Venezia is for lovers

Hello again state-siders! I am back from one hell of a weekend and if I don't record how much I just squeezed into the last 3 days, I don't think I'll even believe/remember it.

I left off on Thursday before my leadership class, so that's where we shall begin. Leadership seems like it will be easy and definitely full of lively discussion considering it is just 8 of us hotheads who think we are pretty awesome leaders to begin with ;) Thursday night was also our group welcome dinner, and it did not disappoint. It was a four course extravaganza of carbs (as has been pretty much every day since...) and it was nice to sit down together and have a fancy meal that didn't cost me 35 euros!

Friday morning the alarm went off at 6 am (Josh, I don't know how you do it) to make the bus for Verona and Venice. One sidenote I think you'll find interesting- Italy is not a country of early risers. In fact, when I have class at 9 am there is hardly a coffee shop door cracked open. The restaurants and cafes here don't open until 9 or 10, making food and drink impossible to come by in the wee hours. Anyways, we boarded a bus for Verona and arrived three cramped hours later. Verona is a beautiful village famous for being the setting of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet! There isn't much to it besides tourist shops, cafes, Juliet's balcony and a small colloseum, so the two hours we had was plenty. I found my new favorite pizza (margherita pizza with fresh, cold tomatoes and mozzarella and basil on top- OMG amazing) and put Josh and I's name on Juliet's wall :) After Verona, we hopped back on the bus and collectively passed out until we got to Venice around 6pm. Venice is crazy beautiful but not so much when a bus can't get near it and you have to drag all of your stuff across bridges and cobblestone hallways to get to your hotel. That being said, our hotel was amazing and had a great location right next to the train station and a main water bus station. In Venice, there are no cars or vespas- you get everywhere by water taxi or the cheaper water bus. That first night me and a few girls decided to just walk around and explore and we ended up having a mediocre but enjoyable dinner. Exhausted from no sleep the night before, we all called it a night early.

Saturday easily ranks in one of the top five longest but top five best days ever. I got up early to go on a walking tour of Venice, but plans went haywire when we found out the Pope was visiting Venice! The Pope turned out to be the source of all problems from 8:30 am on, and I would have been perfectly happy if his popedom would have just stayed in Roma. We had a revamped walking tour since many places were closed or roped off for the Pope, but we did get to go in St. Marks Basilica, which was breathtaking and one of the most memorable churches I've been to. It was definitely a struggle to keep up with the tour guide with Venice's impossibly small streets and crowds of Pope fans, but I made it and ended up eating lunch at an adorable trattoria somewhere (I have no idea how anyone ever describes where they are in Venice..."I am at the random alleyway 5 minutes from that one big church next to a small bridge?"). Our tour guide had pointed out St. Giorgio Island, a tiny island of Venice where there is a huge tower (with an elevator) with spectacular views of the city, so a few of us girls decided to venture over to the island despite it being super far from where we were staying. So, a group of about 8 or 9 of us set off for the water bus stop to St. Giorgio and planned to go around St. Mark's square where the Pope was set to speak that night. Navigating the throngs of people dressed like they were going to a black tie affair to stand in a crowd of thousands of people to see the Pope was pure insanity. We managed to get lost in Venice for a solid two hours, asking for directions and then finding out the directions were useless since so much of Venice was closed for the Pope. Luckily, the 5 or 6 of us that stuck out the journey made the best of it and saw some beautiful parts of the city. At 7 pm we finally found the water bus and headed to St. Giorgio. The views from the island are incredible and Venice is just so romantic- exactly the way you picture it. We get to the tower so excited to be able to take gorgeous sunset pictures when we are told by Italian police that the tower is closed so that no one can sharp shoot the Pope!! We were super disappointed but we figured we would stick around and take a few pictures before going back to the main island. What we failed to notice was how every boat in Venice, usually whirling by, was just bobbing in the water. Turns out boats can't even drive when the Pope is speaking unless they are police boats! So, here we are, stuck on an island with just a church and a tower and other clueless tourists, waiting for over an hour for the Pope to leave and the boats to start running again. Poor planning? Yes. An amazing adventure? Definitely. A boat finally rescued us and, an hour later, we were back near our hotel. We stumbled upon this cute restaurant with all Italians and I had the best spaghetti and meatballs EVER. A nutella gelato cone and liquor store bottle of chianti later, I was one happy and exhausted girl.

Sunday morning we checked out of the hotel and headed to the island of Murano, famous for glass blowing. Murano is beautiful and there is literally nothing on it besides glass stores and cafes for the tourists. I saw a glass-blowing demonstration and it was crazy! They have to mold the glass at such precise times and temperatures, and the guy made a glass horse with all of this detail in a matter of 30 seconds. I bought a necklace but nothing crazy. If you go to Venice, Murano is worth checking out but not for more than two or three hours. In the afternoon we went back to the hotel, grabbed lunch and boarded the speed train back to Florence (speed trains > buses for sure).

Today I had class in the morning and a guest lecturer this afternoon who talked about the media in Italy. Turns out every media outlet in the country is owned by a politician or political faction/company, so unbiased news is unheard of. Everyone just knows what outlets have what bias and reads the one they agree with- nuts compared to what we learn in journalism school in the US! I then had to purchase a new camera charger because mine isn't working here in Europe despite the converters and adapters :( But atleast now I can take proper documentation of my trip instead of just on the Blackberry! I think I'll go stroll around Florence for a little while considering the sun doesn't set until almost nine here. Tomorrow I am going on a day trip to Sienna, which is south and supposed to be beautiful (as if there is a place in Italy that isn't) and then this weekend I will be in Sorrento and Capri! I can't wait. I miss you Josh, friends and family reading this and wish you were here to experience all of this!

Side Notes:
Much to my dismay, I have discovered penne alla vodka is an American myth. It does not exist in Italy. WTF.


Maura- I had my first That's SO Italy moment. I was wearing a black sweater, red scarf, jeans, Italy sunglasses and my gold sperries and got approached by genuine Italians who didn't realize I was American and speak English- YES :)