Retelling the Tales of Italy

I wish I were still in Italy! The break was wonderful. It's never a bad thing to have time away from school :) Now that I'm back I'm realizing how it may even be more difficult for teachers to get back into the swing of thins after a break. As a student you just show up, complaining that you have to go back to school after sleeping in and playing with friends. As a teacher you have to plan lessons and then show up, complaining about the same things as the students though!

Our first stop on our Italian journey was in Venice. WOW, there was a lot of water. They aren't lying when they say that it's the city of H2O. We took a taxi to our hostel that was a 10 minute train ride from the city. There was absolutely nothing around us. We tried to find a bar so that we didn't have to sit in our hostel, which was more of a budget accommodation (more about the difference later). Anyhow, we walked around for awhile and finally stumbled upon a bar but then most of us ended up leaving because we wanted to sleep in order to prepare ourselves for a day of exploring.

On Sunday we woke up early and then by the time all the girls were ready to leave it was a bit later, haha. We took the train into Venice and as we pulled into the station we stopped on a bridge. I looked out the window and low and behold water was all around us. It reminded me of watching the Real World Key West intro when they showed the bridge that goes from the mainland to Key West. If you looked out the window right, it seemed as though we were on a boat, not a train.

In Venice we just wandered the streets. I was purposefully trying to get lost, but I'm not sure that was the intention of everyone else. We had our first pizza in Italy and it was quite delicious, but I think I've had pizza of the same quality in the U.S. Let's just say that pizza was not to die for. Although I would be okay with moving to Italy- pizza, pasta, GELATO, yumm (I had that everyday, it's a must when you're there!), good looking people, beautiful cities.

After wandering and taking lots of pictures we got on a water taxi to Murano, one of the 117 islands that make up Venice. Murano is where the famous Venetian glass is made. We got to see glass being made at this one glass blowing shop. The man made a glass horse in honestly 3 minutes... it really couldn't have been much longer. I guess that's why these glass horses are so cheap to buy. We looked around at all the glass shops and by all I pretty much mean all. By the end of the day Ashley commented that she never wanted to see glass again. Unfortunately for her (as well as the rest of us) they have glass at every store in Italy... for the most part at least.

After leaving Murano (once we found the water taxi station to take to the next island) we headed to Burano, where they make lace. It was over a 30 minute ride from Murano to Burano, which we were not expecting. Once we got there it was around 5 and since daylights savings had kicked it it was getting quite dark already :( We decided to stay for 30 minutes. I did not see any lace being made but I did look at some ugly pieces of clothing made out of lace in the about 6 shops they had on this island. In the tour books, etc. they tell you to go to Burano to see the lace as well as the houses. The houses are all painted bright colors, but since it was getting dark the pictures did turn out magnificently. Instead of purchasing lace I finally made a Venetian glass purchase. Kaitlyn had told me that I had to get some type of glass jewelry while in Venice because people always compliment her on hers that she bought over the summer. I gave into the advice because honestly, who doesn't like compliments? After a half hour we caught the water taxi back to the main island of Venice. The taxi must have taken over an hour to get to where we wanted ago. It decided to stop at one station for 10+ minutes without moving and I'm pretty sure that no one was getting off after 5 minutes!!

We ate dinner at a cute Italian restaurant. I think it's safe to say that almost all restaurants in Italy are Italian as well as cute :) The portions were so small and cost around 13 Eros. Since we were 'starving' it really did not do justice like an American Olive Garden meal would have, but it was traditional and delicious all the same. Us Americans are always so greedy! When I'm paying the big bucks for food I want to have A LOT of it even if I can't or don't intend on eating it all. What a terrible mentality. No Italian is overweight even though they eat lots of carbs... most likely due to the small portions. Also, a lot of times you can get tap water and it's more expensive to buy bottled water then it is to buy wine. Most of the time we ordered a bottle of win for the 6 of us instead of getting water. Since I never wanted to pay for water it would be safe to say that I was dehydrated all week long. The joys of traveling on a budget. But no worries, I didn't pass out or anything. If I had felt as though that was going to happen I most definitely would have given in and bought water... I'm not THAT cheap!

After dinner we took the water taxi back to the train station and hopped on the train (public transportation is so easy, LOVED IT!) Once back at the hostel I was in bed sleeping and awaiting our next adventure... Next stop Florence!!!!