Venice and Verona

Okay so my hostel had free wifi but no laptops that we could use so hence no update until now, when I found a place in Verona with internet for €1 per hour! That's really cheap, I was stoked.

Okay so it was Sunday afternoon and I was about to find myself some dinner when I left you. So I wandered in circles until I found a place with the right look for what I wanted, and adorable little trattoria with yellow table clothes and a big wooden door. It was quiet, but that's because I was eating at 7 and no one eats until 8 here. I asked for a recommendation from the waitress and she suggested the lasagne bolognese so that's what I ordered. I thought it might be like the spaghetti bolognese and was hesitent to go with something standard but I had asked for her advice... with great results! Bologna style lasagne is so yummy! All kinda cheesy and spicy. It was great :) Then gelato and back to the hostel... It was a good day :)

Monday I headed out to Ferrara for the day and it was lovely, but Siena was much prettier. Ferrara has pretty old bits, but there are lots of modern things slung in between so it's not as cool. I did enjoy myself, saw the outside of lots of cool stuff but it was Monday so all the museums were closed. Not a big news day really.

Tuesday I caught the 9am train to Venice, easily found my great hostel. Venice is super expensive but as soon as I'd paid I got to forget about that and just enjoy it. The place is really enw and the guys worked together at a hostel in Florence before opening their own hostel, and they have a puppy who is gorgeous! It was pretty social too, we all sat around last night drinking wine and talking, and the Americans celebrated having a new president! So I dumped my luggage in the room and went out for a walk in the pouring rain. Visited San Marco and the Rialto and then walked along the water for a while before getting totally completely ridiculously lost. I enjoyed it for the first hour, being lost in a city is my favourite part sometimes, but it was so wet that I was soaked and my sneakers are still wet through, completely horrific and then I got cold and just wanted to get home. It was cute though, I asked for directions to San Marco because from San Marco there are signs to the train station and I was staying right beside the train station and a nice man gave me some directions and then said "And you will find a big street with a red cafe. Then you ask for new directions." Which is so true in Venice! Oh my goodness, I couldn't believe the number of dead ends and circles! So I found my way hostel-side around four and just stayed in the rest of the night, cooked some pasta, chatted with some other people. Lovely night actually, when the rain let up a bit we went and got gelato!

Yesterday it was sunny entirely thanks to the power of my mind - I was determined that it would be nice weather because I wanted just one picture of me on a canal with a blue sky! And voila, I got my way. So I decided to head for the Galleria and the Peggy Guggenheim and I thought I'd walk because nothing in Venice is that big, it's just twisty... really twisty. After I hit the exact same dead end from three different directions I decided to take teh water bus, but that is €6.50 for one hour which is a rip off so I sort of snuck on and didn't pay and then spent the next half hour sweating because although our hostel guy said they never ever check two girls in our hostel got €50 fines the night before! But I made it without incident, the Galleria was lovely but the Guggenheim was AMAZING. Can you imagine having a private collection cool enough to become a museum? Yeah, fantastic. I now have a list of artists to look up and educate myself. I met two American women there, one of whom lives in Venice and the other was her visiting friend, so I went around with them there and then out for coffee afterwards, it was lovely. Headed slowly back to the hostel and managed to catch sunset on the Rialto, very cool! So it was a really nice meandering kind of day.

I really loved Venice, it was so beautiful at every turn and there was so much to see which wasn0t even a "sight" it was just pretty. I took so many pictures in Italy that I'm going to have to buy a DVD and figure out how to put all my photos on it because I'm out of space on my memory stick and on my flash drive. Really great.

Today I headed for Verona with two girls from my hostel, Alanna and Katie. We got here around noon and Katie was super organised so she played tour guide and showed us all the best sights. Yes I touched Juliet's right breast and carefully avoided her left! A few people on the Japanese tour didn't seem to really get the tradition so we watched lots of them get there picture taken hugging her or just hanging off her arm. Also saw a castle, a couple palazzos, an arena and a few churches before a lovely lunch at a cafe on the piazza de Erbe. Bought myself a little brooch in the shape of a mask because the masks are so beautiful but I can't get one home! It was a really nice day to have people to walk and talk with, and to hand the reigns over! Alone I have to make all the decisions but instead I played duckling and just followed Katie everywhere. Fun! And good weather again. Oh and did I mention it was a THREE gelato day? New record that one... Verona is lovely, I think it is better competition that Ferrara against Siena, it's all wide winding streets and big colourful buildings. Ooh and I stood under this whale rib which hangs from an arch in the city (google it, there should be pics and stories) and had my picture taken. Supposedly it's going to fall when a perfectly just person walks under it and so far despite a lot of tourists and a few pope it's still there! Better story than the Mouth of Truth in Rome which is meant to bite liars - I stuck my hand in and nothing there either but there are probably more liars than just people so I don't know why there aren't more tourists with missing fingers. Of course what is the whale rib falls and hits the just person? Isn't that counter-productive?

So tonight I train to Milan, wait six hours in the train station overnight and then head to Lyon to meet Laura! So excited!

I think that's all my news really... Doesn't seem that long. Oh well, I'll give you guys a break :)