Venice, Easter and tourist season

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I was stunned to find out recently that I only have about 5 weeks left in Italy! 5 weeks!! I felt like I had hardly done anything, so while watching the Stanford game on Thursday night at our favorite American bar, I decided to make a little day trip. The next morning at around 7:00 my roommate and I dragged ourselves to the train station and hopped a train to Venice for the day. I should have known it was going to be an adventure when we couldn't find seats on the train and had to buy 5 coffees between us just to stay in the dining cart for the three hour trip. Once there, we decided to embrace our newfound adventurous spirit and to forgo the popular "water buses" and just walk around. My first impression of Venice was looking out over the Grand Canal and a gondola passing under the bridge where I stood...just like in the movies!! The city is remarkably beautiful and though packed with people, definitely has a certain charm. I loved (of course) the little gondolas and stairs that led right into the water! The houses were charming, many with their own private docks and boats. We saw all of this on our walk into the heart of the city. And by walk, I mean trek that eventually and unknowingly led us into the heart of the city: we didn't want to admit it, but we were lost from square one, and our Italian was too poor to ask for directions. Venice really is a city of tiny alleys, twists and turns that usually lead to a watery dead end. Once we found the main square, we grabbed some pizza at a hole-in-the-wall place where the huge pizza cook sang so loudly we could barely carry on a conversation over lunch. We only really had that meal there, so I didn't really get a good sampling of Venetian cuisine, but it wasn't as good as the pizza in Florence. After lunch we wandered around some more and went to a big market and finally found a water bus to take us to the island of Murano. The boat ride refreshed our somewhat sodden spirit, so when we were herded off the bus into a dark warehouse with fires blazing in the corners, we weren't too worried. Apparently we had found one of the biggest glass manufacturers on the island, so we stayed and watched a team of three very large, dirty, angry, smoking Italian men ironically small, delicate, intricately beautiful martini glass. Their shop was a little pricey for our taste so we stopped in a few of the other thousand shops on the island and picked up a few fun things. We also checked out a random lighthouse on the island and amazing glass sculptures tucked secretly in tiny, little known piazzas. Once we caught another bus back to the mainland, we had just enough time to try and find San Marco and catch our train home. 40 minutes later, and recognizing the same shops we passed 20 minutes before, we admitted defeat and threw our map away, deciding to go on just basic instinct. Since my directional instinct is never correct, we went with Rachael's. What resulted was a too quick glimpse of the piazza and church, and then running through the never ending tourists to make to the train station on time. We actually didn't end up making the first train, and only barely got on the last train out, though riding first class was a nice, albeit unnecessary, treat. The rest of the weekend was very low key because we tried to stay as far away from the big tourist spots as possible. Easter was very eventful for the city of Florence, and I sort of accidentally saw a group of costumed, drum playing, flag throwing men in the piazza near our apt. It was really cool and totally different from anything you would see in the States. I think tourist season has officially begun here in Florence, because now I have to leave 5 minutes early just so I have time to weave through the unavoidable piazza del Duomo. It is truly amazing how the city's population has double or tripled in just a week or two. I am going to join their ranks and try to do something touristy a few times a week to really make the most of my last bit of time here.

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Photos

Photo 1
venice mainland

Photo 3
gondola

Photo 6
we definitely dont have doorbells like this!

Photo 8
Rachael and typical street