We're in Italia, yeah? Venice and half of Florence

Milan was uneventful and somewhat boring. There was one particularly good shopping center and a square, but the rest of the city was sad. Move on to Venice!






Ginger requests that I talk about how much I miss her. Ginger, I miss you. haha. We are in Florence, Italy and just left Venice. I loved Venice. The city seems so small even though the actual size of it is substantial. Coming directly out of the train station, I was faced right at the canal with gondolas and other boats floating along, people EVERYWHERE, shops open on the street, and amazing food. It had been so long, at least it felt that way, since I had more than a sandwich for lunch and dinner. Finally getting to Italia and being able to eat some sweet pasta and of course, bread. We managed to find an amazing Italian (or just a regular?) restaurant that had a tourist special. Two amazing courses with a salad and wine...mmmmmmmm. Spaghetti it is! Soo goooood. For the past few days...maybe a week, every time I eat, I have been feeling nauseous. I'm definitely not full, but the thought of food makes me feel sick. So I guess I have not been eating much and walking a lot, so I sometimes feel faint before it is time to eat again. Mom, don't be concerned, I am fine. The worst of it seems to have passed. But the breakfast portion of food has decreased since all we get is mostly bread... and as soon as we get out of the west, I think I have to say goodbye to fruit.

Anyway, back to Venice. I got to see a lot of Venice since my group of fellow travelers managed to get lost and turned around dozens of times, going around in circles, trying to find our way by familiar candy and pastry shops that we had stopped in. The architecture here is amazing to me. I love the rustic look of all of the buildings, you can feel the history even if you don't care much about it, like me. You can just tell these buildings have looked just like this for centuries, the concrete on the surface has been blasted away and exposed the brick. The buildings are dirty but it just adds to the feel of the city. I loved it there. We crossed over so many bridges over small canals, I lost count. The city is completely unique to any other city in the world, there are none like it and bad weather couldn't even deter my amazement.



We were in Venice for an evening and a whole day and left this morning to head to Florence by train. I have already finished my first book a few days ago, so I traded with another girl...her book is about WWII and is super depressing but really good. We did a small tour of Florence with our guide after settling into our hotel and corraled as a group again. And guess what we looked at... squares and architecture. But Les is trying to get the entire group to see some incredible gardens because the landscape architecture students are tending to be short changed quite often. Can't wait to hear the groans! I had a conversation with a 4th year architecture student that consisted of his view of landscape architecture...none. Landscape architecture takes away from buildings, he prefers a blank plaza in front of his masterpieces. I responded with respect to his opinion, but inside I was in shock.

So our mission today was to see the Statue of David....and we conquered! The statue is so amazing. He's 17 feet tall and the detail that Michelangelo put into the statue, the veins in his hands and neck. I cannot believe that he had the ability to mold marble into this awe inspiring statue that stands the test of time. It is illegal to take a picture of the statue but one of my new friends may have snuck a pic of David... he he, I was promised a copy.

While in Venice, we stumbled upon 1,50 euro for a CARTON of wine. Below is a picture of me drinking my "juice box for adults" in Florence today...yes the next day, for lunch. Walking around a city looking at buildings is a little more interesting when you are a little fuzzy around the edges, just a little, I promise. haha.






The David in my picture here is a replica that sits outside of a city building in a square, the original is in a museum.

Kababs for dinner, mmmmmmmm. And now we are all loading the wireless server in our hotel, clinging to our homes via internet, so no pictures load and the service is slow...but what can you do... roll with the punches.