Venice

12 June

18 hours in Venice and we are on our way to Florence. The train is completely packed, which hasn't happened yet on our trip. Venice was very different from Munich and Innsbruck. It was packed with tourists. It took us an hour to get from our hotel, which was by the train station, to the Rialto Bridge. You almost couldn't move there were so many people out. We visited the usual sights; the Rialto Bridge and St. Marco's Square. When we got to the square, the church was closed for renovations and most of the square was blocked off.

We came to find out that we had chosen a very bad day to come to Venice. It was some sort of holiday and they had the Regatta (a crew race) that day. We happened to walk into the square during the middle of it. Needless to say, we got out of there pretty quickly. It was very hot and we wanted to get out of the sun and get some food. We wandered back to our hotel (Venice is such a confusing ciy, all you can do is wander) and got a recommendation for a place to eat away from all the crazy tours. When we were going over one of the bridges, there was a lady who was trying to get a stroller up the stairs so mom went to help her. The lady had another little boy that, when he realized we were Americans, said, “You English?!” Mom replies, “Yes I speak english.” The boy’s mother says (in italian), “show them that you can count.” The boy goes, “One, two, three, four, six...” So adorable.

The restaurant that was recommended to us was excellent. It was not very expensive, the food was good, and the staff was beyond awesome. They would come by and laugh and joke with us. They closed the restaurant and there was no hurry to get us to leave. When we went up to get us to settle the bill, one of the waiters handed us glasses with some lemon liqueur in it. After downing the thing, it was essentially lemon everclear. It was ridiculously strong.

This morning, our train did not leave until 11:30 so I got up early and wandered around Venice by myself for a bit. There was hardly anyone out and about, so I took a different route and made it to the Rialto Bridge in 30 minutes. It was great to be able to stand up there and watch the canal and everyone getting ready for the day without feeling like I'm going to get shoved out of the way because there's a line of three people behind me waiting to get a picture.

Overall, my impression of Venice is that, although it's an amazing city, and at one time it might have been seen as very romantic, it has just become a tourist trap. If you go, you only need to spend a day, maybe two there. But it is a place that is very unique and neat and you should see it at least once in your life.