Italy at last...

Ahhh, what can I say about Italy? Bellissimo! Or something like that.

We're here in Venice and it's hot!!! And very beautiful! Maybe 32-33 degrees (celsius that is) so I think that's somewhere between 85 and 95. I know that's a big range but that's what you get for the US Education system!

The keyboards are a bit different so I'll apologize in advance for typos.

This is the first chance we've had for internet so far so I have a lot to write but I don't know how far I'll get.

The flight from London to Rome was late but fine, then it was off to the train station. You would think most major train rides would depart from the central station, so of course that's where we went. Bought our tickets to Venice with a change in Bologna. We didn't make it to the earlier train we wanted so the train we ended up with was to depart at 2:08, and that would be 2:08 AM. Fun. Good thing though that we had a couple hours to kill because we were at the wrong train station. Sitting there while most people were probably leaving, and people would keep asking us "Do you have a place to stay?" "No, we're on the train!" But then luckily someone told us they were closing (didn't know train stations closed, but apparently they do) so got in a taxi to ride to the other train station.

On to the train ride itself. I didn't think it was the right train, as it got to the train station around 1:30, but it said to Bologna, so on we went. Here's the fun part. It was a sleeper train, so had many compartments with 6 seats each. All were taken, of course. Lucky us we got to sit on pull down seats that pulled down from the wall. These seats were located in the single skiny aisleway of the train. So anytime someone walked by, you had to stand up, turn sideways, whatever. That was fun. Then on top of that the man with the food cart (who buys food between 2 and 4 in the morning?) went by every so often, ringing a bell. Ding ding ding ding ding!!! Very annoying!!!!! For him you most definitely had to stand up. So that was 1:30 to 5:45 in the morning. No chance of being comfortable whatsoever. It sucked!!!!

Finally we got to Bologna, changed trains, had our very own seats even. Rode that train until 8:30 or so. We got on when it was empty so I was very surprised when I woke up a little while later and it was totally full, very strange to not even hear any people or notice any of the stops.

Anyway, enough of that.

We're staying just off the Rialto Bridge in Venice, in a nice little hostel we found online. Our first room didn't have a sink or mirror, so we upgraded for the first night and even had our own bathroom, so of course I had to do some laundry. Unfortunately, I didn't rinse my clothes as well as I should have so all my shirts have whitish stains from the laundry powder. So now I will get to do my laundry again at the next place! So they will be extra clean.

Yesterday we went straight to our hotel after getting off the train, they weren't quite ready so we went to a bar in a piazza nearby and had yummy cafe lattes. Very expensive though and I remembered later if you sit down to drink or eat they charge you much more. 4.50 euros for a latte! But it was yummy. Went back to the hostel and got to check in and take a shower, man that felt good! Then off for some exploring, went to St Marks where they encourage you to feed the pidgeons so they are everywhere, and there are a gazillion of them, everywhere!!!!! So of course you have to watch you don't get shat on! or something like that.

Walked and walked and walked, lots of shops everywhere, people, and sunshine. It's very hot here! But that's ok because tomorrow we head to Lake Como for the beach and sunshine and relaxing.

Today we got up and headed to Muranno, which is where the Muranno glass comes from, which is really beautiful. I spent way too much money and now I have way too many things to carry, but that's ok. We went to the post office to try to mail it home, but apparently they quit work at 2pm! That's worse than the US! We stopped at a shop nearby afterwards and the girl there was laughing at my big huge box, so we talked about the post office and she said that everyone who works there is always in a bad mood, it's no fun to go there, so apparently there's not too much different between the Italian post office and the US!

Ok I think that's enough to write for one day, and I'm sure I've lost most of you anyways. Still no chance to upload pictures, and as I need Windows XP and this lovely computer I'm tying on is Windows 98, no such luck!

I'll write again soon!