Venice

My Venice partner in crime (Charlie) & I

After not being able to sleep the night before...finally after watching an episode of Amazing Race (love this show for a couple reasons...I think my sister and I would kick ass, and I know one of the girls in it this season), an episode of Hills ( I know I know), wanting to start my episode of 24, and a couple phone calls to some friends in the states, I got one hour of sleep before I had to wake up and get ready to go to Venice.  Nothing was going to stop me from going to Venice.  I played in Italy for 4 years and didn't once have a chance to visit or just didn't make time.  So now that I am back in Italy on vacation, and had a friend that had never been either, we decided it was time to venture there.

The plan was just a day trip.  We knew we had to be back for our friend's basketball game back in Bologna.  So we took the 938am train, which ended up being delayed by 40 min.  After a eurostar train ride of about and hour and 40 min we arrived in Venice.  I didn't really know what to expect other than pictures I have seen and things I have heard.  We walked out of the train station and immediately I knew it was going to be a great day.  I tried to do some research on what we should do exactly.  The most popular suggestions were ride a gondola, visit Piazza San Marco, and just get lost in the little streets. We bought a map just in case and headed over the first bridge (I say first because we must have walked over 100 little bridges).  We decided to try to make our way to the Piazza San Marco first.  We jut decided to start walking hoping we would see signs or follow someone or something we really just didn't know.  As we were walking we bumped into many gondoliers.  We decided to ask one how to get to the Piazza San Marco and he said it was all the way on the other side.  We asked if he could take us on a tour then drop us close and he said yes.  We paid 40 euro each (I heard that was about right).  Here I am with our gondolier.  He has been working as one for 15 years.

During our 30-40 min ride he told us a lot of fun and interesting facts about Venice.  Venice has around 150 canals that are connected by 409 little bridges, and over 3000 alleyways on the 117 Islands...I wish we would have counted how many we walked over.  All I know is my legs were more sore the day after walking around Venice then the day after my workouts.  Guess I gotta step up my workout plan.

As were were riding through a little canal our driver told us to be ready because on the left there will be a little opening to a beautiful house and garden.  We had about half a second to take the picture...this is what we got...

After our ride we headed toward Piazza San Marco.  This time it was a little easier.  Lots of signs and people to follow.  We knew we were in the right place. We walked past all my favorite shops, Prada, Gucci, Louis, Cavalli, must I go on.  The sun was shining...it was the perfect day to be in Venice.  We got to the square and decided to sit for a bite to eat.  Here was our spread...

Nothing like a cold Heine in the middle of the day (I take after my Dad...Miss u Dad)

In the square in my Italian get up

Grand Canal

One of the little canals

Looking out into the Adriatic

After walking around the square and along the Adriatic we decided to venture back to the train station not knowing how long it would take us to find it since it was on the other side.  Going up and down alleys and bridges with no problem we made our way back to the station early. We had about 40 min to kill so we just chilled out on the steps and people watched.  Lots of nobueno.coms going on Kim Glass.  You would have truly appreciated it.  The train ride back was  easy and there was a lot of room to spread out and get comfortable.  It had already been a long day but it was far from over.

We got back to Bologna.  Decided to go to the grocery store to stock up on some food.  I was feeling domestic and ready to cook a little.  With about an hour to rest and get ready, we were then off to the game.  The game deserves its own blog...Italians and their basketball...ridiculous.