Mission Accomplished.

Grace, Rachel & I

Day 7 Notes

Long day so in notes.
Venice #2 with Dr. Lange, Dr. Lange's sister, Dr. Alexander, Grace, Rachel, Jenna (Samford/AL girls)

- 6:45 - wake up call
- 7:30 - meet in lobby. walk through breakfast.
- bus to montegrotto
- train to Venice
- water taxi to St. Mark's Plaza
- lunch. Grace gets kissed by the waiter because it's her birthday
- GONDOLA ride
- water taxi to Murano
- watch guy make pretty glass horse
- be-friend pigeons we named Bobby and Peter. I fed them peanuts. Peter sits on my head.
- water taxi back to St. Mark's
- meet up with Rachel and Grace for dinner
- get lost
- get on wrong water taxi
- get on right taxi
- miss train back
- meet three boys... convo later
- Dr. Lange's sister almost gets on wrong train
- get on right train
- take bus back to Abano... and it's 12:30 am

Spent lots of money between train, water taxi day pass, food, shopping (but everything I got is so sweet and I love it all, I didnt go overboard!)

BED NOW. Verona and Lake Garda tomorrow... meeting at 7:15. EEK!

xoxo S

Day 7

Super long day today. Test went fine - everyone got an A. After class we took a bus to Padova and got a tour of the University of Padova - the old buildings. aka the ones that have been there since like forever. Galileo taught there. It was pretty cool... felt like we were in ruins. I bought a shirt at the gift shop for myself.

I stuck with 3 Alabama girls after that since everyone else was either leaving for the weekend or going somewhere else. Thanks to directions courtesy of me, we found our way back super quickly. We took the next bus, but it ended up just doing the long way home and it took us 45 mins for about a 15 min bus ride. We got back just in time for dinner. Dinner was gross as usual (pasta with chunks of salmon, grilled pork... ugh) but I was so hungry that I ate it.

Tomorrow I'm going to Venice with the 3 Alabama girls that are staying, Dr. Lange and her sister, and Dr. Alexander. They just came to tell me that we're taking a 7:30 bus. WHAT. Normally I meet everyone for breakfast at 7:45 and take an 8:15 bus. And I'm super tired. Soo... bed is going to be really really early tonight.

Sunday we're going to Verona to see Juliet's balcony, and then to where ever George Clooney has his villa. I don't remember the town, but George Clooney lives there. That's good enough for me.

I can't wait to buy all the things from my list tomorrow! We might take the vaporetto (water taxi) to the island where they make the Murano so we can see it being done. It should be fun! Pictures to come!

xoxo S

Venice in 3

I can describe Venice in 3 pictures.

Gorgeous Houses. Water. Flowers. Boats.

Narrow pathways. (there were smaller ones)

Feeding the pigeons.
yes, my face pretty much looks like this in every picture.
but there are 1 or 2 where I'm smiling

Click to enlarge!

Day 2: Venice!

Woke up and meet everyone for breakfast this morning at 9ish. Breakfast was … interesting. They had fruit and granola but I had that, but my the fruit juice got everything soggy. We put our bus passes to use and took the bus to Monte something with a V. From there we took a train into Venice. Arriving at Venice was like pulling up to Atlantis. Words cannot describe it.

It’s so weird that there are no streets, but rather big rivers and little rivers. There is no grass. The houses and buildings are close together, and there are flowers everywhere. It’s rather flat but there are so many steps up, bridge, steps down to go over the water. We walked around for 7 hours. It was hot and humid. It started raining at 2, so that’s when we stopped to get lunch. What’s ridiculous is that here you pay for water. Instead of “No thanks, I’ll just have water” its “I’d like a still water please”. And it’s like 2 E for a bottle. So expensive! We saved the bottle so we can refill it with tap. As you walked further into the town, souvenirs got cheaper. Things would be 12 E, then 10, then 7.50, then 7 then 5. I got some gifts so far, just small things, but I’m not saying what. We may go back another afternoon to get more stuff towards the end because there are other things I want to buy but I might find other stuff.

We walked to San Marco Plaza. I took lots of videos because the stuff was just so incredible 360 degrees around, that pictures couldn’t do it justice. Then, Jane and I fed the pigeons. We had taken cookies at breakfast, so we crushed them into our hands and put them out. Those pigeons were vicious and not afraid at all. Someone videotaped it. The video consists of me shrieking and pigeons going everywhere. Some complete strangers were videotaping Jane and I because everyone was watching us and laughing hysterically. The pictures are priceless.

We hopped the train back at 7 and got to dinner late. Thank god the appetizer filled me up (it was thick round spaghetti with parmesan cheese) filled me up because once again I was forced to eat some foreign meat.

Dr. Gallo (Ida’s friend) called the hotel asking for me and they came with the phone asking for me. It freaked me out because I had no idea who or why anyone was calling for me. He wants me to go to his house for lunch, but since I have to go to lunch with the group I can’t. I’ll probably end up doing dinner though.

But I’m sweaty and gross and exhausted. I’m going to try to add pictures (I can summarize today in 3 or 4 pictures) so fingers crossed it works. We have to meet at 8:15 tomorrow morning. WOW.

Xoxo S

Did I mention that we can't wear jeans to class?! Not even nice ones. Hope they think my skirts are acceptable!

note to Natalia: I took over 200 pictures today...
note to Aunt Toni: I saw a "Hotel Bruno" today. I took a picture (or 2) to show you :)