Julia's Thoughts: Venice to Rome

Venice was definitely everyone's favorite. Once we arrived in Venice by bus, we got out and took a boat taxi through the canals to the Piazza San Marco. I REALLY liked being there, because one of the movies I own, called "The Thief Lord," is based on a book set in Venice. The next time I watch the movie, I'm going to be all like, "I've been there!!" :)

We toured the cathedral and the Doge's Palace, both with an excellent tour guide. Everything was amazing and beautiful. Even the vendor carts on the streets were beautiful! A big seller on the carts were all kinds of intricate, beautiful masks. I wish that I had gotten a picture of them.

After our tour, we took a gondola ride. Mom posted a picture of our gondalier below, and we have named him Angelo (Kristina's name for him)/Gepetto (Mom and Me) because no one remembered to ask him his name. But he was very nice, super cute, and spoke English very well. Two generations of men in his family before him have been gondaliers. I thought that was neat. He didn't sing to us, but the mere existence of his presence kept our spirits up even when it started to rain.

After that, we wandered around for a while until we complained to Pierre about the cold. Then we took a boat taxi to our hotel, which was the most elegant one yet. Andrea, you would have loved the room that Kristina and I had- the decor was all the antigue-y, distressed kind of look that we both love.

Kristina and I collapsed onto our beds and set our alarm incorrectly so that we woke up to my mom knocking on the door to get us for dinner. Whoops. Dinner was vegetable soup or seafood with pasta, fried sole fillet, and a rectangle of ice cream with sprinkles. Then Nana and Papa and I walked around Venice at night for a while, and it was beautiful. I can't even begin to describe it, so I'll show you more pictures when I get home, or post them then.

I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow on my bed and slept hard until the next morning, when we had to get ready for breakfast and going to Murano island- actually just a section of Venice, which is made up of over a hundred little islands. BTW, the water didn't stink most of the time, which was nice.

Murano is home of the famous glass-blowers that have perfected the art of creation. We watched two demonstrations and then went crazy in the shopping area ( we got a 50% discount as part of a tour! Whoo hoo!). We then headed back to the main area for a little more shopping and then a bus ride back to Roma. :( Seven hours + in the bus, woot! Not.

It wasn't too bad, though. I read a lot. And napped. It was getting back into the hotel that was the problem. First we didn't have reservations, and then we didn't have rooms, and then the rude manager sent us over to their sister hotel about four doors down, at Hotel Impero, who was even more rude and insisted that we only had reservations and hadn't actually paid. He sucked, but we got rooms that were nicer and had better AC than the Flower Garden. We had dinner next door. Mom had sea bass, I had gnocchi with tomato sauce, Kristina had greek salad, Nana had some kind of seafood pasta dish, and I can't remember what Papa had. Sorry! Tiramisu and some unnamed chocolate caramel type of thing for dessert.

The next morning we went on the Vatican tour, which was neat. The best part was the Sistine Chapel, and seeing the Pope. The chapel was spectcular!!!!!! Then Nana and Papa got left behind at St. Peter's Square when the tour bus refused to wait for them, and they had to take a taxi back to the hotel. Mom, Kristina and I managed to get the bus. That afternoon, we went on the Imperial Rome tour, which took us to the Colosseum, The Palatino, and other places I can't remember because we really just walked by them. The main two were fantastic, and our tour guide taught us a few things that we didn't know.

We had dinner nearby our hotel. Nana had shrimp salad, Papa had pizza with salami and ham, I had four cheese pizza, Mom had clam and mushroom pasta, and Kristina had....a burger and fries. It was the smallest burgerthat was not meant to be a miniburger on the face of the planet, with a bun about seven times too big for it. It was pretty funny. Tiramisu and apple pie (italian style) for dessert.

Today was the Ancient Rome tour. We went to the Spanish steps, the Pantheon, and the Trevi fountain (which rocked). It was only when we were about to go St. Peter's when our guide said, "If you already went to St. Peter's and don't want to go again, this is where we say goodbye." We all look around. We're in the middle of a plaza with a couple fountains and living statue people. No bus to take us back to the hotel in sight. When we ask what we do, we're told that unless we paid for lunch and the afternoon tour as well, all of the the people who just took the morning tour had to find their own way home because a bus had broken down and they were short. We were ticked off. They hadn't told us anything until after the tour! All of the other tours had complete transportation.

So we had to take the public bus to the terminal, which was thankfully just a few blocks from our hotel. We stopped and had lunch on our walk back (me= margherita pizza, mom=vegetable pizza, Nana= tripe *GROSS*, Papa= salmon, and Kristina=spinach and cheese ravioli with mushrooms). Now Kristina, Nana and Papa are resting and Mom and I are going shopping. Ciao!