"I am always afraid my students will get drunk and fall in the canals"

Venice: This weekend we were all getting pumped for our excursion to Venice, the only down side to this was we had to get up at 5 in the morning.  Which resembles torture considering we didn’t even go to bed until like 1! Once we got there we filed in like ants and picked our seats, we needed to get pretty comfortable considering it was a 4 hour bus ride.  Lucky for me moving vehicles rocks me to sleep, Emily on the other hand has problems going to sleep.  I feel for her as I go into deep slumber.  When I finally wake up we have arrived!! The first thing we do is take a ferry into Venice from Mezre.

Venice is absolutely beautiful.  It really is all it is cracked up to be, no cars, just boats peacefully going up and down the canals. Gondala rides everywhere you look, along with art work of every kind.  We started off the trip with a 2 hour tour where I got to see the beautiful city through the locals eyes.  Throughout this whole tour Megan had to go to the bathroom, when she finally asked if she could go she was denied by the guide...hahah.  At the end she finally was able to go and we were a little bit more familiar with Venice.  The one thing people know about Venice is it is the city of canals.  What they don't tell you is they are notorious for expensive mediocre food.  We definitely fell into that trap for lunch.  We knew it was going to be questionable when they brought packets of mayo out with our spaghetti.  Why would I ever want that on my spaghetti?  Anyway  after that we just explored the city and it was beautiful! 

 That night we decided we needed to take a Gondola ride. It was just like the movies, a sassy man singing to us, and more pictures than anyone could need.  I think it was at that moment I finally realized I was in Italy on a once in a lifetime trip.  The Gondola man dropped us off at a really nice restaurant, of course we immediately left and found a good local place. Our hotel was awesome, it even had air conditioning!  I was happy to get a good nights sleep.  Waking up the next morning I was expecting another breakfast with luke warm milk and bread.  To my surprise it was a fully equipped breakfast with everything you could ever want!  Everyone welcomed the expresso machine with open arms.

Today we got the opportunity to go to the islands around Venice,  Murano and Burano.  

Murano is the island of glass, where they blow there own glass to sell.  It was so awesome!  We got to see a live glass blowing and then got to shop around the island.  When we had about 10 minutes to get back to our ferry I see Ketchup running towards me. Immediately I get the urge to start running with her, I have no idea why it just seems like a good idea.  Apparently she thought she was going to get left, luckily we had plenty of time to make it back and head to Burano!

In Burano it is known for their specialty with lace.  Personally it reminded me of my grandmother, but still a cool place to see.  Each house was a different color and signified a different family.  I definitely enjoyed both islands and their lack of tourist.  I would go back any day.

For dinner we actually found a really good place (thanks for Rick Steves) and I got Crab Pasta, yummmyy.  The place we ate had an amazing house wine, that went great with my dinner. After finishing dinner we headed back to the train station that would take us to our hotel.

Verona: The next day we took a 2 hour bus ride to Verona.  I was expecting a small little town with just the Romeo and Juliet balcony.  Why am I always wrong?  It was almost like a little Rome, with major sites around every corner.  I loved Verona and all the great places you could see within it.  My favorite part was how they had a giant river that the city was basically built around. After we got done in town we were off to a special Veneto wine tasting!  We were going to taste the famous Amarone wine along with a couple others.  They started off  by taking us on a tour of the vineyard and explaining a little bit about the process of the grapes.  They also had cherry trees growing in the vineyard, which they let us eat off.  I absolutely detest cherries, but these actually tasted like plums!  Very good.  Getting to taste the wines was awesome.  The wines they had chosen for us were all delicious in their own way.  After each tasting they said if we couldn't finish the wine we could pour it in a black bucket.  Of course no one wanted to be the first person to do it.  After basically having to chug my first glass of wine I couldn't muster up the strength to finish the second one.  I had to be "that person"  that poured out the expensive red wine, great.  Oh well after that everyone was merry and we set off back to Florence!

After a lovely weekend exploring the Venice area we had to come back to reality.  Despite what most people might think you actually have to study for your Wines of Italy midterm.  I'm off for now, time to hit the books!