Angie arrived yesterday afternoon and now we three are having a great time together! Yesterday afternoon we just spent some time walking around, getting lost in Venice. I somehow actually made it back to a church I had visited on a previous trip. This is the church that you see in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. If you remember, they were in Venice, inside of a library when they went down under the library and discovered one of the nights tombs. Soon they were surrounded by rats, but managed to escape. They popped out of a sewer hole, in the middle of a peaceful scene in front of a church. Well, we found that church! The inside of the church is not the inside of the film, but still, pretty cool!
We went inside to see an exhibition of some of Leonardo's amazing creations. Not only did he paint the oh-so-famous Mona Lisa, but he was an inventor and scientist. We didn't really understand all that we saw, but it was still pretty neat to see!
We made our way back to the canal and had a glorious dinner on the canal near the Rialto Bridge. I had some delicious pasta, Angie enjoyed some lasagna and Emily enjoyed some local oysters. We had a great time and ended up dining like true Italians, staying at our table for over three hours. Our waiters were fun and we decided that we should celebrate. So, since it was my 24 and 3/4 birthday, the waiters sang Happy Birthday to me and brought me a tiramisu with a candle! Who else can say that they celebrated their 24 and 3/4 birthday in that way?!? :)
Our hotel is just a couple minutes walk from the Rialto Bridge, so incredibly convenient. I explained that it was just a green door that led us to the place, but it is perfect. I will try to explain it, although it is a little complicated. You walk in the green door, up a flight of steps, so the hotel itself really does not have a ground floor, just a door on the ground floor. At the top of the stairs is a small reception office. You turn to your left and go up another flight of stairs to the rooms. What is really neat is that these stairs, while surrounded closely by 4-story buildings, are actually outside, open to the world above. At the top of the stairs there is just one level of hotel, about 8 rooms in all from what we can tell. Our room is at the end of the hall, curved back around, so that when I look out my window, I look outside, but also down at the reception desk... very strange, but also really neat!
The room is quite small, but just fine for the perfect location. We are just living out of our suitcases and enjoying the area! The shower however is a different story. It is in the corner of the bathroom, so two walls of the shower are walls of the bathroom and the other two walls are sliding doors. I would assume that each door is about 2 feet long, on a good day. These doors lock magnetically together. When washing your hair, in order to actually leave your hands on your head and put your elbows out, you must turn diagonally to spread your elbows out completely. Ahhh.... European showers....
Our hotel does not have breakfast, I believe this is our only one like that, but I'm ok with finding a few special breakfasts on our trip! I had a nice OJ, a delicious croissant and a small apple delicious-something. Perfect! We walked to the produce and fish market this morning, just to admire and wonder what life might be like here. You could buy anything from zucchini flowers to octupus. The fruits and vegetables were just beautiful, and the lobster crawling around was a little terrifying!
Angie had remembered going to one of the surrounding islands with her family and we decided to try that out. We went to Lido, a quaint little island, that is so quiet in comparison to the busy Venice. Our grand adventure, and honestly one of the most fun things I have ever done, was renting a two-person bike. Angie had told us about this and told us how her mom had sat in the middle and didn't do any peddling. I wish you could have seen the images I had in my head of Angie in the front, peddling on, with Em in the back working hard to keep up and me in the middle, somehow balancing and staying on. I just kept picturing us falling over.
Thankfully, my image couldn't have been farther than the actual and it was amazing! Picture, if you will a golf cart, only instead of a motor, it is two bikes together with a seat across just big enough for three small young ladies. We took turns peddling and just enjoying the few. We rode all around the little island! It was hot again today, but with our small canvas shade, it was not too bad!
Here we are riding in the bike...
We stopped at the beach, I think it was a private one, but oh well! We walked on the beach and stuck our feet into the Adriatic Sea! The sand was hot and the water warm. We collected shells and wondered how far they may have traveled. The sand did not compare to the beauty of ours in the Gulf, but you know what, I was on an Italian beach today, standing barefoot, collecting shells with some great friends on a sunny day... I'm not sure it could have gotten much better. Wait... did I mention we finished our ride with gelato? Now, it is perfect!
We rode/peddled our way around most of the island and enjoyed how peaceful it was! We saw Venice from afar and enjoyed the views along with the homes we came across.
We took the water bus back to San Marco square and set off to find some bird food so that we may enjoy one of the staples of Venice - feeding the pigeons in San Marco Square. However, we were sadly disappointed that while there were plenty of pigeons, for some reason the people selling food were missing. However, we found a grocery store and some bread and plan to return tomorrow, prepared!
The heat, the sun, the peddling and the breezes on the water took a toll on us all today, so we came back to the hotel and laid around for a bit, then showered to wash away sand and stickiness. Soon we will enjoy a delicious Italian dinner and watch the first of the semi-final games.
I am so glad to be back in Italy, and so glad to be enjoying this incredible place with friends. I'm sorry that you can't all be here with me! Thanks again for reading, I love hearing from you all!
1 comment:
hey miss smith i hope you have a rockin 4th of july in europe!!!:) love stella
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