Thankfully we had a few strokes of luck because we made both of our flights...together! Now we know why some people chose to spend a few extra bucks on first class airfare. Its nice to say the least. We minded our Ps and Qs but nonetheless we still stuck out like sore, rotten thumbs without our Prada and Gucci.
Venice is just like the movies. The colors, the little bridges over turquoise waters, screaming school children behind big beautiful walls, clique gondola drivers in their stripped sweaters and ribbon clad hats, countless stalls selling intricately decorated Venetian masks (we tried oh so hard to get a picture in one, but not without buying of course), pizzerias and gelaterias on every corner, older couples walking arm in arm, fur coats galore, pigeons swooping for the fallen scrap of bread, not a single car (and its oh so nice)...we love it.
Aside from all the loveliness, Venezia is confusingly mind boggling. You make a left turn, then a right, then another left down tiny ally ways only to meet a dead end and you have no idea where you went wrong. The number of streets are endless here and only some of them are marked. Please note the picture of Carli taking a time out to find us on the map, which only helped sometimes. The directions to our hostel was more like a scavenger hunt, "cross the big modern bridge," "pass the train station", "cross the little bridge, at top look to your far left for a yellow water bus sign", "turn left at little white church"...this is what we had to work with! It was more like being on The Amazing Race, only we weren't racing anyone just fatigue. Actually though, we found it easily and apparently even Venetians think Venice is confusing.
Our first snafu with the language barrier, mind you we smoothly ordered lunch earlier in broken Italian, was at the grocery store when an older gentleman attempted to tell us we needed to weigh and print labels for each produce item we were buying. With our arms full, we only assumed he was telling us to get a cart or something, we didn't know; we don't speak Italian. Luckily, Carli is smart. She noticed as were walking up to checkout that we had to get labels for each item, thank God, because there was a line, the checkout lady was less than friendly, and we, yes, we would have been embarrassed. Needless to say we laughed it off on the way back to our cozy, studio apartment. We could fit about 5 more people in here, so the invites open anyone!
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