Venice

 Katie and I had to catch an extremely early train from Florence to Venice, so when we got to the hostel we immediately took a nap.  Afterwards, we caught the bus to the island and walked up and down one of the main streets which was filled with stalls selling anything from fur coats to fruit.  After weaving our way between the many shoppers, we stopped at a little restaurant to have a real Italian meal.  I had pasta with spider crab and it was incredibly delicious!





The next day Katie and I explored the island some more.  We saw the Ponte Vecchio which is a famous bridge that is lined with small shops.  Before arriving, I knew that Venice was filled with canals and bridges instead of streets, yet I was still surprised by how quiet everything seemed without all the noise of passing traffic.  The canals aren't made in a grid either, so Venice is a maze of narrow streets and dead ends.  Katie and I spent a good 45 minutes trying to find Saint Mark's Basilica.  There were some proper street signs pointing out directions but for the most part we were following graffiti arrows painted on the sides of building.  I was shocked by how accurate they were.  I would have expected some mischievous
person to try to fool tourists by putting up the wrong directions.

Saint Mark's is magnificent!  On the inside it is covered with what looks like gold tiled mosaics.  The outside is ornate as well with white walls decorated with mosaics, statues, and carvings.  Saint Mark's is also located right next to the sea so Katie and I walked along the water and even dangled our feet off the edge of a dock as we enjoyed the warmth of the sun.

When we were planning our trip, I read Rick Steve's book on Italy and apparently he always get his hair cut by a barber in Venice (apparently he doesn't know about Seville).  Desperately needing a haircut myself, I thought it would be fun to go where Rick Steve always does.  Katie and I were able to track down the barber shop, but unfortunately they had no openings so my hair is still a mess.

One of the best parts of Venice (besides the gelato of course) was our Brazilian roommates.  One of them only spoke Portuguese but the other one, Mariana, could speak a little Italian and English.  Mariana is studying abroad in France this semester but she was traveling around Italy before classes started.  After chatting with her for a while, Mariana started telling Katie and I about her "how you say...love affair?" with the boy who made her coffee while she was visiting Rome.  Every morning she would go get breakfast and coffee and the waiter would put hearts and smiley faces in the foam on top.  Eventually he wrote a time and a place in the foam and she met him and they hit it off.  They went on a few dates and he even brought up the idea of visiting her one day in Brazil.  Mariana promptly replied, "No, no, no, no.  Brazil, Brazil is my life.  You are a dream."  And thus ended the innocent "love affair" of Mariana and the Roman.  Haha!

 
We talked a lot with Mariana and she told us about her travels, her home, and her family.  She even tried teaching us a bit of Portuguese.  At one point she pulled out a huge bunch of colorful ribbons and told Katie and me that Brazilians are very superstitious.  She then explained that Nossa Senhora Aparecida or Our Lady of Aparecida is a statue of the Virgin Mary, patroness of Brazil, and that many miracles are associated with it. The ribbons had the name Nossa Senhora Aparecida printed on them and according to superstition you tied a ribbon around your wrist or ankle making one wish for each of the three knots you secured the ribbon with.  Your wishes would come true when the ribbon fell completely off, but you weren't allowed to tamper with it.  Mariana told us that her last ribbon took six years to fall off, but I'm hoping that she made a mistake with her English and really meant six months.  I chose an orange ribbon and Mariana helped me tie it on as I made my three wishes.  We'll see if they come true haha!

We spent our last morning in Venice getting lost and eating gelato before we headed back to the train station and boarded the most comfortable train ever to Munich.