Venezia

Our first stop in Italy was in Venice, but before I even get to that I have to mention the drive there from Munich. We drove south, as we had to get to the castle, but we continued through Austria, which is a beautiful country. On either side of the highway are small towns built on the side of what I think must be the Austrian Alps. Either way, they were huge snow-topped mountains. Every now and then between the villages there would be a run-down castle nestled on the side; it was just so charming.

It was obvious when we were finally in Itlay. The mountains got a little smaller and a lot greener, and the lower parts of the land were laid out like a quilt with divided sections of vineyards. The architecture of the houses changed noticeably too, and the weather cleared up as we got further south. It was probably my favorite stretch of our drive yet.

We stayed in Maestre, which is just outside of Venice, as people had suggested. Great suggestion. We had a nice little square just a few blocks away with restaurants and stores, and tons of people out and about at all hours. That first night we had Italian food and wine, and we were both in heaven. German food is ok, but if you’re not a fan of schnitzel and fries your choices are limited.

The next day we took a bus into Venice. One benefit of being a foreigner is that you can accidentally get away with stuff sometimes. For example, we didn’t pay for the bus, simply because we didn’t know how, and all the observing of other bus-riders didn’t help. If someone had stopped us we would’ve honestly told them that we intended to pay but couldn’t figure it out, but they didn’t, so we got a free ride to Venice.

What a beautiful city. Apparently it’s one of about 40 surviving islands of over 1000 that have sunk in the last few centuries. It’s filled with small walkways, bridges, canals, and millions of tourists. It was nice just getting lost in all the winding streets. I only wanted to see Piazza San Marco, so we took our time getting there.

You might’ve heard about the pigeon situation in the Piazza. I had seen pictures of people with pigeons sitting on their heads in the square, and was disgusted from afar. Well, I was now disgusted right up close. People don’t seem to realize how disgusting pigeons are, and that fact doesn’t change in one random square in Italy. There were people in every corner TRYING to coax pigeons onto their person. There was one girl with them perched on her shoulders and chest. Eew. We walked by a family where the dad was trying to get a pigeon to sit on his terrified daughter’s head, and Bill couldn’t help but shake his head at the dad and say, “Disgusting.” He took it to another level when we passed more tourists doing this and yelled, “You’re feeding RATS!” I think Bill’s and my common distaste for pigeons brought us closer that day.

Later that day we did the inevitable - took a ride in a gondola. We grabbed a bottle of wine and found a gondolier wearing the stripey shirt and straw hat, and hopped into the boat. He took us past a few different sights, Marco Polo’s house, Cassanova’s house, the building in Casino Royale that collapses, all the while telling us little bits of information. He was kind of a quirky guy; he repeated facts and anecdotes verbatim, and Bill and I would just look at each other puzzled and laugh politely. He also sang a little bit, which was a nice touch. Lots of people will say that the gondola ride is a ripoff, and it sort of is, but it really made the visit to Venice complete.

Our second and final day there Bill and I got some lunch and then went our own ways for a few hours. He went back to Venice to get some tax refund thing for his sweet new Italian sunglasses, and I tried to do a little shopping. If you know me well, you can predict that I tried to shop for about a half hour and then went back to the hotel and napped for the better part of the afternoon.

That evening Bill and I tried to see the new Indiana Jones movie, but all over Italy they dub it over in Italian! I don’t know if we’re going to get a chance to see it in the theaters, which will suck. Anyway, it gave us more time to enjoy the best dinner ever. We went to this little tucked away place and had some of the best wine ever (Bill is becomming a conossieur) with the best ravioli ever. Awesome. There are lots of great things about Italy, but the food will always be at the top of that list for me.