Venezia

Ciao tutti-- Matt and I arrived in Venice this morning at 10 AM. We had a very empty flight so Matt and I were able to spread out and sleep on the 2 hour flight. We took a 20 minute bus ride to Piazzale Roma and from there we had a “5 minute walk” to the hotel. Hmmm… well, I guess it would’ve been 5 minutes if we knew where we were going or maybe if there were more than 1 in 8 streets actually marked on the map. It didn’t help that on one side of the street the numbers were 81, 82, 83 and on the other side there were the numbers 29, 30, 32. We finally found our hotel, Al Gallo, and were greeted by a very kind, old Italian man, Giuseppe. He was extremely friendly, but equally slow. He asked to see our passports to “make a copy” (which we assumed to be a photocopy) and 10 minutes later he was still writing down the information. He asked Matt his “origins” because he noticed his middle names “Christian Charles” on his passport. He commented on how he also has two middle names and how it is completely normal for an Italian man to have the middle name María.

He walked us to our room which has a bathroom in the hall that we share with another room. Our room also has a nice view of neighboring apartments. After taking a couple hour nap (since we only got a few hours of sleep last night because we had to leave at 5:30 AM for the airport) we asked Giuseppe for directions to the main square. He pointed us in the direction of Rialto and Piazza San Marco. It was a beautiful day and it was really nice walking along the canals filled with gondolas. Rialto is a zone in Venice famous for the Ponte di Rialto (Rialto Bridge). Piazza San Marco is the main square where the Basilica di San Marco, built in 828, is located. After walking through the square we walked along the waterway between the part of Venice we were on and a neighboring island.


After walking around the cobblestone streets and alleys all day Matt and I returned to the hotel to rest a little before dinner. Then we went to a restaurant and ordered authentic Italia pizza which Matt was definitely excited about. We just finished dinner and now we are at a bar called Café Blue where we (and by ‘we’ I mean Matt) are watching the Brazil vs. South Africa soccer game. While he is watching the game I am taking advantage of the free wi-fi to update the blog.


Well, the game’s almost over and Matt is going to use the computer. We leave Venice at 10 AM tomorrow and will be flying to Naples. From Naples we will be taking the Circumvesuviana train to Sorrento because my mom would kill me if I took the bus that goes along the steep, winding roads.

Thanks for reading and hopefully I’ll be updating the blog when we are in Sorrento. Unfortunately, I won’t be posting our pictures until Sunday or Monday.
Wish us nice weather!

Oh boy! The karaoke’s starting… (Matt is rolling his eyes)

-Laila