Shaking it up in Italy

After singing through the hills of Austria, Grace and I were officially half way done with our European tour. The last half was a 2 week tour of Italy that included 7 cities! First stop: Venice, after our final night train. This time around went much more smoothly than the first night train, and we only had to share our car with 2 others, so it was easier to spread out and get comfortable. I had heard people describe Venice, but nothing could have prepared me for arrival in the most unique city in the world. When we got off the train, we had to catch a cab to our hostel—only in Venice, all of the vehicles are boats! For those who are thinking of traveling to Venice, just know that you will get lost or turned around at one point! With that said, Grace and I had no trouble finding our hostel, the trouble was what we found when we got inside! Out of our entire European trip, this one was up there on the sketchy ratings. The building was probably older than America, and it was dark and kind of stinky. We felt so out of place that we almost took our bags and went in search of another. In the end, we only had one night to stay in Venice, and we had good roommates and a free breakfast in the morning, so we survived.

Our day in Venice basically included just wandering around the island and getting lost. Venice is considered an island, and it is said that it will sink one day. As you walk through the skinny streets, you often have to walk over a bridge to cross one of the many canals. The great part about being in Venice, and finally arriving in Italy was the food! Our first Italian meal was pizza—we each ordered our own of course, while we sat in the sunshine on the water. We did a lot of relaxed walking on our first day in Italy, in fact that is just about all that we did, and it felt great. In the morning we were headed to our next stop in Verona, but we ran into a little bump along the way—or should I say a quake! While in London, I heard about a severe earthquake in northern Italy, and at about 9 o’clock in the morning, Grace and I were shaken awake as we felt the outskirts of the second earthquake to hit the same region of Bologna. At first, we weren’t quite sure what had just happened, because when I peeked out the window it seemed like business as usual. It was the strangest method of an alarm clock that I have ever experienced, and when we got to the train station, the mass chaos delayed our departure for Verona, but only slightly.

A picture of the Gran Canal with a boat taxi passing by!

Grace and the canal

Our first meal in Italy! The location was great, the food was great,
but we almost fell asleep while eating due to the night train sleep

We stumbled upon the most amazing book store while wandering,
and this was the fire escape! I guess that is a park to having
canals for streets!

This was one of my favorite pictures. The city is so old, but vibrant
at the same time

This is the famous Rialto Bridge after sunset 

Verona, our second stop, is where we stayed in a romantic B&B in a couple’s suite. The city that became famous for being the setting of Romeo and Juliet is very old and situated along a river. It has a ton of ancient Roman ruins that people just casually walk by every day. We had some great meals in Verona and relaxed walking around through the different plazas.

This is the statue of Juliet, the main attraction in
Verona. People come and leave love letters,
graffiti and love locks

Here is Juliet's balcony

The city had many plazas with beautiful colors on the buildings

On our second morning in the quaint town, we decided to walk to a place recommended by our guide book, but we didn’t put two and two together and realize that we were headed for the church we had seen on top of a big hill! Sometimes tourist maps are not totally accurate…but in the end it was a great adventure that provided us with a little exercise and beautiful views. In the evening, we visited Juliet’s balcony, Romeo’s house, and enjoyed a nice dinner at a restaurant tucked away in a little street.

I always love the cities on a river! 

Here is a view of Verona from the church we climbed up to

We were exhausted, but once we got to the top it was great to see
a bird's eye view of the city and make room in our stomachs for more
pizza and pasta after all the climbing! 

In the morning, we enjoyed our last breakfast in the lovely B&B, stalked up on to-go packets of Nutella, and hit the tracks for our journey to the Cinque Terre. We also discovered that if you hop on through the back door of the Italian busses, you can get away without paying...shhhh, we only did twice!