Thursday evening Stéphane took the train to Venice, because it was cheaper than the one that I had reserved for the following morning. Friday morning I took a 2-hour Trenitalia AV (high speed) train ride from Florence to Venice. As I walked out of the train station looking at my directions to my hostel I was immediately confronted with water. Lots of water. No roads and lots of water. Did I mention there was water right outside of the station? Because there was. As I followed the directions and took a water bus to my hostel a strange feeling came over me. Throughout the years you occasionally hear the phrase "Venice is sinking", and although you understand the concept, you can't really process the meaning of it until you're riding a water bus along the canals of Venice. The city feels like it was affected by a huge flood and instead of being swept out to sea immediately, it fought against the current, but it is ever-so-slowly succumbing to the flood.
As I got off the water bus and began to make my way to my hostel on land, it started downpouring rain. We get it, Venice, you have water EVERYWHERE, there is no need to form a not-so-secret alliance with the rain just to get your point across. I reached my hostel under the torrential downpour, checked in to the adorable Residenza Maddalena and waited for Stéphane to meet me in front of my place. After trying to find internet all around the area to no avail, Stéphane and his two Italian friends and I made our way around the city. By the time the rain had stopped we had made it to the Piazza San Marco, where we made a picnic for Stéphane's friend, Camilla's birthday, by the water. It was certainly an international picnic as I don't speak any Italian, Camilla and her boyfriend Lorenzo don't speak French, but Camilla and I both speak conversational Russian, Stéphane speaks French, Italian, and English, and Lorenzo speaks Italian and English. Despite the various language barriers we had a good time hanging out by the water and looking on at Piazza San Marco.
After a few hours Camilla and Lorenzo had to take the train back to their town and so Stéphane and I decided to do some more sightseeing before getting dinner. We got dinner and drinks at a cheap restaurant that Lorenzo had recommended in a less touristic part of town (of which there are few) and then walked around some more. Later that evening we were tired of walking and found a cute square, split a bottle of wine and listened to music. So romantic and cliche, but hey it's Venice, right?
The next day we wanted to go to the beach, and so after figuring out how to get to Lido, one of the Venetian islands, we took a water bus, got some food and beer at the supermarket for a picnic and walked over to Blue Moon Public Beach. Although I have been in Europe for four weeks this was my first time on the trip going to the beach. It was so nice just to sunbathe, eat, drink, listen to music and play in the water. The California girl in me definitely came out. The Northern California one who gets in the water for 10 minutes and naps the rest of the time, not the Katy Perry one who wears high heels to the beach. After the beach we took the water bus back to the main Venetian island where we visited a pretty church then hung outside for a few hours before Stéphane had to catch a train to Bologna that evening.
All in all I loved my nine days spent in Italy. I got to see a little bit of everything, big city life in Rome, picaresque buildings and scenery in Florence, and small, romantic, touristy Venice. I will definitely be going back to Italy someday.
After Venice, I flew to Seville, Spain where I spent just a couple ridiculously hot days mostly relaxing and recuperating from four weeks of non-stop traveling.
Gondolas
Typical square in Venice
Canal
In Piazza San Marco with St. Mark's Basilica
The front of St. Mark's Basilica
On Lido at Blue Moon Beach
On our way back to the main island
Santa Margherita Church
No comments:
Post a Comment