I'm currently sitting in a hotel in Venezia (Venice, Italy). I can't even begin to describe the beauty I've encountered so far. This city is literally out of a story book, only better. I'd stay here forever if I could. We docked this morning in Civitavecchia, near Rome and took the train in to Rome with a bunch of other SASers, many of which were drinking beers before 1030 in the morning...ridiculous. It was hot, we all had to stand most of the way there as well. Once we got to Rome we had to find the ticket booth and Aeriale and I picked up another traveller with us whose name is Billy, another SAS student we met the night before. While we were wandering around looking for the ticket booth, we ran into our interport student, Alessandro, and asked him where to go to get tickets to Venice. The only things I really remember him saying were, "That's like going home!" (As in it was a really long way) and that it was really expensive...just what we all wanted to hear. Eventually we got our tickets (around 1242) for a 1250 train. As we hurried down to the binarios (platforms) we saw a sign that said 'Binario 1-24' we were looking for #1 and Billy says, "I hope this starts at 1". A few seconds later we see a huge 24 on the wall and look at each other and start running. After we got to the 1 there was no where to go, we had no idea what to do so we ran up the stairs. There in front of us was a train with the word "Venezia" marqueeing across the side. We got on and hurried to car #11 where we took our seats. We were in for a 5-6 hour train ride, but none of us knew exactly how long it would be. Along the way we saw a ton of beautiful mountains. I didn't expect that from Italy, but if I learned correctly in my Global Studies class, they are the Apenine Mountains. We also got a chance to see some amazing sunflower fields and to make me feel right at home, corn fields! I didn't realize that corn grew in Italy! I guess I never thought about it. There were also obviously a number of vineyards along the way. Since we didn't know Billy very well and he obviously didn't know us at all, the three of us sat and talked for a good part of the way there. It was nice to meet a guy who you could carry on an intelligent conversation with who wasn't a jerk (which is difficult to find on this ship). Finally, we pulled into Venezia, but not very sure how this was going to work. We were planning on meeting up with a friend from school, Jenna, because she was studying in France for a little ovr a month, but I hadn't talked to her in a couple of days, so we weren't exactly sure what was up or how to find her. As we were walking out of the train station, I someone running at us out of the corner of my eye. After a second, I realized it was Jenna. I was so happy to finally get to see her and to see a familiar face.
As we walked out of the train station, the Grand Canal spread out before us and that was it; I was in love. The beautiful buildings lining the canal, the stone streets, the bridges...all of them were absolutely remarkable and as Zach made sure I knew before I left, an architectural masterpiece. As we meandered down the streets toward our hotel, we got a chance to see lots of little shops and vendors set up along side the streets. After a few turns down small, quaint alleys, we made it to our hotel. It was right beside a small canal and it was so incredibly pretty. When we got there, the owner and his dog were sitting there at the desk and greeted us happily. We went up to our room to find a spacious double-room area with a large bed and two windows overlooking the small canal in one room and a single bed and a balcony in the other room. A beautiful mural of a sky and birds was painted on our ceiling and was incredibly tranquil and calming. After sitting there and catching up a little, we decided to go grab dinner. We asked the owner of the hotel where to eat and he told us to go to a restaurant where Jenna and Aeriale got two huge pizzas, Billy got some random pasta thing, and I got gnocchi and meat sauce. Needless to say, my first Italian meal was not overly impressive, but was still very good. After dinner we decided to walk around for a little bit. We walked along the main strip of stores and everything and got gelato at a small store. I got Stratcciatella or something to that affect and it was pretty much just chocolate chip ice cream or something like it. Regardless...it was amazing!
So far, I've noticed that a lot more people speak English here, especially in Venice, most likely because of the major tourism factor. There were also a lot more farms than I expected along the way to Venice. Aside from that, I can't wait to explore the city tomorrow and the next day!
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