Venice

Like crazies, or super stingy students (our train costs 1/3 what the “good time” trains did), we piled on the 4:30 am train to Venice after getting a whopping two hours of sleep the night before. The train ride there was pretty rough, and impossible to sleep. We got into Venice at 10:00 and found a place to eat breakfast and have coffee. I enjoyed so cheese and fruit pastries (mini pies/fruit pizzas),

 while Monica and Hannah ate crepes covered in Nutella. We hopped a bus to our hostel (not on the island), checked in and took a two-hour nap before we regrouped and explored the city. With less than 24 hours to spend in Venice, we made the most of the day. We explored all of the winding streets from one end of the island to the other, stopping for pizza and shopping along the way. In had never realized that Veince was more than just one river winding through the city. It has little waterways that feed into the bigger one, creating entire city reliant on the waterways.  Even UPS has a boat the get their packages around Venice. 

We made it to St. Mark’s Square a.k.a. pigeon central, and soaked up its greatness. 

We tried eating at a few places suggested by the travel guide, but a lot of kitchens in Italy close at 4 pm, so we were told we were welcome to drink, but couldn’t eat. We tried finding a place on our own, before approaching to moms standing outside watching their kids play and asked them a good place to eat. One of the moms walked us to their suggested restaurant on her walk home, and they were quite right, it was a tasty dinner. We enjoyed our pasta dishes (Monica claims God made the meatballs for her spaghetti in the kitchen) with a few glasses of white wine mixed with champagne. We attempted to retrace our steps and get back to the bus stop, but instead found a new way. On our walk, we met two boys from California, on a two-week Eurotrip headed to Rome. As usual, we gave them plenty of advice on the city before parting ways at the bus station. Our train to Milan didn’t leave until 11:00 the next morning, so we were able to get NINE WHOLE HOURS of sleep before having a relaxing breakfast and climbing aboard our next train.