Day 17 - Nice to Venice, Italy

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Today we were leaving for Venice! I was looking forward to getting back to Italy. I'd been to Venice on my last tour, but on this trip I'd get to see a lot more of Italy.

We left our campsite in Antibes at 9 am. After three hours we stopped at services, and three more hours after that we arrived in Verona. Verona is where Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is set, so the first thing we all went to see was Juliet's balcony. This is located in a tiny courtyard absolutely filled with people, all trying to catch a glimpse of this "romantic" location. There is a statue of Juliet and if you rub her right breast it is supposed to give you good luck in love (bullshit). Every inch of the walls here are covered in thousands of dedications of love and there are chain link fences with padlocks symbolizing eternal love. Being a "cheesy girl in love", I bought a padlock and locked it onto the fence. I was told this was going to give me bad luck, but I laughed it off.

As soon as we entered Italy, I began to notice some big differences between here and France. I'm sure they are there somewhere, but I definitely noticed even more tour buses, tour groups being led around by guides carrying giant flags or flowers, and huge crowds. There were so many people in Verona you could barely move. I still loved being in Italy, but it definitely felt more "touristy" to me than France had.

After Juliet's balcony, we walked around the town and enjoyed our first taste of Italy. It was scorching hot today, and this would continue for the next few weeks. Verona had lots of expensive shopping, but I knew I could never afford these high fashion stores.

Back on the bus we drove the last little bit to our campsite in Venice. I was staying in room 922 with Debs and Verity. The cabins here are very similar to the ones we stayed at in Antibes. This campsite isn't actually located IN Venice, but on the mainland. We would have to take a boat to the city tomorrow.

After getting settled, we had dinner then hung out at the campsite bar. There was another tour here tonight, so we did some socializing with them. The bar here sells these great drinks called Amnesia, which are about 60% vodka, really fruity, and delicious. I was in a party mood tonight, but the antibiotics I was on basically made any taste or smell of alcohol make me feel like hurling. I sipped at my Amnesia but ended up giving it away because I couldn't even force it down. :( We played some games, and I stayed out until about 10:30 pm. I couldn't wait to see Venice again tomorrow!

What did I learn today? Maybe I was supposed to fondle her left breast? Hmmm..

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