Venezia

Sorry it’s been a while. I have had quite a few things on my plate since Thanksgiving. I finished up my Christmas shopping (minus 3 shirts that I am getting this weekend). That Friday after Thanksgiving, Sabrina and I were planning to go to Venice. Well, needless to say, 8.30 am came around, and we hit the snooze for another hour (deciding to take the later train)…then 9.30 am came around, and we hit the snooze AGAIN…and then once 10.30 am came around, we decided that we were too tired and were going to instead go on Sunday. So, off to Venice we went on Sunday. It was kind of a gross day, rainy and overcast all day. But at that point, it was Venice or bust. So we headed off at 10.30 that morning, getting to Venice right around 12.30. When we got there, the church of San Marco wasn’t open yet, so Sabrina and I got our vaporetto passes (basically a water taxi that runs the length of the Grand Canal –the city is sinking, therefore there really isn’t an streets that run through the city, just sidewalks and little streams that grow when it rains). We then headed down the main street off the train station and went and found a little jewelry store, where we found a charm for Olivia and some Christmas presents. We then proceeded to hop on the water taxi and rode all the way to San Marco. We proceeded to walk around the semi-flooded sidewalks and just explored that part of the city until the church opened. We stopped at a little pizza/Panini stand and got a wonderfully warm, gooey and delicious ham, cheese and mushroom (I gave my mushrooms to Sabrina because she loves them!) and stop right outside the store and enjoyed the warmth amongst all the cold rain. After we finished our calzones, we made our way to the bag check for the church (I brought my backpack, and it was too large, so I had to check it). We got our little express pass and made our way into the church. We had to walk around on these raised platform catwalk runway type things all day since the water was starting to flood the sidewalks. The water was coming in so much so that we even had to walk on the platforms just to get into the church, which was so sad. Venice is such a gorgeous city and to think that it is currently sinking and that it’s beautiful architecture might be damaged by all the water is a sad, sad thought. Thankfully, the water wasn’t high enough to actually start going into the church. Once inside the church, Sabrina and I shared a set of headphones and proceeded to listen to our trusty ole pal Rick Steves! I also decided that it was too beautiful NOT to take pictures of the gilded tile mosaics that cover the entire church…GORGEOUS!! You definitely need to look through my pictures!! After we went through our Rick Steves tour of San Marco, we made our way back onto the vaporetto and halfway down the canal to the Rialto Bridge, the other infamous thing in Venice. I’m sure it would have been much more impressive in the sun and warmth of not freezing temperatures of November, but nevertheless, it was good to see.

Overall, the day trip to Venice was a great one—and Sabrina was an AWESOME personal tour guide. I only wish that Mom & I had gotten/taken the chance to go while she was here—she would have loved it!

Now, my Picasa (which is where I normally have been uploading my pictures) free memory is currently full. So, I put all of my pictures up on my facebook, so all you have to do it copy and paste the link into a new internet window and you should be able to look at them that way. If it doesn’t work, or you have problems, just let me know and I will figure out a way to show them!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=242400&id=506052285&l=464b563fca

Next post: Ski trip to the Italian Dolomites/Alps!!!