[Disclaimer - all blog posts in the next month may be riddled with spelling errors and typos. These European keyboards are difficult to navigate, the spell check doesn't seem to work, and I'm pressed for time in Internet cafes. I'll leave my flaws available for your viewing and entertainment, which as you can imagine is hard for me as a journalist. Enjoy! :) ]
May I just begin by saying that I think Italy might be my favorite part of the trip? Venice is ABSOLUTELY amazing!
We got here safely, but only after some minor confusion about train connections. One of our trains left from Munich around 11:45 and we were supposed to get off around 2:30 in the morning to change to our night train. Just before 2, the conductor came to check our tickets and told us that we would not have enough time to change at our scheduled stop. He whipped out his mini computer to check some schedules, jotted down the name of another random Austrian (?) city, and told us to change there. We were to walk to the front of the same train we were on that would continue to Venice and would split from the part of the train we were currently on... are you as confused reading this as I was hearing it? We were so puzzled as to why we didn't get on that part of the train to begin with, but we trusted his judgement and were glad that we did! In the city of our scheduled stop, a group of girls got off to try the forbidden change, and we pulled away and watched them panic as they yelled to the someone on the platform "we're trying to go to Venice!!!" If there's one thing I've learned in all of my travels, it's that you should always trust the system. When the conductor tells you to do something, you do it, no questions asked. I can't imagine being stranded in a random city in the middle of the night, bless their hearts. At 3:52 a.m. we changed to the train going to Venice and I slept soundly until we arrived in Venice at 8:30 on Saturday morning. I flipped out when we walked out of the train station to see the Grand Canal right in front of us! I couldn't believe that we were actually in Italy - it is gorgeous!!
The 7 of us (Kaitlyn, Rachel, Joanna, Kathy, Brittany, Caroline, and me) found a really good deal on an apartment here in Venice. The woman who owns it, Cristina, met us at the boat stop and walked us to the flat which is so nice! The front room has two beds in it, there is another pull-out couch in the kitchen, and there are two bedrooms and a bathroom. We feel completely at home and we love our view the cute little courtyard outside. Cristina was such a blessing; she helped us to get acquainted with the map and told us where to go to eat, shop, and see the sights. After freshening up from 16+ hours on a train, we ventured out to see the city.
The streets and canals are just as beautiful as you see in pictures, if not more, and I wish I could post photos for you to see! It seemed like every corner we turned and every bridge we walked over, we all stopped and took a million pictures - what tourists, right? We went to a little stand called Pronto Pizza and had our first true Italian pizza which was phenomenal. From there, we went to St. Mark's square and had a good time watching the ridiculous display of pigeons that you always hear about. People feed them right out of their hands, and there were a ton of tourists taking photos with the obnoxious birds on their heads... no, thank you. It was enough of a laugh to watch them and see people run in every direction as a flock would swarm in for landing.
What else is Italy known for? That's right - gelato! We went to a shop that supposedly has the best gelato in Venice, a place called La Boutique del Geltato. They weren't lying - it was AMAZING. Next, we did a little bit of shopping and admired all the Murano glass that is sold everywhere, and then took the tour up the Grand Canal to see the rest of the beautiful town.On the way back to St. Mark's square, we were all hit with a wave of exhaustion from the sleep deprivation of finals week. Naturally, our next stop was for coffee. We found a cute little bakery where I drank the best cappuccino of my entire life and ate Italian biscotti, which was equally delicious.
Cristina told us to take advantage of view from the clock tower, and boy am I glad we did! The view was spectacular and it was cool to see how small the city actually is. It seems so big, but when you get a bird's eye view, you can see how close together the buildings are. After taking the elevator back down, we went inside St. Mark's Basilica. Wow wow wow, it was so impressive! The entire ceiling is made of glittering gold mosaic! We finished off our day with dinner at a cute Italian restaurant, run single-handedly by a husband and wife, and then made another gelato run on the way back to our flat.
Today was not nearly as beautiful, but we're grateful we got to see so much yesterday while the weather was nice. It has been raining all day! We slept in a little bit this morning and then took the water taxi to the island of Murano to see the glass factory. It was really neat, but the demonstration of glass blowing didn't last as long as we thought it would. The rain became a little miserable and we were all soaked and freezing, so we decided to return to Venice for a relaxing day. I think Joanna has promised us all pedicures, so after we leave the Internet cafe we might go grab some gelato and head to our little home-away-from-home for some much needed down time.
Tomorrow morning we are leaving early to catch a train to Naples. I really hope this month slows down a little bit, because we are already on day #3 of 29! There is still so much to see and we're already having to eliminate cities from our wish list. Guess that just means I'll have to come back. Miss you all so much! I'll update when I can!
