VENICE

Ciao BELLA!

Please disregard all the typos, spelling mistakes , ect, in this blog and all my previous blogs.

   One of my very beat friends from college, whom I happen to live with in Tennessee decided to be an au pair this summer as well.  Her name is Christina, and she has been living in Firenze! (Florence, Italy).    We were hoping that we would get to see each other at least once while we were over here in southern Europe. We somehow managed to plan a trip to VENICE, ITALY together. It is a miracle we got everything organized----and only over Facebook chat. We had to figure out a time both of our schedules would allow, hotel, flights, train rides, bus rides (ha...) 

Well we planned well, because I literally just had

 THE BEST THREE DAYS OF MY LIFE THUS FAR.

   The beginning of my journey to Italy, however started off terribly. Maybe I just have really bad travel luck, or maybe I don't pay very good attention to details....but the night before my flight I realized that the bus to the Nice airport does not run on Sundays--which was the day I was flying out. I really had to get my flight for Sunday because of Christina's schedule. I could have sworn I read the bus schedule right. Anyway, a few tears, the help of Christine and Christophe calling every taxi in Valbonne at 10 o clock at night we got a taxi set up for me for the morning.  They couldn't drive me because they were leaving early in the morning to go out of town and they would be gone all day! They even warned me of this before I bought my flight for Sunday..  

The things I do...

VENEZIA                                                      day one

Sunday morning rolls around and I am sitting outside at 8 am waiting for my taxi. Long story short, my taxi never shows, had to call more taxi companies, blah blah blah....I finally get a cab and arrived at the airport.  (My wallet was just a 'little' lighter by the time I was on my plane)

(If you knew me two years ago you would be shocked that I am able to get myself onto an airplane without being in extreme fear!)

My friend Christina was taking a train to Venice, and so the plan was for me to find a bus from the airport to her train station. On my plane ride to Venice I was sitting next to two nice Italians.  I decided just to ask them for a little advice on how the buses work, and double check if I had the right bus number.  Once we landed they were going to be driving right by the train station so they offered to give me a ride in their car.   I thought about it for a second, and then I accepted their offer!    

In the end, with everyone's luggage, I would not fit into their little Italians car. I gave them some gum to help with their ears from the flight, then proceeded to find my bus to Mestre--where the train station is!       Finally, Christina and I are reunited!  It was such a wonderful moment!

First things first, we enjoy a cappuccino  together! We are both extreme coffee lovers. Cappuccino's are the closest thing to 'enjoying a big cup of coffee' together we can find in Europe.  When you order coffee here, you will get a little tiny cup, and it tastes pretty much like straight espresso. It's good, and we both like it,  but we decided to go for the cappuccino!

Next on our agenda was to find a bus to take us to the water bus, which would then take us to the actual main island of Venice, and then find our stop, and then find our little bed & breakfast. Whew!   We are world travelers by now (ha) so it was easy-peasy finding our little home for the next three days.

The bed and breakfast we stayed at was absolutely adorable! Except for "breakfast" was not included, we had to pay extra for it. So we didn't....:)

We spent the rest of the day/evening walking around the streets, taking pictures, soaking it all in, visiting a few famous places such as the Rialto bridge and Saint Marc's Bascillica. We were too tired to research or find any non touristy places to eat, so we just sat down at the nearest place we saw when we were ready to eat.  Our waiter even gave us free stuff. Not sure why.   We actually got to split a pizza which isn't really "allowed" at these types of restaraunts but we used our American charm and they told us it would be okay!

We pretty much relaxed by the water and watched the little gondola rides float past us the rest of the evening. There was so much we had to catch up on.  Perhaps it was the perfect evening because we enjoyed each others company so much. 

The Venetian backdrop just happened to add it to.

day 2

*the best day of my life

Our first full day in Venice.   It was hard getting out of our huge comfortable bed, but the 

city was waiting for us!  Believe it or not, Christina and I HAVE been working all summer. Around 30 hours a week. We almost planned a trip to Rome,  but we knew we 

would be stressed to see everything, ect. So we decided to go for a relaxing trip to Venice.

  Of course there is tons to see in Venice as well,  we just knew it would be more of a 

relaxed time.   We both really just wanted to relax, talk to locals, share our experiences, 

 laugh together, and throw a little sight seeing in the mix. (hey--it's hard to do Venice on a tight budget!)

We both wanted to go to the top of the famous tower so we could see the 360 view of Venice! After buying fresh fruit at the local market and eating it beside the water, we heads straight there. The line was not too terrible! I did not go to the top  of the Eiffel 

Tower, so I decided I should go to the top of this one, at least!  It was very windy, cold, and crowded at the top, but that did not matter to either of us. The view was just like the view I have seen on all the documentarys on the History Channel I have watched over the years. 

There was Venice. 

ALFREDO'S!

After the tower, it was about time for us to eat lunch. Having done our research,me knew that "Alfredo's pasta to go" would be the BEST and most FRESH Italian food. And a budget at that. Apparently it is a little hidden treasure in Venice, but after finding our way through all the little alleys and roads, we found it. With a big line of people. We didn't mind the line, because we knew we must have chosen the right place!  Everyday, the pasta is made fresh. You can actually see the pasta being made behind the counter. Since it is fresh, the types of pasta change everyday. When we were there we could chose fettuccine, penne, or fusilli. After you chose your pasta type, you pick what sauce, meat, vegetables, etc. You would like on it.  10 minutes later they hand you your order in what looks like a Chinese take out box.   I chose the fusilli with mushrooms, tomatoes, cheese, and a few other Italian things I did not know the name of, and had the most delicious meal of my life. And all for SIX dollars. ......... uhh....EUROS.

(there is such a thing as going to)

THE WRONG CHURCH

 Christina and I wanted to visit the island where the most famous,beautiful church in Venice was, and then pay the fee to enter. I suppose we were too busy laughing and having fun than to realize we took the boat to the wrong church! It looked very beautiful on the outside, but when we walked inside we both just looked at each other and realized the mistake we made! Don't get me wrong, it was lovely, just not quite what we were expecting!  Oh well! We didn't care. We took a few pictures then walked around this quite little village.

We took the very crowded water bus back to the main part of Venice..which is where our bed and breakfast was located.   It was time for our afternoon coffee, but there are so many choices of cafes, restaurants, ect. It is hard to decide where to go. We decided to just go to one that was really close to the place we were staying.   Well we go to a little place, order our Cappicino's, take a sip, and realize we were kind of over charged for the quality of the cappicino! We looked around and realized everyone working at the cafe was not Italian (they were Asian) and the decor was very minimal.   We started laughing so hard! Of all the beautiful cafes and places to relax in Venice, THIS was the place we chose?! We enjoyed our drinks, but promised ourselves we would not visit this place again :)

After contacting our families to let them know we were "alive" and not going to be featured on 20/20,  we showered, dressed, and got ready for dinner! I rushed Christina (as always--she is so slow!) because we were about to miss the time for the perfect lighting to take pictures in! I can thank Lauren Carroll and Spencer Hughes for teaching me this.  We made it just in time to our favorite little spot by the water to have a "mini photoshoot".   

We headed towards the main area of Venice and wondered through the streets to find our perfect little dinner spot. I think we chose a very tourist-y place. But that is okay! We used our charm with the owners to let us split a meal with each other. (In hindsight, we both could have finished a full plate ourselves, but we did Venice on a budget, remember?!). 

 

I said "tourist-y" place....well in Venice there are more tourists than residents. So there are very few local treasures I suppose.  We actually enjoyed that Venice was full of tourists, because for once, nobody 'cared' that we were tourists! Everyone was all IN THE SAME BOAT.  Well, not quite. I didn't see any gondolas that big.  

Okay, corny jokes aside, Venice felt so safe! I felt much more safer and relaxed there than in Paris.  However, I should not begin to try to compare the two.

After dinner, we wandered towards Saint Marks Basilica and listened to the professional musicians who are hired to play at very nice restaurants. There is a cover charge to even sit down outside at one of these restaurants, because of the incredible music. Christina and I stood there for about an hour. We got the courage to introduce ourselves to the musicians while they were on their break.   We told them we studied music at our university and asked if they would play Summertime by Gershwin.  

Next thing we know we are standing in the middle of the square, at sunset, wind blowing, and listening to the most beautiful version of this classic song. The phrasing the musicians used was so beautiful.  We found ourselves, both, with our eyes closed enjoying this perfect musical moment.   It was one of those moments I think we both will never forget.

After being tired of standing, I got the 'bright' idea to ask this lady who was sitting alone if we could join her...explaining how we didn't want to pay for the cover charge ect. (I know this is terrible, considering the money goes towards the musicians and if course I am all for that, but anyway...).  She said we could sit with her if we pitched in a few euros. Next thing we know it was 2 am, and we were still enjoying conversation with this lovely woman from Kiwi, I believe it is near New Zealand.   In fact, it was her birthday, and she was spending it alone in Venice.  We sang happy birthday to her. And had some very good conversation. I was so happy we could be with her on her birthday.

And then...we slept.

            day 3

We decided to take a boat ride to Lido Beach.   It is a very lovely beach on the Adriatic sea. We learned that it was the Adriatic sea later--because we felt like ignorant Americans not having a clue what sea we were swimming in.   The boat ride lasted about an hour.  It was more like a water bus than a nice little speed boat.  The weather was lovely however, and we even snuck coffee cups out of our hotel room and made coffee to go.   The typical American way.   We also did not pack towels for the beach, since we wanted to keep our luggage light...and we didn't know if our towels in our room were getting replaced...so we kind of took the giant extra blanket we found in our room and took it to the beach.  (don't worry, we washed it after)   Next we realized neither one of us had sunscreen, so we had to make a run to the pharmacy. The cheapest bottle of sunscreen lotion was 20 euros.  So luckily I spotted these little "sample" packets of sunscreen that we got for 3 euros each.

At the beach, after taking a few pictures, I decided it would be worth it to buy a locker for the day. That way we could swim and not worry about our stuff being stolen. We had to pay a 15 euro deposit on our locker! 

It was a really lovely day, and the island of Lido was so adorable. It felt like the Italian version of The Truman Show. 

After a very interesting boat ride back, we made it to our bed and breakfast and got ready quickly for our last night in Venice.  And at the end of the night, we found ourselves in the main square, standing, and listening to another set of professional musicians. We eventually talked to them as well.  They have all studied for years. Only two of the musicians were from Venice. The rest were from eastern Europe, because the companies could pay them less :(

We even got to make more song requests. We heard Somewhere Over The Rainbow and Time To Say Goodbye.  We both looked over at each other and noticed we both had watery eyes. It was that amazing.  Now that is how you send your last night in VENICE.

Not wanting the night to end, we got a snack and sat by the water. Sharing more of our au pair stories and things we have learned while here in Europe.

we walked back to our bed and breakfast and fell right to sleep.

the last day

to sum it up:

Fresh fruit from the market by the water, buying and wearing silly matching I LOVE VENEZIA t-shirts,  buying masquerade masks for our little girls, then wearing them around town, then Indian men coming up to me asking me if I will take a picture with them (I think they thought I was employed by the city because of my silly 'get up')   lunch at ALFREDO'S, and a goodbye cappuccino while we people-watched, a 40 minute bus ride to my airport, and a very sad goodbye.   

We told each other "See you in AMERICA!"