June 20th

We slept in this morning. Last night was cold and very rainy and stormy and the morning wasn't much better. Around 10:30 the rain died down some and we decided to venture into Venice. We walked to the bus stop and stood through another pretty good rain and thunderstorm but luckily we had good cover. We got to Venice and it was crazy trying to figure out where to go and find maps and everything when everyone was huddled in all the spaces you needed to go to. We eventually just started walking and crossed a bridge over the grand canal. We were getting pretty soaked from walking in the rain so we found the one and only McDonald's and had lunch while we gathered ourselves. Right after lunch, we bought an umbrella and the rain had died down to a drizzle so it was a lot more pleasant to be walking around in. Venice started to look halfway pretty :) It's a really neat place with all the canals everywhere and the streets are only for walking (no cars, bikes or mopeds) and there are all kinds of windy alleyways. We didn't get lost though because there are easy to follow signs throughout the city. We wandered over to San Marco and window shopped all over. I'm sure it's a lot better of an experience when it's sunny and warmer. :) The shops were amazing - we could have spent a fortune on gorgeous glass!!! We decided to head back to the campground to watch the Italy/New Zealand game and on our way back I found a little shop and got a family of three blue penguins for 2 euro and a teeny one for 1.50! YAY!! There were glass penguins everywhere. There are also a lot of stores with masquerade masks and there are neat metal ones that are gorgeous and made Ryan and I think about getting one as my "veil" for my wedding. It's a possibility, but then I can't wear my elven circlet head piece that I also want. This line of thought led to an "enchanted palace" sort of theme like Kensington Palace had - kind of a more mature/artistic grown-up fairy tale thing. :)

June 21st

Today's forecast was 60% rain all day, but luckily by the time we got out to the island, the rain stopped and never started again! It was cloudy and overcast, but finally Venice was some place cool. We had slept late until we heard the rain turn to a drizzle, ate lunch at the campground and headed out. We got to Venice and started wandering again, but this time we eventually had to stop and look at the map. We got to San Marco again and went to the Doge's Palace. The entrance fee to the palace was 16 euro, but a 5 museum pass was only 13, so of course we got the pass. We didn't end up using it though because we didn't have enough time, but still we saved some money. The palace was HUGE and super cool. It's right next to the basilica and kind of connects to it in the courtyard. I took pictures in the best rooms of the ones we weren't supposed to be taking pictures in :) The ceilings were huge frescoes and lots and lots of gold. It was beautiful!! The Doge apparently has no power in the government or religiously, but is massively important and a symbol of the state. Doges are elected from a group of rich/wealth families and serve for life. If I got to live in that palace, I would too!

After the palace, we went over to St. Mark's Basilica since entrance was free. There were a ton of people there and they mainly just funnel people through. You can pay some extra to go in other parts, but we didn't. Everything said no pictures, but I took them anyway. Every inch of the ceiling is made up of teeny (mostly gold) mosaic tiles that are maybe an inch square, but I think even less than that. It was incredible! So pretty. I wish they had a place where you could just sit and admire, but everything is closed off and the mob sort of pushes you along.

After the basilica, we wandered more along the Grand Canal and through random alleyways. Little alleyways in Venice always lead to some super awesome big building, neat little square, or canal with a scenic bridge :) We eventually found a place to eat dinner and on our way out of Venice, we ran across another shop with glass penguin families, so now I have two families plus a tiny one. It was so tempting to buy some of the bigger penguins, but that'd be a pain to transport :( I also got a jade penguin in London so I have quite a collection now! On the way out of town, three cops were scaring off the African dudes selling illegal/fake purses on the street, so we followed the cops who were following the dudes from a block away. There were two skinny cops and one fatter cop and eventually the cops stopped because the fatter one was out of breath (we were walking briskly, not even running) so the chase was over and we were very disappointed. :( It was really fun to follow them though!

Walking back to the buses, I started to get a headache and it got worse and worse. We ended up on bus "6/" instead of bus 6 and nothing on the trip back was looking familiar, so we got off the bus when I saw a random sign for a street I recognized. We got dropped off in a really really shady place, with a creepy man selling drugs from a white lawn chair on the street corner and a bar full of younger Italian dudes who looked like they were going to kill us. The glass of the bus stop walls was all shattered and scary and it was getting dark, so we tried to quickly find which buses were coming our way that could take us back to a stop name I recognized from the bus route we were supposed to be on. Lucky us, no bus was coming back our way so we started walking back up the route the bus had just taken. Well we found Beccaria (the street name I'd recognized) and followed it. Then it forked and we went along the street Ryan recognized from the middle bike lane divider set up. We walked and walked and eventually asked the reception of a hotel how to get to della Fonte (the street that our campground is on) and we had just barely passed it up. It was on the other side of the road so we'd missed it. We made it back to the campground before dark, safe and sound, but it was not a pleasant experience. My headache had gotten a lot worse, and by the time we were back in the "bungalow" to make hostel reservations and get train info and directions to Florence, I had a horrible migraine and couldn't move. Ryan was a sweetheart and took care of getting all the directions while I writhed in pain waiting for the Excedrin to kick in. In the middle of the night, I woke up and realized my headache was gone, but then I couldn't sleep the rest of the night.

Anyway, we're heading out to Florence this morning. Ryan's still sleeping and I'm still awake. The last two places, we've stayed a little outside of where we want to visit and have been taking the bus in which has been working pretty well and saving us some good money on lodging (and the bus is cheap, sometimes free - hehehe) so we're doing that again in Florence and then in Rome. I think we'll probably do a day trip into the Tuscan countryside while in Florence which I'm pretty excited about!

- Sara