Europe Chapter 4: Part I Snow in Venice!

I think in my last update, we were leaving Torino and on our way to Florence for a few days. I wasn't really sure what to expect. Stacey raved about Florence since she had lived there for a few months while in school and Ken enjoyed it while he was visiting with Kat. Walking around, I could tell why Florence is so charming. It's different from other Italian cities that we had been to. It's considered large, but it's not industrial and everything is centralized making it seem like a small town.

Florence is art central. I spent my first few days in the Galleria del' Academia (where the statue, David, is housed among other sculptures and works of art), Uffizi (lots of Madonna paintings as well as a few famous Raphael's, Da Vinci's, and Botticelli's such as the Birth of Venus), climbed the steps of the dome in the Duomo (aka cathedral), visited a museum dedicated to the inventions of Leonardo Da Vinci, browsed the street and leather markets and walked around town.
Ken, Stacey and I booked a bicycle wine tour through the Chianti region of Tuscany, just outside of Florence. Unfortunately, Ken came down with a bacterial infection that kept him from doing the bike tour and much of anything while in Florence. So, what was to be a short stay became a week. Stacey and I felt really bad for Ken, but we enjoyed the downtime. We made friends with Martine, the 4th person in our 4 bedroom dorm, who replaced Ken on the bike tour. I hate to say it, but Ken missed out on one of my favorite days. The bike tour was just what I needed; A leisurely pedal through the green rolling hills of Tuscany. Well, most of it was leisurely. At one point, 60 year old men were passing us up a hill while Stacey was getting pushed up by our bike guide. (Shh!!! Don't tell her I told you that!) We only went to 1 winery, but it was formerly the home of Machiavelli post "The Prince." We also stopped to pet and feed fresh grass to a few ponies on the side of the road, one of which demanded our attention over the other ponies and nipped me in the arse! I always secretly knew ponies were evil!

While Ken was recovering, Martine (who is from the french speaking part of Canada), Stacey, and I took a day trip to Sienna. Of course, they were doing work on the local cathedral (Stacey and I have found that every town we visit, the cathedral is covered in scaffolding...Milan, Florence, Siena...it's our running joke at the moment), but we did manage to see the preserved head and thumb of St. Catherine. Ooooooo, aaaahhhh! If anyone knows why her head and thumb are in Sienna while the rest of her body is in Rome, please do share!!

When we weren't out and about being busy American tourists, we were in the common room of our hostel playing cards, writing in our journals or watching movies. This is where we met another friend, Shawn who hung out with us for awhile. The four of us (Stacey, me, Martine and Shawn) decided to take a train to Venice where Shawn, me, and Martine spent a weekend and Stacey a day exploring the man-made islands.

I've heard a lot of bad things about Venice, but I'm glad I decided to form my own opinion on it because it was beautiful!!! We stepped off of the train to warm weather and bright sunshine and managed to snag a great deal on a good hotel. The four of us spent the afternoon in t-shirts getting lost on the winding streets and canal-lined pathways and stuffing our faces with gelato. I couldn't believe our stroke of luck with the weather. Maybe it was the sunshine, but I was giddy. We unknowingly wound our way to San Marcos square in front of St. Mark's Basilica and proceeded to spend the next 30 minutes entertaining ourselves with pigeons. You kind of have to be there to understand. They're just EVERYWHERE and they're not scared of people. In fact, they will stop and poop on you as if you were a tree if you have food. Shawn and I laughed at Stacey and Martine. They're not bird people and would scream or duck (no pun intended) whenever one or a dozen came too close.

The next morning, I awoke to white stuff fluttering through the Venice sky. Snow was not on my mind, especially since I had spent the previous afternoon walking around in a short sleeved shirt. It took me a more than a few glances to convince myself it was actually snow! Yes, in Venice of all places! The hills of central Italy were white with snow on the extremely long train ride from Venice to Naples, where I reunited with Stacey and Ken. Even the Italians seemed a bit shocked. Me, Stacey and the rejuvinated Ken spent the next few days day tripping from Naples to the Island of Capri, where we hiked, and Pompeii, to tour the ruined aftermath of the infamous Vesuvias erruption.
Naples was mostly uneventful except for the archeological museum and a prank Stacey and Ken pulled on me. They checked into the hostel before I arrived and when asked where the third member of our party was (because we reserved a room for 3 and I was still in Venice), Ken told the staff member that I ran off to Venice with a boy for the weekend (which is less than HALF true because it was with Shawn AND Martine and the way he said it implied that the boy and I were romantically involved). The next morning, the ENTIRE hostel staff knew about me and made comments such as, "Love is in the air." Yeah right! For our remaining time there, one of the staff members kept trying to play matchmaker with me and all of the eligible bachelors staying at the hostel. I'm still plotting to get even with Ken.