Day 3: Venice and Florence

We

love Venice. Italy has beautiful churches scattered throughout their cities. You just turn a corner and run into one, each as impressive as the next. Try to ignore my weird foot. And windy shirt. These platforms line the walls when the ground is flooded to function as sidewalks. We went up the campanile to see what we could see. (I'm pretty sure those are lyrics in the Barney Day at the Beach movie. Every time I say them I think of my childhood.) The views from the top speak for themselves. This spiral staircase goes up to the bells which ring every hour. And they are not quiet. Gondola line-up. They're used more for tourist rides than transportation, so are mostly just out and about at night. This Diesel ad was in St. Mark's Square. It says "Land of the Stupid and Home of the Brave." John tried to match their style but his khakis didn't make him stupid enough. We went to the Correr museum next, but we were a few minutes early. John spent the down time admiring this chandelier (and probably regretting his refusal to get one). This is an illegal picture taken inside the Correr. Since there are no damageable paintings or statues I thought we were safe. I needed to remember what a beautiful library looks like in case we need one in our house one day. (Note how well the beautiful chandelier matches said dream library) On our way out of town we decided to go for a traghetto ride. There's a little gondolier in the back. They are like a gondola ride, but instead of schmoozing around town they take you across the water in place of a bridge. They are also only one euro with a suitcase instead of 62. It cut out a lot of time and suitcase-on-cobblestone hassle while simultaneously filling my desire for a little gondola ride. This is the Frari church we passed on the way to the train station. Once we arrived at the station we had some time to kill, which we filled with lunch and gelato. This place wasn't authentic, made-in-house gelato, but it was still refreshing and delicious. (mint and mango-you can tell it's not "real" by the bright colors)

The place we had lunch sold crepes and used these giant nutellas. Heaven in a jar. (Side note: crepes are French. Beignets are French/American. So don't be fooled into getting them in Italy. I'm sure they're still good, but they aren't essentially Italian. If you're going to Paris, on the other hand, call me. They have much tastier desserts there. I think the Italians have the best food and the French make the best desserts, excepting gelato) Doing a crossword on the train. Karen gave me a whole book of People puzzles. I love them because they're easier than newspaper crosswords, meaning I can actually solve them. With John's help. Countryside between Venice and Florence We arrived in Florence and checked into our hotel. There was a little patriotic balcony. The bathrooms there have bidets. No room for shower you can turn in, but plenty of bidet room. I just don't understand. On our way to the hotel we saw a lady walking her cat. He was not stoked about it. I used to "walk" Bubba, but it was more of a "drag." We went to dinner in Florence and tried some more pastas-I had carbonara and John had boscaiola. They were really tasty, but we ate around 5 and were the only ones in the restaraunt. It was incredibly awkward. They don't eat dinner before 8, so we started adjusting to their schedule. Most of their restaurants also have a cover charge, or if they don't it's included in their mandatory "pane" charge, which is fine by us because we love bread. In Florence, however, they don't use salt in bread. Not tasty. Unless, as we discovered, you dip it in your extra carbonara or boscaiola sauce. Yum. All this talk of food is revving up my appetite!