This morning we had yet another tour, this time of the Cathedral and the Palazzo Ducale, or Ducal Palace. Everything in the Cathedral was mosaic and covered in gold, the floor, the walls, and the ceiling. It was spectacular! I can't imagine how long it would have taken to complete.

The Ducal Palace was the location of the Venetian three branches of government and the huge rooms are covered in beautiful frescoes and carvings. The tour also leads visitors across the bridge of sighs and into the prison, a place only one man was ever able to escape from; that man was Casanova.

After the tour, we made our way to the glass factory. Venetian glass is some of the most famous glass in the world and we were able to see a vase with a Pegasus on top as it was made. Just down the street from the glass factory was a nice restaurant where we had lunch and then we walked around some of the shops in the area before we met for our gondola ride.

Our gondolier was a little bit grumpy, but the gondolier next to us was having a great time singing and dancing and talking to us. It was really beautiful, but I think I will definitely have to come back for a romantic evening sometime in the future to truly appreciate it.

We planned to meet for a nice dinner about an hour and a half after we got off the gondola. I forgot to bring any dresses with me, so I stopped at the consignment shop just at the end of the street near our hotel and found something to wear. I quickly ran up to the room to change and then walked to Ali and Ashley's hotel to meet everyone for dinner.

We walked down by the river for a little while trying to find a restaurant, but everything was really crowded because it was a holiday. We ended up splitting up; some of us went to Piazza San Marco while others stayed by the river. The restaurant we found had delicious food. We ended up getting the tourist special with four courses; I had the lasagna, chicken, potatoes (which were actually French fries) and, naturally, gelato.

After dinner we moved further down the wall along the water and found a spot to watch the fireworks display for the Festa del Redentore, a festival that originally began as a feast to celebrate the end of the plague in 1576. There were so many people and party boats everywhere and it was really difficult to move around. They were the longest fireworks I have every seen in my life, but they were so beautiful. The walk home took a while because there were so many people and at one point everyone was literally waddling like penguins to move around. We made it back by one o'clock to go to sleep.