Bienvenuto a Venezio!

On the 31st we woke up insanely early (5am) to get to the airport for our 6.50am flight. Flight: uneventful, although I understand more and more why people hate Americans (some of them, anyhow-- more on this later).

WWII memorial- it follows us from Normandy!

After getting lost multiple times (and getting off at the wrong bus stop), we arrived at our B&B. It's pretty nice although the landlord is slightly creepy and there is NO A/C, which in 90 degree weather is almost unbearable. It's in a residential part of the mainland, which is awesome because there are less tourists and the food is cheaper, plus it's only a 20 minute bus ride to the city itself.

View from our room of mainland Venice

After a looong nap upon arriving, Jacob and I went to the island. It's insane how many tourists there are, but the city is beyond beautiful. The canals and architecture are insane. We went to the first tourist stop, St. Mark's Square, which was unbelievable. A: It is GORGEOUS and B; there are pigeons EVERYWHERE. The line of people through the narrow streets can be suffocating at times but once you get off the main path to St. Mark's it's quite easy to find yourself in secluded, residential neighborhoods, which is what we did on the way back, stopping to eat gnocchi and pizza at a stagnant part of the canal (smelled like fish). By this time it was almost ten so we rode back home and went to a sweaty, mosquito-ridden sleep.

Gondolas

St. Mark's Cathedral

Yesterday we woke up and went to the city again; first we went to the restaurant we had eaten at the night before because I realized that I had left a present for my sister there; THEY HAD IT, which was awesome, and then we went exploring. We walked all over the island and found a huge park with odd buildings with the names of countries on them (Russia, Denmark, France, etc.) that were completely dilapidated; I think they were for a fair of some sort but I will have to look this up to be certain. I've taken tons of amazing pictures and eaten a ton of ice cream, which will recommence when we got to Mestre today (to buy our train tickets to Rome) and then eat a nice dinner on the Grand Canal (or maybe not; the nice thing about the end of NSP is that our days aren't scheduled... at all). Looking forward to Rome but Venice is amazing!

Canal at night

Ciao,
Alyssa