VENICE City on the Sea

Joshua here again. We just left Venice. What a crazy place. Let me take a minuite to catch you up from last time.

We left Switzerland on a Swiss train. Swiss trains are clean, the people are pleasant, they are usually comfortable and air-conditioned, and most of all, they are ALWAYS promptly on time. We crossed the Swiss/Italian border and got off in Milan. Milan is a city that is all about fashion and the luxurious cutting edge, trendy lifestyle. Not much in the way for budget travellers. Val and I spent as little time as possible there! Ha. No, we took a subway and saw the Duomo, which is breathtakingly beautiful and some of the other old sights in Milan were very pretty. However, we got lost, it was VERY hot, and to get to every sight, you had to (almost literally) fight off the hordes of souvenier pushers. One was screaming "F--- Off" at me as loud as he could until we just walked quickly away. That was a great lesson to learn this early in our Italian voyages, and enough of a dterent in the hot sun to get us out of Milan.

With red sweaty faces, we headed back to the train station and hopped on our first real Italian train for Venice. On the train, we almost immediately had the PLEASURE of experiencing all of the negative Italian stereotypes that we've heard so much about. The train was like a sauna, and ridiculously over sold, so there were a lot of people standing, many of them screaming at each other arguing over seats. The majority of Italians are very dramatic, as they talk a lot with their hands and flamboyantly put that Italian twang on the end of every word. Spaghetti isn't "spaghetti", it's SpaGHHHETTI". Anyway, it was a hysterical first experience of Italian culture and what a difference we noticed between the SwissGermans and the Italians!

We pulled into Venice, and the train station is right on the edge of the island. For those of you unfamiliar with Venice, it is a city built on 150 tiny islands, just off the Italian coastline. There are no cars allowed on the actual island, as all of the roads are for foot traffic or are streets of water... or they are bridges over those waterways. We were staying outside the city, off of the island in a small camp ground, so that first night we arrived in the city and proceeded to tour around on foot with our backpacks on.

Venice is an incredibly elaborate maze of tiny alleyways, and even weilding a map, even the most savvy explorer would find it difficult to navigate. Venice, however, is the only city I've ever been to where it is okay to be a tourist. I would say 75% of the people you meet are tourists. Therefore, everywhere you go, people are staring up at the street signs (if you can find one) and holding a twisted mess of a map in their hands. It's such a fun time. You almost try to get lost when you're there so you can find new things, and since you're on an island, you know you won't get REALLY lost. We trudged around getting lost that first night and being wow-ed with the whole concept of a city on water. We caught the last bus out of town to our campground and the complex was pleasant with a grocery store, restaurant and swimming pool right there on the woodsy, three acre, "youth-focused" campground. The bad news turned out to be that our cute little "bungalow-style" room turned out to be a sauna; an 8 foot by 6 foot shell with two squeaky twin beds and a window the size of a small book. We tried to leave the door open, as it was cooler outside than inside, but we quickly realized the mosquito infestation was more than we could bear. It was so hot we sweated all night and woke up feeling more tired than when we went to bed. Luckily, we caught the first bus into town and had a great morning mazing through the city, enjoying it this time without our heavy packs.

We went back to the campground at noon, when it's hottest on the island and had the pool pretty much to ourselves. They also had a little dirt soccer field on the grounds, so I rented an old flat volleyball for 5 EUROS and had a kick around. That evening, we returned to the city, this time without our cameras and without our packs...and oops, without our map. We decided it would be fun to get lost and see where we ended up. (Val interjects) "That night we made our way close to the water and walked for a long distance. As we were walking down the streets in Venice, we kept thinking that we saw people that we knew... then as we are walking over this bridge, I see this girl that looks like a girl I know. As the girl came closer I realized it was someone from the USA, from PA, from Ebensburg, from Holy Name school, and from cheerleading... It is Colette Natcher. What a small world. We stood and talked for a few minutes. It was crazy that we saw her." That night we found some great little plazas to sit and eat and have cappuccinos, met some other travellers, and discovered the truth about something you'll hear everyone say who returns from Italy, "YOU HAVE TO EAT AS MUCH GELATTO AS YOU CAN!!!!"

While Val and I were in Milan, we had our first taste of gelatto, and it must have been an average stand, because it tasted like ice cream and it was expensive. It was good and hit the spot on a hot humid summer's day, but it wasn't like we had hoped. When we were in Venice, though, the second stand we visited had the most amazing icy, refreshing pineapple flavor that put us over the edge. It was incredible and we had it three more times over the next day and a half. We spoiled many - a - dinner with good gelatto. Anyway, another cold shower and another night spent in our sweat box of a room and the next morning we checked out of the campground, had one last kick around with the socer ball, and we were headed for the train station, again heavy laiden with our packs under the sweltering summer sun. We said a loving fairwell to Venice and hopped on a train for Florence. I'll let Val fill you in on what took place in Florence. Remember to check out our photos which are constantly being updated on http://www.stockworldtour.shutterfly.com/