Unfortunately, our week sped by so quickly and before we knew it, we were in Venice. Once again, we lucked out with another great hostel in a perfect location right near the train station. I didn't think it was possible for Italy to get any hotter than Rome and Florence, but Venice felt SO much hotter because of the intense humidity. Mike convinced me to just embrace the sweat and roll with it, so that's what I did. However, we were all really happy to find out our room had pretty good air conditioning. I'm not sure I'd have survived otherwise!
Our first day in Venice, we had a good long walk along the main road and just spent the afternoon and evening exploring the shops, churches and restaurants along the way. Winding narrow street, canals and footbridges everywhere, gorgeous architecture, everything brightly painted. Venice is magical and so very pretty.
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| Our hostel. Isn't it cute?! |
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| Welcome drinks! |
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| Gondola men stopping in for gelato |
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I ordered this mixed fish platter for dinner without realizing what it really
was. There were a lot of eyeballs on my plate... |
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| I tipped the street singer who serenaded the restaurant so we could take a pic with him. |
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| After dinner, we relaxed on the canal. |
The next morning, I set out for a solo trip out to Murano, which is a little island off Venice known for it's glass blowing. It's easy to get there by taking a cheap boat, and I'd heard it was a neat place to visit so I wanted to check it out. I arrived in Murano before most of the other tourists, and it felt special to have the little town almost to myself. It looked a lot like Venice but was just much smaller and way less crowded. I meandered about, bought some fun glass treasures, then headed back to Venice to meet Reagan and Mike for the afternoon.
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| Leaving the canals to head out to sea! |
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| The ocean highway around Venice |
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| This is what the passenger boat looks like that I took |
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| Glass workshop in Murano |
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| Murano |
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| Isn't it lovely? |
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| Enjoying a diet Coke |
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| Sandwich roll up thingy. Very good lunch! |
After I met up with Reagan and Mike, we meandered around town some more, stopping in shops (of course) and bars (of course). We tried to visit St. Mark's Cathedral, but it was too busy, so we opted to go in the morning instead. Still, we saw more of the city and had a nice dinner on the waterfront.
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| St. Mark's Square |
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| The lion is a symbol of Venice. Go AMHS! |
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We stopped for a quick bite, and Mike and I ordered tiramisu, which
is another Venetian specialty. |
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Mike treated us to grappa, which we thought was going
to be like a grape version of the lovely lemoncello we'd been
enjoying. Turns out it's not at all like lemoncello. It's more like
really bad, really strong, burn your insides liquor. But it
was fun to try anyways and of course we managed to choke
it down! :) |
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| The bar where we had our grappa. |
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| I couldn't get enough of these beautiful canal bridges! |
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| My last bellini, another Venice specialty. |
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| Last amazing pasta. |
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| Beautiful location! Mike did a good job picking the restaurant! |
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| Goodnight, Venezia! |
We didn't have to catch our flights out of Italy until later in the day, so after we got up and checked out, we headed over to St. Mark's Square again to tour the cathedral. It was a longish looking line, but we made it in pretty quick. I was stunned by how beautiful the mosaics were inside the cathedral. So ornate!
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| The ceiling of the cathedral. Mosaics everywhere! |
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| Mosaic floor |
After the cathedral, we took a lesiurely walk back to the hostel to pick up our bags. I wasn't ready to say goodbye to Italy or to the amazing trip I'd had with my dear friends. It was so special to finally see Reagan and Mike after so many months, and sharing all these unique experiences with them made the trip so much more fun! But the weather started to turn, and a storm began to roll in, which was a good sign to us that it was time to let go of this amazing country and move on to whatever lies ahead.
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| I love you, Venice! |
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| Last glimpse as the storm rolls in. |
We took a bus to the airport and parted ways. Reagan and Mike were off to Portugal for a lovely, relaxing holiday on the beach, while I was headed home to London to pack up and get ready to go home-home. It's hard to believe my year here is over and that I'm leaving on Thursday. I'm so very excited to go home and return to my "normal" life, but this year of "unreality" has been incredible and I'm really going to miss Europe. I guess that means I better start planning my next trip back!
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Heading onto my plane, I happened to see Reagan and Mike's plan right
next to us! |
Italy, you are an incredible country, and I'm so glad I was able to come for just a short visit. I can't wait to come back and explore even more more!
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