Mr. Guy was waiting for us with a sign that said "Mr. Wilson" on it, and he drove us from Asia to Europe and right to our hotel.



We saw cool mosques as we drove along.

The Hilton we stayed at was the nicest place we had stayed on our whole trip (and "free" because of points from a Hilton credit card). It was about 10:30 p.m. by the time we got settled there, but I really wanted to go see the Blue Mosque, which was one mile down the main road from our hotel, and everyone said that it was plenty safe, so Linette and I went off on an adventure. Erika decided to stick around the hotel so she could talk with family and friends and because she was exhausted. (We were touring Venice all morning that same day, after all).

As Linette and I walked out of the hotel, the call for prayer sounded, and it was eerie to hear that being played from every direction with nobody seeming to notice anything out of the ordinary. (Click the video below to hear it).

We also came across several ice cream places, all of which had a little performance going on, where they would scoop the ice cream with long scoops, trick the customer into almost getting their cone several times, and even touch their nose with the ice cream sometimes.

 As we neared the Blue Mosque, we came across some famous buildings that I don't know what they are (but I found them in Google Maps and put their names in the captions).

Çorlulu Ali Paşa Cami

Firuz Ağa Cami

We were expecting the place to be deserted, since it was after 11p.m. when we arrived at the square outside the Blue Mosque. However, much to our surprise and delight, there was a huge party going on!

It turned out that it was still Ramadan, and during that month, people fast all day, and then feast and party into the night. The whole town appeared to have turned out, along with their little kids and even babies in strollers.

There was some famous guy walking around talking to people with a camera crew following him around. (Since the main point of our trip was Italy, I hadn't figured out much about Turkey, so I felt very much like I was walking around clueless with no idea what I was seeing. But it was cool!)

Finally we approached the Blue Mosque, or, as it is officially known, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Turkish: Sultan Ahmet Camii). It was built between 1609 and 1616 and is nicknamed the Blue Mosque because of its hand-painted tiles on the interior.

Blue Mosque from its courtyard.

Here is a panorama of its inner courtyard.

Blue Mosque from its courtyard.

There was a dress code to get in, which included long pants for men and a head covering for women. So we went out and got Linette a hijab or something like that, and went in.

Inside, there was a display of many posters that teach about Islam. Sort of like the visitor's center at Temple Square.

In fact, one of the displays listed The Articles of Faith (in Islam):

The moon was just rising over the mosque.



Even though the Blue Mosque is open 24 hours, we were not able to go inside the main building, because a Ramadan prayer service was going on inside.

However, when we came outside, there was an amazing light show just starting up, projected onto the side of the mosque itself. It was amazing. It was sort of like Disneyland's "World of Color", Islam-style. (You can watch a video of it below).

Linette and I just sat on the grass and enjoyed the show.

Just across from the Blue Mosque is Hagia Sophia (Latin for "Holy Wisdom"), which was originally a Greek Orthodox Christian basilica (church), constructed in 537 A.D. It served as the seat of the Patriarch of Constantinople until 1453, when it was converted to a mosque (at the same time as the city became Istanbul). In 1935, it was secularized and converted into a museum.

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul.

For some reason, everyone was buying corn on the cob.



So, when in Istanbul...  (Must...resist...corny...joke....Too late!)

The Blue Mosque is surrounded by so many trees that it was hard to get a very good overview shot of it.

Across the plaza, a huge crowd gathered for a live broadcast of a TV show featuring Dr. Nihat Hatipoğlu, who is a famous scholar and theologian.

It was fun listening to the violin, flute and drums do little ditties while everyone waited for the show to start. We waited almost an hour, though, and finally at about 1:30 a.m., we called it a night and started to head back to the hotel. Of course, that's just when the show finally started, so we watched for 5 minutes, realized we had no idea what they were talking about, and headed back. Erika had been a little worried, telling people "My parents went wandering off in Istanbul, and it's 1:30 a.m., and they're still not back..." I suppose if we hadn't returned, she would have been in a bit of a pickle.

The next morning we had almost two hours before Mr. Guy was driving us to the airport, and I still wanted to see the inside of the Blue Mosque, so I busted a move, bought a rail token (then used it to enter the wrong place, so bought it again...), and rode the train down to near the Blue Mosque again.

Here is what the Byzantine cathedral / Ottoman mosque / current museum, Hagia Sophia, looks like in the day.

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul.

And here is a view of the Blue Mosque in the day.

I had to take my shoes off and carry them around in a plastic bag, but the inside of the Blue Mosque was indeed beautiful.

Interior of the Blue Mosque

Blue Mosque

I got back to the hotel just in time to grab stuff and people and jump in the van for a 40 minute ride to the airport.

Fortunately, all the signs at the airport are in both Turkish and English.

It was also convenient that we were traveling so light.

...unlike these folks who were moving from Azerbaijan to somewhere else, taking with them everything they needed to live for a few years. They were international teachers from Tennessee or something.

Security there was intense. They scanned our bags 3 times, checked our passports 6 different times, and Erika got pulled into an extra security check line that went really slowly. So although we got to the airport over two hours early, Erika was still stuck in line with 10 minutes to go. I stayed by the boarding entrance to make sure it didn't close without us and to stall if necessary. Fortunately, Erika made it through.

(Security seemed ridiculous to us at the time. However, this very airport was bombed exactly one week later, killing 41 people and injuring over 200 more, and grounding all flights for a couple of days, so we felt very blessed to have gotten through without any incident. Oh, and then a few weeks later there was a coup attempt that put the town into an uproar and grounded all flights for a few days. So we picked the right week to be there.)

Once again, we found that what my cousin Robin had reported to me was true: Turkish airlines had very nice food, and an onboard chef with a chef hat who mingled with the passengers. I was adventurous and tried the yogurt-based Turkish drink, found that I couldn't handle the saltiness, and tried the lemonade with mint instead.

I think this is Greenland.

This little red-headed girl in the row in front of me was playing with two toy airplanes. At one point she handed one of them to me, so I did the only thing I could: I started flying the airplane around slowly with appropriate sound effects.

Then she handed her other plane to a young Turkish-looking man across the aisle from her, and he flew it around with sound effects, too. I thought that was so cute.

It had been a very long trip, and we caught sleep when we could. (We're pretending to make fun of Linette here, but really I envied her ability to sleep on a plane).

It was a great feeling to be welcomed back to the United States of America. I remember my grandma Merrill telling about how she always felt a sense of relief when they touched down in America after traveling to other countries.

Unfortunately, we got stuck in a line that was over an hour long to get through passport control in Los Angeles, because I got flagged by the passport machine. Apparently there's some bad guy with my same name that they're looking for. Fortunately, we had plenty of time before our last flight, so it didn't matter much.

Soon we were on our final flight home from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City.

The kids picked us up at the airport, and it was wonderful to see them again! We found that they had decorated the house with streamers and signs.

It was really a party atmosphere!

There was a sign saying "Happy Birthday, Dad", because of my birthday a week before.

And then a week after that was Father's Day, so there was a sign for that, too.

And there was another sign saying "Happy Birthday, Jared" since it was his birthday that day.

And then there was this double-purpose green slime birthday cake with Jared's candles on top and mine sticking out the side. What clever kids!

Here's the cake all aflame.

I had worried before the trip about something going wrong that would prevent us from getting to Europe in the first place or that we'd have a problem with the car; or get kidnapped in Istanbul or something. But all of the flights were reasonably on time, we had no accidents or tickets with the rental van; we didn't get anything stolen the whole time; we avoided the bombing and the coup attempt; and we saw a gazillion things.

I hope the girls enjoyed the trip, and I'm sure they'll have memories and a perspective that will last them a lifetime.

So, after seeing

• the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen;
• the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, fountains and a catacomb in Rome;
• the museums, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peters Basilica in the Vatican City;
• the hill town of Orvieto;
• the sunset, David, cathedrals and art of Florence;
• the cute town of Lucca (with a nice bike ride);
• the leaning tower of Pisa;
• the five coastal towns of Cinque Terre;
• a missionary we knew from Riverton at church in La Spezia;
• the House of Juliet in Verona;
• the canals, back streets, and St. Mark's cathedral in Venice;
• and the Blue Mosque and Ramadan party in Istanbul

it was great to finally be home, safe and sound.

We slept well the first night, but Linette and I were both awake by 2 a.m. (10 a.m. Italy time) the second night, and were up for the duration.

It has taken until today (two months later) to get caught up on things and get this report written up, partly because of a backpacking trip, reunion, and other travel, but it was a grand adventure. And now I'm glad to be home.

Adventures in Italy 8: Venice

In this second-to-last episode, we make our way to Venice. I included both days of Venice (plus the Kartchners other days there) in this one episode, so it's a bit long. There was just too much cool stuff there.

On June 19, 2016, we bade farewell to Monterosso and wended our way towards Venice.

Monterosso in the morning

It was a cloudy day, and the clouds hung low over the hills as we drove. Roger again successfully got us through the narrow, curving mountain roads.

La Spezia

Our first stop was La Spezia, a town on the coast near the southern end of Cinque Terre, where we attended sacrament meeting. A nice lady sat behind all of us and translated. It was testimony meeting, and Sharon bore a beautiful testimony about how we had seen all these depictions of the crucified Christ recently, and she testified that he lived. I felt a very sweet spirit in that little branch.

After the meeting, one of the two missionaries there came up to us and said, "Are you from Riverton?" It turns out that he is from Arizona, but is the nephew of a couple in our ward (Matt & Janalee Laws), and had lived with them for a couple months during a couple summers, so he recognized Erika! So we took this picture with him (he's the one without glasses), and texted it to our friends. It just so happened that his parents were visiting our friends that very day, so they were there when the text arrived. Our friends texted back and said, "Thank you so much! That made us cry!"

Missionaries in La Spezia, including the nephew of a couple in our ward back home.

Roger was excited to finally see a Ferrari on the highway. As you might expect, it passed us.

Red Ferrari kicking our rear.

Verona

Our next stop was Verona, which is the setting for at least two of Shakespeare's plays: most obviously, Two Gentlemen of Verona, which may have been his first play; and most famously, Romeo and Juliet. The town, and especially one little spot in it, were made famous recently by the movie Letters to Juliet, in which people would place love letters between the bricks of the wall in the courtyard below the Juliet balcony.

Shaylee had expressed an interest in seeing the site, so we stopped there along the way.

The first challenge was to park our beastly van...in the spot below.

Roger left it sticking out far enough that he could still just barely open one of the front doors. (When we returned to the van, he actually climbed in through the back door, up and over the luggage!)

Verona has its own Roman arena, completed in 30 A.D. It is the third largest in Italy, after Rome's Colosseum and one at Capua.

The group at the Verona Arena.

The weather was basically perfect during our trip: warm but not too hot, and aside from a little sprinkling in Verona, the only other real rain all week was a long downpour while we drove down the highway that day. There was even hail ("What the...?") and some thunder, but all while we were nice and dry inside the van.

Like many towns in Italy, Verano had cute, narrow streets.

A street in Verona

You are no longer allowed to leave letters in the brick wall at "Juliet's House" (Casa di Giulietta), but you can leave them in a mailbox out front, and there is this graffiti wall that people can attempt to write on.

Graffiti wall, Casa di Giulietta, Verona, Italy

Here is the famous window and balcony, and what Shakespeare had to say on the subject.

But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east and Juliet is the sun! 

Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,

Who is already sick and pale with grief 

That thou her maid art far more fair than she.

Be not her maid, since she is envious;

Her vestal livery is but sick and green, 

And none but fools do wear it. Cast it off.

It is my lady, O, it is my love!

O that she knew she were!

She speaks, yet she says nothing; what of that?

Her eye discourses, I will answer it. 

I am too bold: 'tis not to me she speaks.

Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, 

Having some business, do entreat her eyes

To twinkle in their spheres till they return.

What if her eyes were there, they in her head? 

The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,

As daylight doth a lamp. Her eyes in heaven

Would through the airy region stream so bright

That birds would sing and think it were not night.

See how she leans her cheek upon her hand 

O that I were a glove upon that hand,

That I might touch that cheek! 

On the way out of town, we noticed this sculpture. Finally...pants!

Venice

After searching for longer than you would expect to find a gas station, we drove over the causeway to Venezia (Venice).

And after a bit of anxiety, and after Roger drove 8 stories up the narrow circular ramps to the roof of a parking garage, we finally dropped off our huge van. It had served us well, and we didn't have any accidents or tickets or thefts, so we were very pleased. We also felt great relief to have dropped it off and to be free of it.

Erika had this on her phone.

Here is a view of Venice from the top of the parking garage, overlooking the red roofs of the city.

Below is one of four bridges over the "Grand Canal", the Ponte della Costituzione (ponte=bridge). It was built in 2008 over great protests from some people who thought it looked too modern for Venice. It was supposed to be temporary, but enough people liked it that they kept it.

Ponte della Costituzione

We got a "bus" pass so we could hop on and off the water busses that go down the Grand Canal. There are no cars or roads in Venice once you leave the square where we dropped the van.

Our first water bus was pretty crowded. A lady was directing traffic and was pretty blunt. "You need to get off here?" she said to one guy, "Go away!"

Besides the Grand Canal, most of the canals are small like this.

And most of the streets are narrow as well, being used exclusively for foot traffic.

The Grand Canal is the one wide canal through town that handles most of the serious transportation.

As much as we wanted to explore Venice, we thought we should feed the children.

We like to repeat the story that when Erika was little, we asked what we should have for dinner, and she said, "Why don't we have something that everybody likes—you know, like, noodles...pasta...." Apparently things haven't changed much, according to this picture from her camera.

I thought it was funny to have stairs that lured you down into the canal.

I had sort of thought of skipping the gondola ride, as it seemed so touristy. But Ralph and Julie said they always regretted not riding it, and their new mantra has become, "Ride the Gondola." (I believe they use it metaphorically at this point.) So we did.

They were strict about allowing only 6 people in a gondola, so we had to take two. The Kartchners went in one, and Erika joined her cousins there, leaving me and Linette in our own. So we had a nice little romantic ride.

So there was the party boat...

...and the "Love Boat."

Our gondolier told us a lot of interesting information. Frankly, I didn't quite "get" Venice before. I think I had been misled by a James Bond movie and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" to believe that all the buildings were resting on piles, high above the ocean floor. Nope.

The guy informed us that Venice consisted of 117 naturally-occurring islands in a lagoon formed by deposits from the Po and Piave Rivers. People have lived on the islands of Venice since 1000 B.C. Piles were of course driven into the soft ground to strengthen the foundation of some buildings, but not to create whole new islands.

(In this picture, I'm not sure if our gondolier is smiling so big because he's photo-bombing our selfie; or because he's so excited to be on a gondola ride in Venice!)

Randy & Linette on a gondola, with the Rialto Bridge in the background.

So fun!

It was actually cooler than I expected.

Fortunately, we went at a time that was not crowded at all, so the side canals were eerily silent as we glided through them, which made for a magical atmosphere.

The foot bridges were low enough that the gondoliers had to duck.

Ours had both of us sit on the same side so the boat would lean enough to prevent the tip from scraping in the low tunnel.

So although expensive, we all thought the gondola was worth it, at least for us. (Apparently you can pay extra to have them sing; but instead the girls started singing Bella Notte: "This is the night, what a beautiful night, and they call it bella notte!")

One of the things our gondolier told us was, "Don't follow the other tourists around, or you'll just see malls like they have back home. Get lost in the back streets."

So that's just what we did. If anyone felt like going "that way," that's promptly where we all went.

As a result, we avoided the crowds and saw lots of adorable little places.

And we stumbled across a gelato stand called "N. Ice Cream".

Things seemed to get even more picturesque as night fell.

We some some cool colored glasses through a store window. The nearby island of Murano is famous for its amazing glass blowers. Apparently many glass blowers fled Constantinople when it fell a few hundred years ago. And then the hot furnaces they had to use kept burning Venice down, so they were all banished to the island of Murano. But then, since they were all concentrated in one place, they all learned from each other (and competed with each other), causing an explosion of innovation that caused them to become the best in the world.

This cafe looked so cute at night.

There was an occasional square where one could spread one's wings.

And we peeked into a small church in one of the squares.

Finally we made our way back out to the Grand Canal. (Fortunately I had told Google Maps to pre-download maps of everywhere we went in Italy so we could have maps that worked offline, with a blue dot showing where we were. Sort of like a Harry Potter map.)

I loved how things looked at night.

Erika started down the steps...! (Watch out for that last one! It's a lulu!!)

And she climbed Venice's tree.

And she got put in jail, naughty girl.

Gloves! (Those could come in handy. Sharon gives it a hand. Gotta hand it to her...)

We were traveling light (no water bottle), but they had a fountain here and there.

This looks like just a normal door...

...but inside there's a restaurant. Locals would know it was there, but tourists would probably never suspect it. That was part of the charm of the back streets.

And here's another cute cafe.



I love this shot of the pink and white buildings, gondolas in the foreground, and the full moon looking on. Bella notte!

After all that walking, we finally wore out and headed for the hotels. We played a quick card game at the Kartchner's hotel.

And then Erika got her fix of Face-timing siblings and that one boy.

The next morning we got breakfast set up specially for us in the wide hallway, since the old building we were in didn't have room for a dining area.

Linette gets all ready for another day of exploration!

Linette at the Hotel Goldoni.

This hallway had the double reflecting mirror thing going on.

We met up with the Kartchners and finished our tour of the "Grand Canal" through the heart of Venice, accompanied by Rick Steve's audio guide.

The "water taxis" are more expensive than the "water bus", but take you right where you need to go in a hurry. I loved their beautiful natural wood finish.

Venice experienced an especially devastating outbreak of the plague in 1630, killing nearly a third of the population, so they vowed to build and dedicate a church to "Our Lady of Health", or Santa Maria della Salute. Construction began in 1631 and completed in 1681. Over 1 million wooden piles were driven into the soft ground to support the weight.

Santa Maria della Salute

Near St. Mark's Square, the canal opens up into a wide area that seems to be a free-for-all.

Shaylee, with Santa Maria della Salute in the background.

Approaching St. Mark's Square, we could see the campanile (bell tower) soaring above the other buildings.

Shortly after getting off the water bus, we stopped to take a picture with the famous "Bridge of Sighs" (Ponte dei Sospiri) in the background. It was built in 1600 and was said to be the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. Local legend says that "lovers will be granted eternal love and bliss if they kiss on a gondola at sunset under the Bridge of Sighs as the bells of St Mark's Campanile toll." That seems very specific. (Plus, already got that covered. ;)

The whole group in front of the Bridge of Sighs

(This couple be like, "Well, worth a try!")

Gondola under the Bridge of Sighs

Selfie time!

 Photo bomb!

There were lots of gondolas around, ready for the crowds.

Gondolas at St. Mark's Square, Venice.

Campanile at St. Mark's Square

St. Mark's Square is the epicenter of tourists. In the evening, beautiful music is played from the cafes all around it. We got to hear a little bit that morning.

St. Mark's Square (Piazza San Marco)

St. Mark's Clock Tower has full-sized guys at the top that swing their hammers to ring the bell. It was built in the 1490's. (About when Christopher Columbus was discovering America, to put that in perspective).

St. Mark's Clock Tower

St. Mark's Basilica presides at the square. It was originally built in the 800s, to house relics (i.e., bones) of St. Mark, stolen from Alexandria. It burned down in the 900s, and was rebuilt about 1093. Unfortunately, St. Mark's relics were misplaced until they were rediscovered inside a pillar in 1094. That was sort of embarrassing. (Wait, I thought you had St. Mark's bones!)

St. Mark's Basilica

We weren't supposed to take pictures inside, so don't look at this one.

St. Mark's Basilica

Once again, even the floors were cool.

Floor of St. Mark's Basilica

I am so glad we got to spend time with these wonderful girls. I feel like I got to know Shaylee and Mikayla better than I had before, and it was of course great to have Erika experience all of this with us.

Shaylee, Erika and Mikayla to the side of St. Mark's Basilica, Venice.

The Lion of St. Mark is the symbol of the town of Venice.

Lion of St. Mark and Love of My Life

After visiting the square, we explored some more of Venice. Some of the alleys were narrow enough to do Spider-Man on the walls.

It was good to have a map so we could find our way through the maze of streets and bridges.

Linette and Erika looking over a gondola

In order to provide a destination for our otherwise random wanderings, we worked our way over to the Phoenix Theater (Teatro la Fenice), so named because it has been rebuilt after 3 fires. It was the site of premieres of operas by people like Rossini and Verdi.

The Wilsons didn't have much more time before we had to head out, so we decided to take the tour here to finish things up, while the Kartchners went off to see other sites.

The theater was ridiculously ornate.

Teatro la Fenice

Here are Linette and Erika in the very fancy box seats.

Dramatic poses, please!

There was a cool chandelier.

Do you like my hat?

Erika saw this Fazioli grand piano and just really wanted to play it.

So she did. And then people clapped. (And then another lady sat down to tinker around and was asked to knock it off. :)

Gondola traffic jam! (I'm glad it wasn't like this when we rode it. That just might have felt all touristy like I feared).

At that point, we busted a move (which is tricky in a maze) to grab some lunch and pick up our luggage for a boat ride to the airport.

We tried the canolis while we wanted for our bus. They were ok, but I prefer the gelato.

Holy Canoli!

Here is a view of Venice as it fades in the distance.

Poor Erika, all tuckered out.

At the airport, I saw more evidence that the Italians were really into soccer.

As we flew over the lagoon where Venice is located, we saw this smaller island of Berano. (Venice is up to the right, out of this picture).

Burano

We flew out at 4pm on Monday, and the Kartchners stayed for another two nights. They visited museums, the Bridge of Sighs (the inside), the prisons there, and heard the music at St. Mark's Square in the evenings.

Here are a few pictures that the Kartchners took. I don't know exactly what they are, so you'll have to ask Sharon or Roger. But it all looks really cool.

St. Mark's Square

A convict's last view of Venice from the Bridge of Sighs on the way to prison.

St. Mark's Clock Tower

St. Mark's Square at night

And here is a picture of Venice from the air that Roger took on their way out. You can see the causeway on the right; the backwards-"S"-shaped "Grand Canal" going from the end of the causeway through the city, and the beaches on the left that separate the lagoon from the ocean waves.

Thanks for sticking with this long episode. Venice was visually stunning and so charming. Even though we had less than 24 hours there ourselves, I felt like I at least got acquainted with the area. Hopefully you have gotten a taste of it as well.

In our last episode, the Wilsons spend the night in Istanbul, Turkey on the way home.