When they say that the city of Venice is sinking, they really are not joking. On the second day of my trip to Venice, I learned that the hard way…but I will get to that in a bit. First of all, let’s talk about dressing for sightseeing in Italy when you plan on visiting a church. While the churches we visited in Spain and France were not strict about dress code, I found that churches in Italy can tend to be a little more strict.  One thing that is a definite do on the day you plan on seeing a church is to do a little research to see if that church has a dress code and if so, the requirements of that dress code. The last thing you want is to get to a gorgeous cathedral only to be denied entrance because your shorts or skirt was too short or you’re not properly covered up on top. There are a couple of ways to ensure this doesn’t happen. Wearing pants is the clear answer, however, if you’re like me you do not like wearing pants when it is hot outside! I chose this look to go see St. Mark’s cathedral because this skirt falls right at my knees, and this t-shirt provides enough coverage while also being light-weight. Another great idea if you are wearing something with thin straps is just to carry a scarf in your purse, so that when you get to said church, you can simply throw it over your shoulders.

Top: Who What Wear for Target, sold out, similar/ Skirt: Sheinside, old, similar/ Shoes: Mango, sold out, similar/ Purse: Forever 21, similar/ Sunnies: Asos, similar/ Necklace: Forever 21, similar

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Photos by Wendy Jones

This post was part of a linkup…check that out here!

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St. Mark’s cathedral is one of those must-see places in Venice. Because of its popularity with tourists, there is always a very long line of people waiting to get in to see this church. Admission is free, however, let me give you a huge tip. You can go online before your visit and pay all of 2 Euros to get a skip the line ticket. Do yourself a favor and shell out the money to do this, because that line was no joke!

Definitely hang out in St. Mark’s Square for a bit…it is massive and its a great place to people watch and snap some pictures with some pigeons.

You’re not exactly supposed to take pictures inside of St. Marks, however, I got a couple because the ceiling is simply stunning! These pictures really don’t do all that gold leaf justice.

I’m a sucker for a good floor pic. It is incredible that even the floor in this church is a masterpiece.

Another thing you should not miss out on while in Italy is the coffee, specifically, the espresso. I’m still dreaming about how good it was to this day!

Your eyes are not deceiving you…that is a leaning tower! Just one of the many quirks in this beautiful city.

This is the Bridge of Sighs. It gets its name because the building on the right hand side used to serve as a prison. When the prisoners were taken over this bridge to serve their sentence, the windows in that bridge were there last views of the outside world before going to prison.

Ok, so back to the sinking aspect of this city. Because Venice sits on top of the water and the ocean is rising, the city is slowly sinking! Experts say that this floating city sinks 0.08 inches every year, which doesn’t seem like much, but when the water levels rise at high tide, things can get a little…wet. If you noticed from my pictures of St. Marks earlier in this post, there was no water in the square. Those were taken at the beginning of the day, while this picture below was taken hours later when we wandered back through St. Mark’s square. We were pretty surprised to find the long line of people gone and the church all closed up with water lapping at its doors. Apparently we were lucky enough to be visiting during the high tide caused by the full moon every two weeks, but according to a camera crewman nearby, this amount of water is pretty unusual during the summer.

We went about our day not really thinking much of the flooding, seeing as how it was only in a few patches here and there or near the Grand Canal. At one point, we bought a bottle of wine from a little market and sat in a small square to enjoy it while people watching. On a side note, this was one of my favorite things to do in Italy. Drinking in public whenever and wherever you want is kind of a fun experience that we don’t really get to enjoy in the US, so we definitely took advantage of this whenever possible. 😉

As the afternoon and evening went on, the flooding got considerably worse. It was so bad in fact that we had to buy these sort of disposable galoshes from a vendor off the street to get through the water which was up to my knees in some areas! At the time it was a little alarming, but definitely an adventure! Luckily we did not have to swim home but we were pretty grateful to finally wade our way back and dry off.

Overall, Venice is such an incredible place that you must see…preferably before it sinks into the ocean!

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