Venice was wonderful!! I love it! It's definitely one of my favorite places so far!!! We woke up really early on Saturday morning in order to be at the station by 6 am. We got to Venice at about 2, so it was a pretty long day of travelling and we were tired. The first item on our agenda was to go to the island of Murano: a five minute boat ride from the city center. Murano is where they make murano glass, for which Venice is famous. We had talked about how fun it would be to get lost in Venice because everything is just so pretty—our wish was granted. We got lost right away and had to back track to the train station and start over with a map. On the way to the boat we passed a restaurant and one of the waiters started walking alongside me and whispered in my ear, “Free. Free food. I have free food for you. I have a free drink.” We learned in my prep class that you’re supposed to treat them like a telephone pole by walking past them and not acknowledging what they say. I kept on walking, but once I got around the corner, naturally, I started laughing. We took the traghetto (ferry) out to Murano. I liked it a lot. It looked like Venice and had the same feel but it wasn’t nearly as crowded. And it was amazing because every single store was selling murano glass and they were filled with brightly and beautifully colored glass. It was so pretty! We walked around and shopped for a few hours and then headed back to Venice. We found Ponte Rialto (a really cool bridge with stores on it) and got some dinner then went in search of some good gelato. We definitely found it. This gelato was perhaps the best thing I’ve ever tasted in my entire life. It stands unparalleled among all of my past gelato experiences. I got a scoop of banana and a scoop of hazelnut with chocolate in it. The hazelnut chocolate was really good but the banana gelato tasted exactly like a real banana! It was so good! I still can’t get over how amazing it was. At that point we headed back to the train station so we could catch a bus to our hostel.
The next day, Sunday, wasn’t quite as magical. It was still amazing because we were in Venice, but there were just a few setbacks. I didn’t sleep very well at all. Daniela and I had to share a bed and she was snoring really loud because she’s had a cold. Whenever her snores would reach a crescendo I’d shake her shoulder or pull on her pillow and then hurry and pretend to be asleep in case she woke up. Usually that worked and the movement would mute her snores for a while until they started up again. We got up early and left the hostel by 6:30. There was a big boat race in Venice that day and there were hundreds of rowing teams from all over Europe there. It was really cool. It started at Piazza San Marco so we went to see the start of it. For some reason I was having problems with allergies so Daniela gave me some of her medicine. We bought it in Lucca a couple weeks ago because Daniela’s been having allergy problems. It wasn’t supposed to make you tired, but there was either an antihistamine in it or some other strange Italian ingredient because it kind of made me feel weird and a bit drowsy all day. It was really cold that day, too. All week it had been really hot so I hadn’t packed a jacket. I was wearing a skirt and short sleeves. The hostel we stayed at had given us a free T-shirt for staying there (I was so excited about it because I love free T-shirts!), but all they had left were extra large ones. It was really cold and that was all I had so I walked around Venice all day wearing an over-sized T-shirt. It was actually the same color as my skirt so I looked like a navy blue blob. I considered buying a sweatshirt and I even tried a couple on but there weren’t any with long enough sleeves and I didn’t want to get one unless I really liked it. We walked around for a few hours and we were both really tired and neither of us felt very good. We really wanted to go inside the Basilica di San Marco because it’s absolutely beautiful but on Sundays it doesn’t open until 2. We were going to wait until then, see the basilica, then head to the train station because we had to catch our trains at 5. At about 12:30 there was a line outside the basilica and we got really excited because we thought maybe they’d opened it early. It ended up that the line was for the horse museum. As cool as that would have been…we decided against it. We still had about an hour and a half before the basilica opened and I felt really sick. I almost fell asleep as we were sitting on the steps of the basilica. We decided that we would go see if we could catch any earlier trains. Daniela was heading to Milan to her old mission area because she had Monday and Tuesday off of work. I had to be at work in the morning so I went to Siena. Daniela was able to find a train that left about 2 hours earlier, but there weren’t any earlier trains for me. We found a bench and waited for Daniela’s train. I slept out for about 15 minutes and she woke me up when it was time for her to go. I still had about 2 hours to wait so I wandered around the station for a while and then went out and explored the little streets outside the station for a while. I bought a pear and an apple that would serve as my dinner until I got back to Rita’s because she said she’d have a fruit salad for me when I got home.
The next day, Sunday, wasn’t quite as magical. It was still amazing because we were in Venice, but there were just a few setbacks. I didn’t sleep very well at all. Daniela and I had to share a bed and she was snoring really loud because she’s had a cold. Whenever her snores would reach a crescendo I’d shake her shoulder or pull on her pillow and then hurry and pretend to be asleep in case she woke up. Usually that worked and the movement would mute her snores for a while until they started up again. We got up early and left the hostel by 6:30. There was a big boat race in Venice that day and there were hundreds of rowing teams from all over Europe there. It was really cool. It started at Piazza San Marco so we went to see the start of it. For some reason I was having problems with allergies so Daniela gave me some of her medicine. We bought it in Lucca a couple weeks ago because Daniela’s been having allergy problems. It wasn’t supposed to make you tired, but there was either an antihistamine in it or some other strange Italian ingredient because it kind of made me feel weird and a bit drowsy all day. It was really cold that day, too. All week it had been really hot so I hadn’t packed a jacket. I was wearing a skirt and short sleeves. The hostel we stayed at had given us a free T-shirt for staying there (I was so excited about it because I love free T-shirts!), but all they had left were extra large ones. It was really cold and that was all I had so I walked around Venice all day wearing an over-sized T-shirt. It was actually the same color as my skirt so I looked like a navy blue blob. I considered buying a sweatshirt and I even tried a couple on but there weren’t any with long enough sleeves and I didn’t want to get one unless I really liked it. We walked around for a few hours and we were both really tired and neither of us felt very good. We really wanted to go inside the Basilica di San Marco because it’s absolutely beautiful but on Sundays it doesn’t open until 2. We were going to wait until then, see the basilica, then head to the train station because we had to catch our trains at 5. At about 12:30 there was a line outside the basilica and we got really excited because we thought maybe they’d opened it early. It ended up that the line was for the horse museum. As cool as that would have been…we decided against it. We still had about an hour and a half before the basilica opened and I felt really sick. I almost fell asleep as we were sitting on the steps of the basilica. We decided that we would go see if we could catch any earlier trains. Daniela was heading to Milan to her old mission area because she had Monday and Tuesday off of work. I had to be at work in the morning so I went to Siena. Daniela was able to find a train that left about 2 hours earlier, but there weren’t any earlier trains for me. We found a bench and waited for Daniela’s train. I slept out for about 15 minutes and she woke me up when it was time for her to go. I still had about 2 hours to wait so I wandered around the station for a while and then went out and explored the little streets outside the station for a while. I bought a pear and an apple that would serve as my dinner until I got back to Rita’s because she said she’d have a fruit salad for me when I got home.
Finally, at 5:00 my train came and I had to say good-bye to Venice. I really loved it, even though the last day hadn’t been that great. It’s an incredible city and I’m definitely going back. I got to Bologna and had to switch trains. I got on the train, but we didn’t leave at 7:45 like we were supposed to. In fact, we sat on the tracks for an hour. You would think that I would have learned my lesson after my last experience with rail travel on Sunday. I had two other train connections to catch after the Bologna train so I had definitely missed them. I started getting nervous because trains don’t run very frequently on Sundays and it was getting late. Everyone on the train was really frustrated. I was getting really scared because I didn’t know if there’d be another train for me to catch and I didn’t have any way of knowing until I got to Florence. Right before the train finally left some random man and woman came and sat by me. I felt like I should talk to him, so eventually I got over my shyness and did. I didn’t understand what he said when I asked him where he was from, but the lady was from Romania. For some reason this guy was really hard to understand, he didn’t even talk that fast, but he kind of mumbled or something. He asked where I was going and so I told him I was going to Siena and I showed him the trains I was supposed to take but had missed. The boy across the aisle from us overheard and started talking to us. He was headed in the same direction as me and was going to have the same problem. He told me to wait a second and he made a phone call. He talked to someone for a long time and he found out what I needed to do to get back to Siena. I had one option and if I missed any part of it I would be stuck until the next morning. I had to get off at a different stop in Florence and wait for about an hour, take a train to Empoli, and take a bus from there to Siena. The boy, Simone, was so nice. He got off with me in Florence, showed me where my train would leave from, and helped me find out what time the bus left from Empoli. As we were walking he said, “Okay, you are in Florence, in the very center of the city. So if you have fear, do not worry because there will be tons of cops.” (Something to that effect, sometimes his English was a bit confusing). It ended up that he needed to take the same train as me because he was going to Pisa, where he goes to school. Neither of us had eaten and it was about 10:30 pm so we went to McDonald’s. He could tell I was nervous so he even spoke to me in English for a while before we switched back to Italian. We talked about food, school, Italy, trains, and President Obama. We got on our train and he needed to study because he had a big test in the morning. I tried to read but I was feeling really antsy and I was afraid I’d miss my stop and get stranded somewhere. I tried to act calm, but Simone kept saying “Tranquilla. Stai tranquilla!” (Calm down). Apparently I wasn’t that good at hiding my anxiety. In Empoli I got off and he kept going to Pisa. Before I got off the train, he pointed to a man out the window that I could ask about my bus. I caught the bus and finally made it back to Siena at about 1:30 am. Rita had waited up for me, so she came and got me. It was a very long day. The people on the train were so nice and they totally saved me, especially Simone. Everyone in Italy is so nice like that, they’ll always help you and it’s so amazing!
Oh my gosh!! Why don't you love Simone. That is so nice-that story made me so stressed out because I know I would be freaking out if I were you, but I'm really glad to hear you got back safely. With the help of an Italian boy. He must have thought you were gorgeous.
ReplyDelete