Venezia- the sinking city!

After two weeks and a couple days in Italy, it was definitely time to travel to my favorite city...Venice! As a water girl, practically being raised on a boat for the better part of my summers, I love the idea of a city without roads- only rivers. The city is so beautiful and serene with its canal waterways and colorful buildings, it is not very hard to feel at peace here. Venice is also known for its glassware and carnival masks, so there are endless shops to look at- and we all know how much I love shopping!


So yes, my roommates and I (except for Jill and Lisa who are enjoying their weekend in Capri) woke up very early to catch the 8:37am train to Venezia! It did not take us very long to prove ourselves as the token Americans on the train yet again- we were all assigned specific seats on the train, but we didn't realize it was taken so seriously! After moving seats about 3 times, we were scattered but settled across the train. Two and a half hours later, we were in Venice! We walked along the Grand Canal, and soon found a very interesting mask shop. The man who owned the shop was great, he let us all try on the masks and take silly pictures of ourselves. What really impressed me was that he let us have our fun, but did not pressure every single one of us to buy a mask- awesome marketing skills! Nicole got a beautiful mask of grey and silver.


All that shopping soon made us hungry girls! We found a great little place with a slice of pizza, a soda and a gelato for only 4 eur0s- one of the best deals we have found in Italy! Full from our pizza, it was clearly time to go out on a gondola ride. Now one thing about Gondaleers- they have a tendency to be crabby. Last time I was in Venice, our driver didn't narrate unless we asked him to, wasn't very cheerful and occasionally got mad at other gondolas and would slap his paddle at them! Well, I was pleasantly surprised with our gondaleer this trip- Diego. He not only gave us a very good deal- 15 euros each instead of 20, but he made the ride very relaxing and enjoyable. He took pictures for us, let us climb to the front of the gondola to take a picture with the amazing views in the background, told us everything he could about where we were passing (we saw Marco Polo and Casanova's houses) , and was just a very very nice person. After we returned to the dock, Diego even let each of us stand in the back of the boat with him pretending to row. Definitely the highlite of our trip to Venice!

After the gondola ride, we didn't have much time left before it was time to head back to Florence, but we had to at least walk through the Piazza de San Marco. With a beautiful Church in the back, and 3 walls surrounding the other 3 sides, it is one of the prettiest places in Venice. Unfortunately, it was undergoing construction so the full effect of St. Marks Square was missed, but it was still very impressive! We also had a laugh at a tourist who decided it was a good idea to put food on himself and let the pigeons crawl on him. He was of course yelled at by the police and asked to leave the pigeons alone- but not before I snapped a picture of him!

All too soon, it was time for the six girls of Anguillara 18 to head back to Florence. Fortunately, there was an extremely cute baby who kept us entertained on the ride home!