Day 13 - Roaming Venice

5-26

So today was our first free day. We got up really early, at 6 to get ready and walk over to the train station and get our tickets to go to Venice. After some confusion with the machines we had our tickets and got on the train. Since we didn’t get our tickets until that day we didn’t all sit together. So Alaina and Linsey were together and I was in a different car with some if the guys on the trip. We ended up playing Rummy during the ride. I told them that I hadn’t played in a while so they’d have to remind me of the rules. I realized later this was a bold-faced lie; I’ve never played Rummy before in my life. But it was ok because it was enough like other games that I had played that I was able to BS my way through it. I even ended up coming in second for points!

When we got to Venice, Alaina, Linsey and I got a map and started wandering. We ended up just following signs pointing to San Marco and the Rialto. We passed by this random doorway—since we weren’t on a schedule we went on a lot of random streets—that led to a little canal and we dipped our feet in. It felt really good. We passed a lot of little shops full of glass, masks and such. It was fun looking at something new; seems like most of the other cities have had a lot of the same stuff. We stopped to eat our packed lunches in front of a little church near the Rialto. The church had a clock that was a 24-hour clock! I was a little amazed. While we ate these tiny little birds were running around near us looking for food! They were so cute! But the pigeons kept coming over too and they were not a fun sight at all. I ended up deciding that the little birds were sent in to get food from tourists and the pigeons offered them protection.

We actually saw the rest of the group after lunch and they showed us what they had bought already. Then we went to the Rialto and saw the view from there; saw some gondoliers and cool buildings. Then we went into this a little church called the Chiesa Rettoriale di San Zulian and looked inside for a bit. It had carpet on the pillars which was different. It was actually an interesting atmosphere in that church but I just couldn’t get past the carpet on the pillars.

We finished our journey to San Marco and there was this huge line out front so we ended up just getting pics of the outside and calling it good. We then just started looking for signs that looked like they would lead to interesting places. We found the others again and then found the guys that had split off from them. Then we went hunting for a bathroom, which we found but had to pay a euro and a half to get in. That was sad but we paid it and did that. Then we looked for the church some of the guys had told us was nearby and free. That was San Giovanni; it was really simple but it had huge pictures on some of the walls but not all of them. It kind of looked unfinished. When we left here we saw a sign pointing to Fondamente Nuova and decided to check that out. We couldn’t find it for our lives and so we finally got out the map and realized we had been there. It was a dock thing that we had actually stopped and sat down on. There was an ambulance boat that sped by and made us laugh. The sirens here are so weird! We joke that we will go back to the states and not recognize them.

We followed some signs to another place called Alla Ferrovia and ended up back at the train station. We had just made a huge loop around the Grand Canal. This ended up being good because Alaina wanted to get these glasses at a shop we had seen earlier so we just went back that way. We miraculously found the shop again—we had marked it on the map but I still had my doubts about whether we’d be able to get to it. The lady in the shop didn’t speak any English though so Alaina had a question about whether she could buy just the blue glasses in a set so I got to speak a little Spanish and kind of translate for them. The lady didn’t know any Spanish either but we managed. Alaina ended up having to just buy the set. It was fun to speak Spanish again though because this whole trip I’ve been dying to. Just because hearing everyone else on the streets speaking Italian makes me want to speak it and Spanish is as close as I can get.

Then we wandered a little more and found some stuff to sketch. After doing that for a while we got some gelato and headed back towards the station. When we got to the station I realized I’d left my water bottle sitting on a bench! So we walked back to see if it might still be there. It was and there was a guy on the bench looking at it. When I walked up to grab it he just looked at me and asked, “Il tuo?” and I just said, “Sí, grazie.” I was so proud of myself because I’d understood him and everything! It wasn’t really that awesome but it was enough for me. So then we got on the train and our car was closed so we just took seats in other cars and got to Milan safe and sound. We then took the subway back to our stop and walked to the hostel. I am exhausted but I am so excited for the day off tomorrow!