Venezia

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I have been trying to get to Venice before I left Italy so I finally was able to go Saturday. I didn't actually know who I was going with until I showed up at the train station at 8am on Saturday. I found out a few people from the Wells program were going and I just decided to tag along. Actually, I thought one of the girls I was close with at the beginning was going with everyone, that's why I initially decided to go. However, when I got to the train station I stood around for about an hour, after 45 minutes I thought they had already left and was just about to forget the whole thing, but a girl on my program, Cat, and a couple other girls from my program (Jenny, Kalee, and Cat's friend not on our program).

We almost missed the train because Cat and her friend bought their tickets the night before and I still had to get mine. I'm lucky I didn't buy the tickets before though because they bought 2 tickets and switched trains in Bologna because it was cheaper. The girl, Abby, I was originally supposed to go with didn't ride on the same train as us, that confused me.

The ride was about 3 1/2 hours on the way there with the stop in Bologna. It wasn't a very nice day when we went, it was raining and very dreary. However, it was still very cool to see Venice. It is exactly how people describe it. The canal is in the middle of the city and you have to cross bridges constantly to get to the other side of the street. We saw a lot of gondolas, they were some extremely fancy ones that had different 'themes.' They were really really expensive though and the weather wasn't nice enough so we didn't get to go.

The actual streets are really really tiny, only about 2 people wide. I almost got claustrophobic at times. By the canal though the streets open up and it's really pretty. It's so easy to get lost, actually almost impossible not to get lost in Venice. There are hardly any street names and a map isn't helpful because they count the waterways as roads. The streets are completely filled with stores of anything. They had designer stores like Cavalli and Pucci. Then they had so many souvenir shops, but they weren't just selling postcards or shirts that said Venezia, they had the Venetian glass. Every store had about the same thing, but different designs or styles. I bought a bottle stopper with glass on the top, a necklace, and an ornament from Basilica di San Marco. We couldn't take pictures in the church, which was sad because it was probably the prettiest church I have seen yet.

As we were crossing Rialto Bridge, I saw Katie, a girl I go to IU with and she lived on my floor freshmen year. I hadn't talked to her all year and didn't know she was studying in Milan this semester. It was ironic that we were both there on the same day (just for a day) in the same place. We took a water taxi back to the train station, which was relatively expensive, but were told that we were being given a deal (60 euro for 6 people such a steal...not).

I'm glad I got to see Venice while I was in Italy, but I would go back and spend a weekend or so there. There is so much to see and I want to go when it is nicer outside. Also, there are so many cute hotels around Venice.

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