Buongiorno!

Here in Italy and it's way different from everywhere else that I've been so far. First stop was in Verona and luckily I checked my train ticket on the morning of because when I purchased the ticket, I asked and thought I received a train for 11:30. Turned out that it was at 9:30, so we had a bit of a rush in the morning when I realized that. I was only in Verona for enough time to check out the arena, see a fortress and one night in the hotel. What I noticed immediately was that it was ridiculously crowded. Times Square on New Year's Eve crowded. I was worried that this is what I'm in for the rest of the trip.

On to Venice. What a magical city! The system of canals and little Calles (streets) are so quaint. I got off the Vaporetto (water bus) at the Ponte Rialto, one of the most famous bridges here where there are shops that line each side of the bridge as you cross over it. With my bags and the bazillion tourists, it was a challenge navigating the cobblestone streets and locating the hotel which was down a tiny little calle off the square near the the bridge. I met someone on the train who let me know that the Museo D'Academie was free yesterday, nice tip, so I went. Basically it houses artwork from the 12th - 15th century. Pretty amazing stuff considering the time period. It is almost entirely religious painting. At night, I happened to find and American pub and watched the first half of the Eagles / KC football game and chatted it up with a couple of New Yorkers here on their honeymoon. It was nice to have a little bit of Americana after being away for a few weeks.

Then today, I took an early stroll over to the Dogi's Palace which I was told by many people that it's totally worth the entrance price. They were right. The sheer magnitude of this palace, the fact that they built it on hundreds of piles, with each one carved with a different decoration in the 11th century is pretty out of control. I mean, we can't even build anything close to that now without it costing a ridiculous sum of money, not to mention all of the regulations that would have to be overcome to complete it. Crazy.

Some other things that are much different... There is definitely a sense of style, fashion and generally being dressed up here. In fact, I'm feeling a little under dressed and I actually tried to bring some things that would fit in. The other thing is that every main street is lined with high end shops - D&G, Chanel, Benneton, you name it. I haven't felt the urge to buy a 2,000 euro handbag or 800 euro shoes yet, and hope I don't. It all seems a bit unnecessary. I didn't get this feeling in Germany, thankfully. And I'm glad that I went there first after Africa, otherwise I wouldn't know what to do with myself here.

So the rest of today, I just wandered around a bit. Sat in a square for a little while people watching, and finally found an internet cafe that didn't cost an arm and a leg for 30 minutes. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to post at these internet prices, not to mention that I'm not sure that I'll ever find this place again because I'm somewhere off the beaten path in the middle of Venice.

Maybe it's time for a prosecco. :)
~k