We Open in Venice

We traveled today from Florence to Bologna, then on to Verona. The train cars are all numbered, we were assigned to car 1, but the signs on the platform were reversed from the actual cars, so we got on car 12 and had to walk all the way back while everyone crowded the aisles finding their seats and stowing their luggage. In Verona, we visted the Coloseum, which is not quite as large as the one in Rome, but is still big. They host opera concerts all Summer. The major highlight of Verona was Juliet's house. There were love notes and graffiti all over the 12th Century home. It is still owned by the Dell Cappella (Capuleti) family, but the museum is administered by the City of Verona. Each room had some key dialogue from the play, Madddie read every word. There is a statue of Juliet in the courtyard, and if you touch her in a certain place while making a love wish, your wish will come true.

We went to two McDonald's today, and neither one of them would give us milk. They said it was only for coffee, but when we bought coffee, they said we could use the creamers in the bag.

After an afternoon in Verona, we took the train to Venice. We thought we were taking the 4:29pm train, but the sign said 3:59pm and it left at at 4:06pm, luckily we just got on the train, but we still don't know which one it was, but it went to Venice.

It was so exciting to walk out of the train station and instead of city streets, see canals and water taxis. We walked across the Rialto Bridge to San Marco Square and took a water shuttle to our hotel.

We noticed that the terrain changed from the hills of Florence to flat farmland as we went towards Bologna, then as we neared Venice we saw water and boat dealers and eventually a large port with big cranes, ferries and cruise ships.

Venice is full of small alley ways and lots of twists and turns. It is very easy to get lost, but thankfully there are signs for San Marco and the Rialto, the two major tourist locations, on almost every corner.

We finally arrived at our hotel and we were very tired so we went to the lobby for some snacks. We had cheese and vegetables, but our favorite part of the night was watching a little Japanese girl stick her hands in the food, and then an older British man would get angry and complain. He even starting videotaping her. She usually stopped at our table to say hello to Maddie on her way back and forth from the food.

Tomorrow we explore Venice, including perhaps, a gondola ride.

Ciao