Let's rewind to May 14.
Josh made it safely to Florence. He took a taxi to our hotel where I was waiting. We checked in to the hotel, and then we walked around Florence. I showed him all the main sights. We got doner kebabs for lunch and gelato for an afternoon snack. (I've never seen anyone eat gelato so fast!)
Later, we were hot and exhausted from walking all over town, so we stopped into the Lion's Fountain for a drink and to cool down. We walked around some more after that, but I could tell Josh was really tired from flying all the way there and not sleeping much the past few days. We bought some cheese and bread, chips, and chocolate, and went back to the hotel to snack and hang out. He fell asleep pretty early that night and slept till morning.
The next day, it rained. All day. A lot of rain. I've never seen Florence that rainy before! We went to the train station to validate our Eurail passes for the next day. We got coffee and pastries to get out of the rain for a while, and we had to buy two umbrellas from umbrella salesmen on the side of the road, since I left my big one at the hotel. (It wasn't raining when we left!)
We went to the Galileo Science Museum, which was almost totally empty and also really cool. There were tons of awesome scientific contraptions. (I wasn't sure what most of them were.)
Then we ate lunch at Trattoria ZaZa. Josh had spaghetti alla carbonara, and I had a pasta with truffle sauce. It was nice to be inside, because during lunch, it was POURING outside.
After lunch, we went to the Church of Santa Croce. I had been there before with my architecture class. It's the one where Michelangelo, Machiavelli, and Galileo are buried. Unfortunately, I had worn shorts that day because the previous day had been so hot. Since my knees weren't covered, I had to purchase a lovely navy blue papery shirt-like thing meant for covering shoulders, and wrap it around my legs so my knees weren't visible.
That was attractive.
We went back to the hotel for a while to recharge. (We had done a lot of walking back and forth around town.) Around 5:30, we set out across the river and climbed up to Piazza Michelangelo. The view of Florence from there is incredible. We went inside the Church of San Miniato, too, because it's really close to the Piazza.
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| The Town and the Duomo |
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| The Arno and Ponte Vecchio |
We were lucky enough to be able to store my 3 huge, heavy suitcases at our hotel, since we were coming back there in 10 days. We each packed a big backpack of stuff for the next week and a half.
Monday morning, Josh and I got to the train station with plenty of time to sit and wait for our train. It was the first train I had ever been on with reservations, and the nicest train I had ever been on!
When you take the train to Venice, there are 2 stations. One is on the main land, and the other station is on the edge of the island part of Venice. It's ridiculously expensive to stay on the island, so our hotel was a 10 minute walk from the first station on the main land. (10 minutes if you have good directions. . . We didn't.)
We checked in to our Venice hotel. Then we caught a bus from a nearby stop which took us over to the real, island part of Venice. By then, it was lunch time. We got sandwiches. I had some pink grapefruit gelato, and I officially decided that pink grapefruit is my all time favorite gelato flavor.
The first day in Venice, we just wandered around all day without a plan. Venice is the perfect place for wandering. There are so many twists and turns! So many similar bridges and narrow back alleys. There is no point in trying to use a map in Venice. Just wander, and when you feel like going back, look for signs that say "Per San Marco" and you will be led to Saint Mark's Square.
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| Saint Mark's Basilica (With a Light Pole in the Front) |
Don't judge me.
We went to McDonalds. Burger and fries, and I was a happy girl.
We took the bus back to our hotel. Nearby was a grocery store. Josh got dinner there from the deli. He had a fish. And a bag of plain lettuce. And a can of Pringles.
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| Josh and his Feast |
Neither of us know what kind of fish it was, but when he walked into the hotel room with it, I couldn't stop laughing. He polished off all but the head, and then had me take this picture. . .
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| I have no words. |
Being quite the pastry connoisseur myself, I was quite pleased to hear those words come out of his mouth. He got a pastry, and then another one. Success.
We needed to do something that day besides wander, so we went to the Duke's Palace. I had been there during Carnivale, but I thought Josh might like to go, so we explored that for a while. I was hungry afterwards, so I grabbed a mozzarella and tomato sandwich. Then we both got gelato. Of course.
We went to the Correr Museum after that. It's a museum of Venetian history and art, and it was pretty cool. The admission for that was included in our ticket to the Duke's Palace, so we had to go. We walked around some more. Josh got a hotdog for lunch. Have you ever ordered a hotdog in a foreign country? He ended up with a weird looking bun and a sliced hot dog. He said it was gross. It looked gross.
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| "Hotdog" |
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| Wandering in Venice :) |
I had McDonalds again that day for dinner. 2 days in a row?!
. . .yeah. Another hamburger. Another small fry. Another happy yet shameful moment.
We took the bus back, and Josh went back to the grocery store for dinner. This time, he returned with rice and some giant-looking shrimp on a stick. He said, "I don't really know what this is. . . I think it's some kind of sea worm. . . No. . . It tastes like chicken. . . I think it might be Chicken of the Sea."
What the heck? It was most definitely shrimp!
Day 2 in Venice was complete. Next blog post: Milan
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