DAY 27: Venezia!!

We made a run for it from the Plus Florence “hostel” in the morning, making it to our train with time to spare—a definite new routine for us, which is odd because we're pretty punctual people, except on this trip, clearly. The ride was gorgeous, to quote Katie “I haven't felt this at home in months.” The reason for this is that northern Italy LOOKS like home, for both of us. I kept thinking I could have been driving down the Central Valley in California during spring, with the sprawling farmlands and just agricultural tinge to the place. Katie agreed that it seemed almost like being back in the States too; the houses themselves didn't even seem out of place.

The ride was quickly over though and we had arrived in Venice! Our hotel was a 3-4 minute walk (according to its directions) away, though it took us a wee bit longer considering it was part of an apartment complex and only had a little placard over the button for the fourth floor versus any large sign declaring its presence. Once up, we worked out costs and such and were informed that we couldn't technically check in until 2—two hours from then. So, off we went with the not so helpful map that the guy gave us and proceeded to explore Venice in the very warm noontime sun. Per usual, we ditched the tourist route and made up our own way, also abandoning the use of the map due to its lack of street names and its photocopied nature making it a bit hard to read anyways. So we wandered around the western half, the “fist” as we came to call it when I was trying to describe the islands to Katie. We managed to run into what we think was actually a school, which we then quickly circumnavigated, only to find our way blocked by the architecture institute with tons of young people with their snazzy portfolios bustling in and out of the main doorway. Getting around this, we found ourselves at the very edge of the island and followed it around the whole way, getting fantastic views across the main canal. Venice is truly everything you would expect it to be, with the cutesy little bridges and gondola men with their striped shirts and (silly) hats. We both liked it very much, especially after our boredom in Firenze (a much prettier sounding name than Florence. In my opinion). It was very warm, but a very nice walk and we made it back to the hotel to check in around 4, if that gives any sense of how much we enjoyed wandering. What was supposed to be a two hour period to kill time had turned into a four hour meander.

Back at the hotel, we settled in and decided to go all out for dinner. We had already planned a gondola ride—it's Venice, we had to—and opted to wear sundresses and boots. Yes, as Katie noted, we may have lost all right to make fun of other tourists with this foray into pretentiousness. But we figured that Venice was the only place where we could possibly pull it off. We also searched for large floppy hats to wear and take silly pictures of the bridges with, but our true selves stayed strong and we really couldn't be bothered to spend money on them. And with our luck, we'd get lice or something from just trying one on for a picture. So we went tripping out the door...and into a slightly overcast world. Who knew the clouds had moved in during the ninety minutes we had spend indoors. But never fear, we had our useful cardigans with us and the boots provided ample warmth. No freezing in the city of canals for us!

This time we followed the main tourist route, looking for smaller bridges off to the side. We found a small jetty out into the main canal down a small alley—only feet from the main tourist route—and passed through a very sketchy stretch to reach the water we could see. We noticed a sketchy man follow us, so quickly took our pictures and fled back past him, who was being super sketch and filthy and destroyed any innocent image we had about the Venetian population and also ruined Katie's theory about no criminals on islands because there is nowhere for them to hide. I was disgusted and our excitement was slightly hindered. But, we managed to get through the rest of the tourist route and made it to the San Marco, which was impressive, save the scaffolding that took up part of the picture. After snapping pictures, we went off to dinner, which wasn't that spectacular sadly, but it was the cheapest dinner yet--€7 lasagna for me—and filled us up. After, we went in search for our gondola ride, WHICH WE COULDN'T FIND...and proceeded to get lost in the ghetto side of Venice. We have realized that we've managed to find the not so nice parts of every place we have gone to—skills that only two American girls travelling alone could fully possess. This may stem from our dislike of tourists and the areas suggested for them, and the way we abandon all suggested routes. But, as I told Katie, there are reasons that we stay within a certain radius of the tourist areas, and Venice was case in point. After venturing a bit too far and traversing the very dark alleys of deep Venice, I abandoned the idea and beelined it straight back to the main route, when it proceeded to begin to rain! And lightning, which always makes me extra excited. However, this meant that all of the gondolas were kicked off the canals and we had missed our opportunity. Sadness ensued, only to be remedied with a dulces from a sweet store, only one each though, and even they didn't seem to taste as good. All of our excitement had evaporated and we went back to the room, being about 9 at night.

The gondolas that we failed to lasso.

Venetian glass work desk