Italy, one day at a time!

Wow. All I can say about experiencing a country as wonderful as Italy is WOW with a capital Whoa!!! It was an amazing trip! I'm still flabbergasted that God would grant me such an awesome adventure.

I'm going to break the trip up into three blog posts, unless this one goes better than I'd planned! It all started last Thursday, February 28. We took a flight through British Airways to Venice, which turned out to be a great flight. The flight attendants were kind and friendly, they gave us a sandwich and drinks, and even pointed out some highlights along the way! I was amazed to see that we were flying right over the Italian Alps! Here's some pictures from the flight over, including the sunset! There's nothing quite like seeing the sun set from the sky. What a difference to see the sun slowly disappear between layers of thick fluffy clouds! It was an incredible sight. We arrived in Venice after dark, and I changed my watch to accomodate the only one hour difference between London and Italy. Laura had booked all our hostels for the whole trip so she had directions written down for how to get to our hostel.

Venice is a city made up of a series of islands on the coast of Italy. Fed by the Adriatic Sea, the main island of Venezia is known for its canals that snake throughout the city. It is small, only a few miles across, and can only be traversed by foot or by boat. We were staying on the mainland of Venice, not on the island where everything costs twice as much! We hopped onto bus 12 and started off to our hostel. But little did we realize how difficult it would be to find! The bus system works a little differently there. Before you get to your stop, you must ring the bell on the bus to alert the driver. We knew the name of our stop, but didn't know the one before it and therefore were unsure of when and where to get off! Laura and I asked one of the passengers for help. She didn't speak English, but through hand gestures we were able to figure out that we were at least on the right street. We got off on the next stop and began walking in the direction we thought we were supposed to go, and walked, and walked, and walked. It was dark, the streets were small, the buildings were tall and dirty, and there was no one around. Ghetto Venice was not fun at all! We heard someone behind us and discovered a young Italian teenager who spoke English! God sent this girl to help us because she was able to send us back in the right direction, after sharing her love for America and her desire to go there one day. We walked back to the intersection we thought she said was the street, but no dice. We stopped in a small pizzeria and asked for directions there and were informed again through hand motions and pointing to the map that we'd walked right past it again! Apparently, the third time really IS the charm because we found it! The hostel, labeled as a "B & B" was right in front of our faces and we finally got checked into a room to ourselves. We got a friendly "hello" and a song about West Virginia when our neighbor downstairs introduced himself to us. He came up later and tried to convince us he was room service, then said he was only trying to say goodbye because he was leaving in the morning, so we told him goodnight and quickly locked the room from the inside without ever opening it. He, in his drunken state, muttered, "You look like a door" as he stumbled down the stairs. Needless to say, we stayed safe in our room the rest of the night.

The next morning we got up, looking forward to a good breakfast, only to be told that this bed and breakfast did not actually include breakfast. So we had our first experience in an Italian supermarket across the street where we bought bread and drinkable yogurt for breakfast. Yum. We hopped aboard another bus and went all the way across the bridge that connects mainland Venice with the island of Venice. Now that everything was going to be traveled by foot, we took off, excited to explore this unique island! And...quickly got lost! As small as it is, you'd think it would be easy to get around! But the different language on the road signs coupled with the fact that streets do not necessarily follow any pattern or follow along the canal found us wandering around. We made our way back to where we started and followed the map like a maze instead. We walked to one of the most well-known streets in Venice, to the Rialto Bridge. The bridge is one of the largest on the island and has shops all along it, actually on the bridge. You can window shop or browse through the small open market stalls to find a deal on Venice's handiworks. The picture at the top is of me on the bridge, then the bridge from the lower street, then the market/shops on the bridge.

Venice is known for its lace and for its glass. The island of Murano nearby is home to glasseries, where they make anything from wine glasses to candy dishes. The glass was all so amazing! These people have some great skills too. Here's a picture of glass birds that were made in Murano. I also saw a glass clown about 5 feet high, small glass beads, lots of rings and necklaces, earrings and watches. This glass is known throughout all of Italy and is very expensive everywhere else because of the shipping costs. I was able to get a candy dish for myself that was only 8 euros in Venice. I saw the exact same candy dish a few days later in Rome for 25 euros! I also bought a small lace handkerchief from an exquisite lace shop. The lace is also very, very expensive here because it is all made by hand. We shopped for a while and tried to stay warm...by then it was freezing! Oh, and Venice is also known for its masks. The people dress up and wear fancy masks such as these for the Carnevale di Venezia which is similar to the Mardi Gras celebration. There were so many masks of different patterns and designs and shapes and sizes! I wish you could see the bright colors we saw! Here's one of Laura and I trying on our favorites.

After the market, we walked some more and some more, and made it to the Piazza San Marco. This is also another famous spot in Venice. There's a huge church there called the Basilica di San Marco. This ornate churchis said to be the resting place of the body of Saint Mark. Entrance to the church was free, and it was warmer inside, so we went in and looked around. It was beautiful inside! We paid a little extra and got to see the Pala d'Oro, an altar screen which has over 2,600 rubies, emeralds, pearls, and other stones encrusted on it. It was beautiful too. It makes me wonder if the people who built the church really believed all that was necessary. I've seen some amazing churches so far and I'll be the first to tell you that they are all very beautiful, but isn't it the body of the believers that makes a church what it is? I hope they remember that there.

San Marco square is also famous for its hordes of pigeons! This big open area in the middle of a tightly packed city is home to many pigeons, all of whom think it is their absolute right to land on you, eat out of your hand, and even poo on you if they want. There were TONS of them flying all over! We saw people feeding them and being literally attacked by the birds from every angle! It was quite a sight. Oh and all around near the square and in other parts of Venice, I saw some VERY expensive stores like Gucci, Prada, and Giorgio Armani! The very nice Armani suit in the window was only a mere 2,000 euros! (equal to about $3,000 USD!)

We kept walking more and wandered around, trying to stay warm. We wandered into a church that had a display of all kinds of old musical instruments. These were all used in talking about the violinist Vivaldi, who was from Venice. We stayed in there a while and then went to a little cafe and bought some chocolata calada, or hot chocolate. Now I've already discovered that British hot chocolate is not as sweet as American hot chocolate, so I wasn't sure what to expect in Italy. Italian hot chocolate is literally that - hot melted chocolate! It was sooo sweet and was thicker than I expected. It was so sweet I couldn't even finish! Laura loved it and finished mine while we sat in a cute square on a bench, watching Italian children chase pigeons and ride their scooters around with great skill. We walked back close to the market again and had dinner at a small ristorante. I had Italian ravioli, and Laura had tortellini! They were both great and we left to get gelato, our most favorite Italian food! Well, I guess it's not really food - it's Italian ice cream. They have different flavors than I'm used to - I had Nutella gelato and coconut gelato! They were both so good we decided right away that gelato was going to be our best friend in Italy.

In case you were wondering, yes, there were LOTS of gondolas all over the place! For some reason, the gondola 'drivers,' along with lots of other Italians we encountered during our trip, could tell we couldn't speak Italian and would just begin speaking to us in English. So we were asked many times if we'd like a gondola ride, but they were like 70-80 euros per person! Neither of us had that kind of money, and the gondola ride is more of a romantic couples thing. What were Laura and I going to do - hold hands? We settled on experiencing the "vaporetti" or water bus. It's just what it sounds like - a bus on water. The thing was packed! After dinner we rode the bus back to the bus station on the island and rode the bus back to our hostel. We had lots more luck finding it right away this time and we even got off at the right bus stop! I warmed up with a hot shower and we went to sleep, ready for a day of travel!

Here's some great pictures of Venice! The streets were so narrow, and it was strange that there were no cars at all. In fact, Venice is the largest no-vehicle city in Europe!

Oh and I had to include this one for Bryan - it's bamboo in some flower pots outside a Venetian ristorante! (I've seen more bamboo in Italy and London than I thought I would - some just on the side of the road and some in pots outside homes and businesses!) They made me think of you!

We caught a train the next morning to Florence, after Laura went back to the tabaccanist for bus tickets and asked directions to the train station. The three or four Italians in the store were all aruguing, in fierce Italian, how to get there and they finally decided it would be the easiest to write down the name of the stop and instruct Laura to give the slip of paper to the bus driver who would then tell us when to get off. Our kind bus driver did indeed tell us when to get off and we went to the ticket counter, again asking as nicely as possible, "Parla Inglese?" We got tickets for Firenze (Florence) with two stops where we had to switch trains. One was in Bologna (pronounced "Ba-lone-ya," not baloney), and one in Prato. It was actually way easier to switch trains than we thought it would be! We arrived in Florence around 7 or 8pm and went right across the street to the familiar McDonalds for dinner! I left Laura alone to go get ketchup (which I had to pay for) and when I got back, she was in a conversation with an Italian man who wanted to call her! The men in Italy definitely have a different way of showing they are interested in you. We heard the phrase "Ciao Bella" ("Hello, Beautiful") more than we ever thought we would! Since there are virtually no natural blonde-haired, blue-eyed girls in Italy, we drew some attention and turned quite a few Italian heads. This guy that was talking to Laura didn't speak English, and she was in the middle of trying to explain to him that if they couldn't communicate face to face, how in the world would the phone work? She finally just told him that she'd take his number, which he wrote on the inside of a sugar packet! Lavda was his name, and the poor guy just didn't understand!

We made it to our hostel safely and checked in. It was an awesome hostel and they had painted the walls in the halls and stairs white so that anyone who stayed there could sign their names or write messages, or draw pictures! It looked pretty cool. They were very friendly and there were lockers in our 8-girl dorm room so we could leave our luggage safely. After meeting the girls in our room, including a very friendly American named Lindsey, we settled down and went to sleep!

I'll post next about Florence, then Rome. Do you like what you're reading? Should I continue with my trip experiences? Hope you're not bored, because I had a blast! Leave me a comment!