Romantic Venice

So...I'm still behind on my blogging...but I have found out that I did well on my Italian test. (Score, 3 credits!) I really have to start blogging in a more timely fashion...

Nancy, Michelle, and I caught the 10am train to Venice on Sept 27, I think we got in around 1pm, and just walked around. There were absolutely no cars, only boats. There was a ferry that served as public transport, like the tram in Milan, and there were gondolas everywhere! I guess the price is set at about 90 euros for an hour ride, so we didn't end up going on one even though I would have loved to. I caught a picture of a family on a gondola, I'll go back one day and ride one. :)

When we first got there, we ate lunch at a quaint pizza/pasta place. The food there was pretty good, and the decorations were very Venetian. We then walked around all the little souvenir shops and pastry stores. Venice is known for its glass, so we kind of splurged and bought lots of souvenirs....Michelle bought about 15 pairs of earrings, hopefully they aren't all just for her...

We had to take the ferry to get to our hostel. The ferry ride was beautiful, it was like taking a boat tour of Venice. It took us down the Grand Canal and pretty much to the front step of our hostel. Our hostel was right across the canal from San Marco. That red building in the photograph is our hostel. The sun is setting because we got to our hostel about an hour late. We dropped our things off, made our beds, and took the ferry to San Marco to have dinner.

We roamed around and got lost looking for an ATM and a restaurant to eat at. We finally found one, and of course the waiters were asking if we were japonese. I know people don't mean to be racist here, but they sure come off as ignorant. This is us eating! Poor Michelle and Nancy thought that they were ordering scallops....they got pork instead. Moral of the story...never assume.

We wandered around and found a gelato shop (of course) and than settled down to watch some live performances. There were three different stages set up at shops in San Marco. Each had musicians: violinists, celloists, pianists, etc. We probably watched them for over an hour, they were so good. Basically....it was really romantic for us three girls in Venice.

We got back to the hostel Saturday night, and found someone sleeping in my bed. Apparently, the beds are numbered incorrectly inside the dorm, but correctly on the door...so I made my bed for another woman to sleep on. Ironically...Michelle and I had been joking around about this, saying how it would be pretty funny if that did happen...and it did.

The next morning we got up at 8am to start touring San Marco and the rest of Venice. We went to the Museo di Piazza San Marco. Pictures weren't allowed, so I don't really have any, but it was pretty cool. We saw lots of rooms with paintings, and went into rooms where judges used to preside over. Honestly...I don't remember it that well. Having visited so many museums...they all kind of blur together.

Here are a couple more pictures of Venince, it's beautiful, but awfully touristy at the same time. There were SO many people there, it was so crowded. It was somewhat what I had imagined, but at the same time not really. The Canal's polluted, which hurts the image of a romantic Venice, but overall it was a pretty city. :)

We returned to Milan around 8:30, it took about three hours to get back.