Finally in Italy

On our train ride to Venice, we made a couple from Star, Mississippi who run a little travel business. They we doing research and were going enjoy a cruise around Italy after spending a few days in Venice. They were amazing, and gave me great tips of places to see throughout Rome, complete with great little maps. It really is amazing that you can meet people like them on a train ride from Munich to Rome, I mean what are the chances that out of a six compartment coach 4 of the passengers are from America. I also forgot to say that on the Dachau tour I met a girl from Champaign who went to Western, like I said it just amazes me that random connections like that happen.
Once in Venice we found some good food and sat on a little bridge, enjoying the fact that we were finally in Italy. We got in a little late and we had to catch a bus to our hostel here, which ended up being about 20 minutes outside of Venice. It was by far the most unique of all the hostels we stayed in, it was a little campground and we had our own little camper to stay in. It was fun to stay at but such a hassle to get into the city.
The next day we trekked into the city early and just explored. It’s basically impossible, or at least silly, to try to use a map in Venice. All of streets are so tiny and curve around, and it’s more fun to just wander. Plus, there are signs everywhere leading you in the direction of all the monuments, these are enough to keep you from getting completely lost. I don’t think I can describe just how beautiful this city is. It seemed like every 3 minutes or so you would cross another bridge over another canal and then you look down the canal and you see a gondola….where else does that happen?! We hit all of the main monuments, Piazza di San Marco, the Bridge of Sighs, and Ponte de Rialto (a bridge). On Ponte de Rialto there were all of these fantastic shops that had been there for years, some making the famous Carnivale (a festival the Venice is famous for where elaborate costumes are worn) and a women that makes these beautiful leather journals. The day was so hot the we wandered down the shaded alleys a lot, and it was amazing how many times I found myself walking down alley with just Emilie. It felt, constantly, as if I found hidden secrets, being able to see these picturesque scenes of Italian life. Our full day in Venice was very much a relaxed day spent wandering and enjoying this absolutely charming city. As we were heading in the direction of our bus who did we of course run into…the fantastic couple from Mississippi. We talked for a bit and they gave us their card and told us to keep in touch. What are the odds?! We then caught our bus back to our campground, and tried to figure out how we were going to get to the train station for our 5:45 train to Rome. It had to be that early so we could make it to our hotel in time for orientation.
We finally gave up and decided to take a cab at 4:30. Needless to say once I got on the train in the morning I fell right asleep because a couple hours of sleep the night before was not enough.

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