I'm Just Sayin'...

Venice along the coast

Eventful last few days! Picking up from (around) where I left off, our third day in Venice was just as beautiful as the two before. We spent the first part of the morning going to the train station in Mestre to buy tickets to Rome for the next day (60 freakin euro! That sucked) and then went back to our hotel to change and eat. From there we went into Venice and as we were wandering around the town, two gondoliers who were having lunch shouted to us, "Gondola ride! Special price!" We ignored them at first because the rides are usually insanely expensive, but to my surprise Jacob stopped and asked me, "If I got it for 40 euro would you want to do it?" to which I replied, "Of course!" He bargained with them and we finally got a ride for 60 euro! It was so beautiful and totally worth it; I can't believe I actually rode a gondola in Venice.

Our gondola ride

After that we just walked around more and then went to the Grand Canal to eat dinner, where we had a great view and talked to a nice couple from Las Vegas and fed the little birds bread crumbs.

St. Mark's

When we got back to our hotel it was around 8, and Jacob got on the computer while I started packing for the next day. I was surpised to find that the cleaning woman had cleaned our room again and even folded some of my stuff for me on top of my suitcase. Of course, the mystery was solved when our odd, slightly creepy landlord went up to Jacob and asked him who he was; when he replied the man said that we had only booked the hotel for two nights and he had another person who had been waiting for our room since like 11am. I can't believe they didn't throw our stuff out. Anyway, we were very lucky in that a moderately priced hotel in Venice itself happened to have an opening and we hadn't missed the busses yet. We packed in a hurry and ran over there and I'm pretty sure I have a hernia now from having to lug my suitcase over all the bridges.

However, the hotel was awesome because it was in a plaza with a lot of restaurants and bars and people, so we were able to walk around and see Venice a bit more. This morning we ate a breakfast of pain au chocolat (me) and spaghetti (Jacob) and then left for the train station; on our way out we saw a pigeon get attacked by two seagulls who tried to rip it apart; they would have succeeded if an old lady hadn't chased them away. Poor pigeon. There was also a stray puppy that had been in the square all night and it was still there in the morning but I couldn't do anything about it and Venice is really the best place for him to be; there are tons of dog-lovers and I'm sure someone will pick him up, although it is still sad. He was so cute.

After a four-hour bus ride we arrived in Rome which is beautiful. My first opinion of the city and its people was slightly tarnished by an old woman who came on the bus and berated me in Italian to move my luggage and then told the bus driver on me, who STOPPED the bus and told me to move my stuff and made me cry... however once we got to our apartment it didn't matter anymore. We have an amazing view of St. Peter's and the apartment is badass; the guy is nice and there are adorable old people everywhere. Now we are off to dinner and sleep; we are going to the Vatican tomorrow to see the Pope... should be amazing!

View from our Rome apartment

Ciao!