Venice

Spent the past couple nights in Venice. Yes, it is that cool. I was only there for one full day, but that was okay. I took in St. Mark's first thing in the morning. There were signs all over the place saying no pictures, so me being the obedient tourist that I am, left my camera in my bag when leaving the bag at the bag-check. Well in I go, and there every tourist is, taking pictures. oi. That made me wish I had taken the camera, since visually, I found it much more stunning than St. Peter's. I think it's the Eastern elements mixed in. Gold mosaics, icons, etc. But they keep you between two velvet ropes, and you move along at the speed of everyone else, and then you're out again. So as an attraction, it wasn't as fun as St. Peter's, where you could wander and look at stuff. After the church, I visited the Doge's Palace museum also in the square. From there I just wandered and looked at boats. And took lots of canal pictures. I made my way over across the Grand Canal and saw the Peggy Guggenheim collection in what used to be her house. I felt a bit out of place among all these rich-looking tourists saying things about the pieces of art defying explanation, but it was neat all the same. I did not ride in a gondola, since they are very expensive, but I did take the water bus a couple of times. I think it would make a good 2nd career for any of the PIII drivers. At each stop, they bring the boat in and slow down, but only come within 3 or so feet of the dock. Then one of the crew loops a rope around a post on the dock, and haphazardly cleats it once or twice. The driver then puts the boat back in gear, and the tension on the rope brings the boat in to the dock with a crash. So they don't actually have to land the boat very well. They missed a couple times and were too far out for this rope trick to work, and had to line up and try again. Boys, your technique is way better! The place I stayed was a bit dingy and had bugs. And was expensive, but that seems to be typical of Venice.

Today I took the train to Florence. I have to venture out and find some dinner, since I'm quite hungry. Coming to a new city every couple days is weird since you have to orient yourself very quickly to find things like food and whatnot. The hostel is neat. On the walls in the hallways people can write messages, their names, quotes, whatever they want. The room I'm in is quite big, although the bunk beds are such that you really really can't sit on the bottom one - even worse in that department than the Pam Am beds! So far Vanessa is 2 for 2 on recommendations (I will eat more gelatto in your honour to celebrate).

As for pictures.... I will likely have upwards of 5 gigs of them by the time I get home, so be careful what you wish for in wanting to see them! I will try to post some soon. Some internet places charge you extra for plugging in a camera, and the computers at the hostel here say you can't plug any hardware in to them at all, so it's a bit dicey trying to put them up. That and since this website was first in greek and now in italian, I don't know how to do it! They may have to wait until I am in France and can read the French instructions.