Romantic Venice

I’m writing this from the train to Salzburg (and while watching How I Met Your Mother…don’t judge!).  I really like traveling through Europe by train.  The views are amazing.  It’s so green and mountainous.  It reminds me of Utah…the mountainous part, anyway.  I’ve been lugging around this suitcase with the hope of actually finding a job and moving here.  I think it’s messing up my wrist L  Luckily, I’ll take a day trip to Prague while in Salzburg to drop it off…hallelujah!

 Venice.  Venice was romantic and beautiful.  My hostel was right next to a canal, very close to city center.  I didn’t spend as much in Venice as I did in previous cities, probably because I never took public transportation.  My hostel was within walking distance of everything.  I arrived on Thursday, dropped my stuff off at my hostel, and went straight to a free walking tour of Venice.  On my way to the meeting spot, a man stopped me on the street and said, “Excuse me…you are so beautiful…I am shocked at how beautiful you are.  Can I take you for a drink?”  I politely thanked him and declined.
 

 An Indian guy named Florence started talking to me on the tour, and when we took a fifteen minute break, he offered to buy me some coffee.  I told him I don’t drink coffee, but that I’m hungry, and he got me lasagna instead.  I ate it as fast as I could, and we were only 2 minutes late to meet the group, but they had already left.  So we continued walking around together.  We went to Piazza San Marco and listened to live music, ate gelato, walked along the canal.  It was very romantic, except that he was really into me, and I was not really into him. 
 

 We found a museum dedicated to Monteverdi with all sorts of old instruments…it was so cool!

For my full day in Venice, I had 4 goals:

1.     Meet up with Cameron, my friend from Utah who happened to be in Venice at the same time.

2.     Take a ride on the canals.

3.     See Monteverdi’s grave.

4.     Find a reusable water bottle.

I got 2.5.  I met up with Cameron and we grabbed breakfast and walked around the city a bit.  He had to go meet up with his family, so I set out on my own.  It was raining and cold, but I went to my hostel and bundled up.  I think I looked more like a local that day…not as many strange men hitting on me or even just checking me out.  I think I blended more, which was kind of a nice change. 

I went to the church where Monteverdi is buried, and after some searching finally found it.  The church was beautiful and had some beautiful artwork and sculptures for only 3 euros. 

I googled gondola rides, but they’re really expensive!  My tour guide told us about boat rides similar to gondolas, but they’re used to get up and down the Grand Canal.  It’s called the Traghetto.  I found a stop, but it was closed!  So I didn’t ride on the canal.

I literally spent all day looking for a reusable water bottle.  I left my water bottle on the plane, and I could NOT find one anywhere in Italy!  Wait, that’s false.  I finally found one in the Nike store, but it didn’t have a clip or hook of any kind.  Towards the end of the day, I found a cute and colorful store that sold mostly kids’ stuff.  I found a collapsible water bottle, which will work until I find a better one.  So I count that as half a win.

This last pic I snapped when I was looking at my phone trying to find my way back to my hostel, when  a tour guide came and stood right next to me and continued his tour and all the people swarmed around me.  I thought it was funny!