No cars, but lots of boats

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As I am writing this, I am currently in Venice, Italy. Yesterday was our last day in Siena and we had most of the day free except for classes so we were able to explore the city on our own, which was great because we could really see whatever it was that we personally wanted to explore more. Siena was a great city for this because it is full of people and relatively easy to get around. On my free day I was able to go shopping, do laundry, and see the Duomo, which is a beautiful gothic church.

On the first day in Siena, our tour guide told us that one of the great things about Siena is it's hidden treasures. She told us to always look behind doors and walls and discover the streets behind the main street. I wanted to walk through the city on my own and as I did this I kept the tour guide's advice in mind. I was worried about getting lost, but reminded myself that most people I had encountered were friendly and I could probably find someone to help me back! As I walked around, I took side streets, looked in churches, and explored the city. It was so exciting to find small, family type stores and paintings or sculptures right in the middle of the city!

I kept this attitude in mind today as we traveled to Venice. The ride was beautiful and as we drove through the mountains, it began to snow a little bit, which was very exciting because I LOVE snow! When we arrived in Venice, I was expecting water instead of streets, but I guess I wasn't expecting so much of it! (I am now using contractions because I have finally found where they hide the apostrophe on Italian keyboards!) When the busses pulled in we were instructed to put our luggage on a big boat, that was going to go to our hotel. I was incredibly nervous as I watched this boat with over 100 bags just sitting on top of it, piled about 5 suitcases high, floating and bobbing down the river. I tried not to think about the possibility of seeing all of my clothes float by me as I ride in a gondola. Next, we boarded a boat and went to our hotel in Venice. The city was beautiful and full of colors as they are famous for the glass found in Murano.

Some of the major differences I notice between here and the other cities is that there are no cars in Venice! There are simply boats and streets for walking as the streets are not large enough for cars. Our professor pointed out some police boats as we came into the city, which were interesting. Also, the streets are somewhat confusing, and a group of girls I was walking with got lost within 5 minutes of leaving our hotel. In addition, I have not seen sales here like I did in Siena. Siena was very much a shopping town with ads for the big yearly sales everywhere, but here there are many stores but not many sales, and the stores close somewhat early. I have also noticed that Venice is very much a tourist-centered town. Many locals speak Italian and almost every menu at every restraunt we passed tonight said "Tourist Menu" on top of it. For this reason, things are very expensive and many places sell goods and foods geared towards tourist populations. Tomorrow we will travel to Murano and Burano, where hopefully I will be able to discover more parts of Venice as I did in the other cities here in Italy.

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Comments

[Jenna]

I can't even picture what a city with boats instead of cars would be like...what an amazing experience! I'm so glad that you're getting to really explore so many interesting things! Oh, and way to go with eating the wild boar--I've def never tried that!! Love you!