Italy

Day 5       Switzerland ---> Venice                                                         May 23           Anniversary

We wanted to get out early so that we could catch the early trains out of Switzerland and into Italy. The trip was kind of crazy. It took the cable car off of the mountain; the bus into Lauterbrunen; the train from Lauterbrunen to Interlaken; the train to Spietz; the train to Dommodossola, Italy (our first view of Italy... we had to pay to use the bathroom 😆); the train to Milan; the bullet train to Venice. Whew! It took most of the day AND VERY much running to catch the trains to accomplish all of this international travel! 

Our last picture in Switzerland

There was also the minor issue of our train ticket from Milan to Venice. We bought 2 tickets, but only grabbed one, because I thought that it said it was for 2 people. But when we looked more closely, it did not say that. So we got on the train to Venice and were on pins and needles most of that time, thinking that when they come around for tickets and Daniel doesn't have one, he's going to get kicked off the train and we'll be separated mid-journey and I would have to navigate Venice on my own while he gets another train in to Venice and I was trying not to panic... We were seriously worried for a long while. But the further we went and no one came to check tickets, we got less worried, until, close to the end, someone actually did come. And when he scanned my ticket, he looked at Daniel and me and asked, "For two?" 😆 Turns out we didn't need to worry at all. 

The view coming out of the train station into Venice was unbelievable, and it felt so surreal being there. Venice is such a unique place, all the canals and bridges and boats. It was so fun to be there. 

We made our way to our airbnb and checked in with the owner. She spoke very little English, and I spoke very little Italian, but we were able to get our points across. It was so nice to be able to leave our stuff while we explored the city; we'd been dragging our stuff around with us, in all our catching and switching of trains, all day. 

We spent the evening walking around amazing Venice, and stopped for dinner at a cute restaurant that Daniel had found online in his much research. We ate outside and had the best food of the trip: Daniel had butternut squash lasagna, and I had salmon gnocchi. The pasta in these dishes was so light and fluffy and airy. The lasagna had a ton of layers of noodle, but they were so thin that it wasn't more think of a lasagna than any other. And the gnocchi in mine was really small! Not like the big dumplings we have here in US. 

After dinner, we found gelato, and walked the city, taking in all the sites, the people, the atmosphere, until late, when we walked back to our place. 

Day 6                     Venice                    May 24

Our first full day in Venice, we got up and ate whatever food we had left that we got in Switzerland, and walked over to the train station area to catch a waterbus, which took us to Piazza di San Marco. This piazza is the main area of Venice, the main historical area, with the palace and art museum, and the big basilica. It was an incredible place, just being in the pizza was cool. Just how big and elaborate these buildings are is amazing to see. 

We took an elevator up the bell tower and got a view of the whole city around us! It looked so cool up that high, just canals and red roofs, boats and church spires.

Our first tour of the day was the Doge's Palace. We had an audio tour of the place, and it was very fun to learn as we walked around and looked at the incredible art there. The walls and ceilings were just covered in ornate decoration and art. There was so much to see! One of the main halls of the building was humongous and covered from floor to ceiling in art. 

For lunch, we found this hole-in-the-wall kebab place. Actually, we had walked past it the night before and stopped to look in. This cute Italian boy looked at us and said, "very good!" And basically told us to eat there. 😆 So we went back. It was good. But not as good as I remember it from Spain. And Daniel wasn't super impressed.

Afterwards, we walked back to the Piazza di San Marco and went to the art museum, museo Correr. It wasn't my favorite. It didn't have any really amazing art, in my opinion. But they had some cool old maps and military artifacts. 

And then we went to see the Basilica di San Marco, which was so amazing. It was huge and extravagant, the outside a fascinating jumble of different styles and cultures, while the inside was covered in mosaics. The mosaics had many colors, but the main color was gold, which made the whole inside of the build glitter and hum with light. It was very cool. We listened to a Rick Steves guided tour on the inside. At the end, we walked up to the top of the building for the view. And at this point, Daniel said, "I'm done with museums for the day. Let's go do something else." I was good with that. My brain was just buzzing from all of the things we saw and learned. 

We walked the city for a while, got some cioccolato and melon gelato (huge cones... it was hard to eat so much ice cream), and stopped at this little produce market by the Grand Canal. We bought a bunch of fruit, including what they called in Spain nisperos. I haven't seen nisperos since I was in Spain, and I was so excited to have found them again. We got a bunch, but I don't think the bunch we got were very good. Still, it was fun and nostalgic. Eventually, we found a gondola and took an evening ride. Our gondoleer was pretty quiet for the most part and took us around the more secluded canals of the city. So our ride was very peaceful. He occasionally gave us little tidbits of information about the city, which was fun. We loved our gondola ride!

 After so much gelato, we weren't really hungry for dinner. But we picked up a piece of pizza on our walk back to our airbnb, and we shared it out on the little patio there. It was a quiet peaceful night for us. 

Day 7           Venice ---> Florence              May 25

Early this morning, we packed and checked out of our airbnb and went to this crepe place for breakfast before heading out. But we were cutting our time super close to when our train was leaving, so we ended up having to run, crepes in hand, to the train station to make our train. I didn't love having to start the day off all sweaty. But we did make it. 

The train ride to Florence was relatively uneventful. I tried to stay awake so that I could enjoy the moments of scenery we got. But I was so exhausted and could not keep my eyes open for very long. The train ride was a few hours, if memory serves... 4 or 6 hours? Can't remember exactly. When the train ride was done, getting out of the train station at the right place was weirdly tricky. But when we did, we came out to some weather. Daniel wanted me to plan what we did when we got to Florence. We had a few hours of time before we could go to our airbnb.i wanted to go to a Piazza that was close to the train station, but we ended up going in the wrong direction. And then it started raining, and we took refuge during the worst of it in the doorway of a building. 

When the rain was mostly done, we walked down to the Arno and walked along it for a while. We crossed the river over one of the many bridges and went to see a cute church that we'd seen from the other side. 

Finally, it was about the time we could check in and ditch our stuff at the airbnb. But it was SUPER hard to get into the building. We were out on the street, Daniel reading the instructions and trying to unlock the door for probably at least 20 minutes. We were at a total loss as to what to do, when I happened to look up, and I saw an older woman hanging out of one of the windows watching us. I watched as she motioned and yelled down to us, "Push hard!" So apparently the trick to opening the door was pushing it with all our strength and not being afraid that we'll break something. Good thing that lady was there to tell us how to get in. I looked for her after we opened the door, but she was gone. I wonder if she was waiting there on purpose to let us know how to get in. 

After getting in and settled, we went out again and walked to the Uffizi Galeria, where a ton of art, and a lot of famous art, is displayed. We did another Rick Steves tour as we walked around. We saw some amazing pieces of art: the birth of Venus and Primavera by Botticelli; Michelangelo's painting of the Holy family; a bunch of stuff by Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. It was really awesome to see these things in real life. The birth of Venus fairly sparkles and glows.

We walked over to the Piazza Della Signoria, which was close by, and looked at the statues and fountains and buildings. Everything in Florence is beautiful and grandiose. The buildings and statues are huge and intricate. The art is exquisite. I loved being there. 

We went to a pizza place for dinner and had some really yummy pizza. The dinner culture in Italy is so interesting, too. People go to dinner and stay there for HOURS. They go and order something and eat and then just hang out and talk. Then after a little while they'll order more food and eat more and then hang out and talk. We felt very American, going to dinner, ordering, eating and then leaving. We stayed at this pizza place for a good while; the food took a while to get out to us. But we noticed that there were people at the tables around us that were there before we were and looked very settled in for another long while when we got up to leave. But the food was very yummy. Definitely different than the pizza we have here.