Venice/Verona

Flooded Venice!

Doge's Dungeon!

The wishing tree at the Guggenheim!

Venezia!

Gelato in verona!

On Juliet's Balcony

Oh hey Will!

In Verona!

An italian bachelor party, the bachelor has to wear a crazy costume!

Finally in Venice!

Doge's Palace

St. Marks Square

Some of the group!

On our way!

On a boat ride!

So we just got back yesterday from Venice and Verona! Friday we had class and a meeting at the U.S. Consulate in Florence so we woke up and took a train there, then got off and walked all over the city with Kirk (our professor) who described all of the architecture and significance to us which was really cool. After that we stopped for a short lunch and gelato (we have a new appreciation for the gelato in Arezzo which was better and cheaper than Florence!)

We next had an appointment at the U.S. Consulate in Florence where they took us on a tour and then had a meeting about being safe abroad and what the consulate can and can't do for us. It was a really small place in comparison to Rome so I will be interested to get my first tour of the embassy next semester to see the comparison! I decided that I am glad I'll be stationed in Rome because there will be more going on there than there was in Florence. The speaker was really cool and told us about working for the State Dept also.

After our appointment we had a train to catch so we headed back to the station and got on a regional train to Venice with 9 of my other classmates. When we got to Mestre, we had 2 different rooms booked, so the other group thought they were close to this station and left to find it. We figured out how to get tickets into Venice then waited 30 minutes... ate mcdonalds (I know it's bad but it was late and we were starving and stuck at the station!) then I navigated with a handmade map to find our hotel, but we weren't staying in the actual hotel, we were staying in an apartment closer to the Rialto bridge, so we just picked up the key and then I had to navigate down to the bridge at 10:30 at night, but I can't complain because Venice was beautiful by night and the location of our apartment/hotel was great!

When we got to the area we found our street which had an irish bar in front of it with a lot of locals that were so excited to see 5 girls together that they literally did a spirit tunnel for us when we walked by to the next road, it was really funny. Our apartment was on the top floor, but still not as many as to my own apartment! That night we just chilled and went to bed early for an early morning in Venice.

Saturday we woke up, got a coffee (or coke for me) and headed out to the sights! We took the water ferry to St. Marks, which was so great to be on the water without paying for an 80 Euro gondola ride! We hopped in line for the basilica right away and it was so beautiful inside! It was definitely Byzantine which was interesting to me since I've mainly only seen Gothic up to this point.

Everyone wanted to go the the Doge's Palace next but the line was really long so we found a double pass at another museum close by that had no line, walked around this museum for awhile and then were able to later skip the line to get into the Palace.

After the Correre museum we found the other 4 girls and headed down some random streets to find a good place to eat. We stumbled across a very cute trattoria where I ordered seafood and all 10 of us chatted about what we had been up to all day. Next I found this store with some great old maps of Italy so I bought one and it is now hanging in Kara's and my room in Arezzo!

Then we headed back to St. Marks to go to the Palace and when we got there it was completely flooded! They aren't kidding when they say Venice is sinking I guess. We all had to take our shoes off and wade through to get to the other side, so obviously we had to stop and take 100 pictures! Some are above. The palace was cool and everything was basically how I remembered it from last time.

Next we wandered our way over to the Academia bridge to go the the Guggenheim modern art collection which was really cool because it had a lot of famous pieced that even I recognized and it also had a wishing tree which was a gift from Yoko Ono where you write down your wish and then hang it on the tree! It would definitely be a cute idea for a wedding or some sort of shower we decided.

When we left, we got lost which is what you are supposed to do in Venice! I just put the map away and we wandered till we were on the complete opposite side, then I found the main streets again and navigated us back to the Rialto. While we were lost we found the only dance club in Venice, along with a lot of residential areas and small stores that we wouldn't have seen otherwise. I obviously had to buy one of the murano glass penguins too!

That evening I went and made reservations at a small restaurant by the canal and we all met there for dinner which was my favorite one so far. Everything was homemade and our waitors were so nice. The owner even came out to chat with us and he was so sweet, it was definitely the mom and pop kind of atmosphere I was hoping to find when I booked our apartment in the Venetian residential area!

The next morning we all got up really early to get on a connecting train from Venice to Mestre then to catch our next train from Mestre to Verona. I have also been to Verona before so when we got there I was able to find our way back to the main square (with a little help from Rick Steves) and then find Juliets house. We did the whole picture thing there and toured the house then had lunch at a cute cafe overlooking the 3rd oldest amphitheater in all of Italy. After this, we were kind of ready to leave because there wasn't a lot left to do, but our train wasn't for awhile so we basically all just spent the day relaxing, doing a little shopping (don't worry I didn't buy anything!) and people watching.

It was definitely nice to get out of Arezzo and see another area, but I also decided that I'm ready to start traveling out of Italy in general to experience other places!

Next weekend one of my best friend Kylie Bohanan is coming to Florence with the Engineering program so I will be able to see her and Ashley Zumwalt! Then the next weekend, I will be getting out my dirndl (traditional german dress) because Kara, Kate and I will be going to the 200th anniversary of Oktoberfest in Munich!!