Venice was Incredible!

Rachel here, and I think Venice is my new favorite city. We got there on Thursday afternoon, and walked around for the rest of the night. It is undoubtedly the dirtiest city we have been to so far, but also the most beautiful. I loved that there were no cars, only boats. When we took the ferry out to Murano (an Island famous for it's glass blowing), I could almost imagine that I was in the Bahamas again. On the first night, we had some super good bruschetta and Travis had cuddlefish, which I am pretty sure can turn different colors. The next day, I did some major shopping and we ended up on Murano. We saw the best demonstration there. We, along with some other tourists, were herded into a warehouse, where an old man made a goop of sand into a horse figurine in about 2 minutes. I couldn't believe it. It almost made me want to be a glassblower again. (The first time was when I couldn't figure out what I wanted to major in, and decided for one night that I could possibly be an artisian)

On that same island, we ate at an 'inexpensive' pizza place. I was rushed by the waiter to order and ended up getting the Pizza Romano, which had ANCHOVIES on it. I hadn't read the entire pizza topping description and thought that there were just steak strips on it. Then I saw the hair-looking bones. I tried to eat one, but right when it hit my tongue, I nearly puked. So, I ate around the anchovies and Travis laughed the whole time.

That same night, Travis and I decided to go on a sunset cruise, a ride on the dirty ferry #2 that goes through the Grand Canal and out into some open water. It was a great idea-- we met some guys from America who essentially gave us a history lecture on the Grand Canal. Then we got to the open water just as the sun was setting. Perfect timing.

The next day, left Venice at 1 and got into Florence at 4. We kind of botched the train times, we were only in Florence for 18 hours! But we got the map out and Travis schooled me on some Renaissance scuptures. We saw the outside of the Duomo and Michaelangelo's David. We tried to get into the Uffizi art museum, where all those famous Renaissance artworks are, but we had to get out of line in order to catch our train. I've realized that if you don't just say 'next time' and shrug your shoulders about failing to see the Uffizi, you will feel bad and guilty. So...next time!