Ah, Venice

As planned, we woke up early this morning to visit Milan Cathedral. It was very impressive, the largest Gothic cathedral and second largest Catholic cathedral in Europe. Still, it was nothing compared to what was to come...

We arrived in Venezia la Serenissima, taking advantage of our Indiana Jones moment by all saying "Ah, Venice" as soon as we got off the train. (This was repeated many times throughout the day.) We got a water taxi ride to our hotel, which was great because the breeze felt amazing and the sights were very picturesque. We also happened to pass the school I would have attended had I chosen to study abroad here instead!

Once we got off, however, we grew frustrated as we tried to find our hotel, dragging our luggage over several sets of stairs (on bridges) in the hot sun. When we decided we were completely lost, my dad called Andrea, our tour guide for the day. This was planned in advance- Andrea is a friend of my dad's friend who had kindly agreed to take us around today. He and his girlfriend Chiara arrived at once to help us find our way and proceeded to spend the rest of the day with us. Cue massive improvement on day.

Aside from just being friendly and personable people, Andrea and Chiara were very knowledgeable about the sights they had picked out for us. First, though, they took us on a gondola ride through Venice, with the best gondolier in the city. Every single angle of the city looks like a postcard! (Literally. Heather took a picture of a post.)

Then they took us through Doge's Palace (including the Bridge of Sighs), and since Chiara used to work there, she told us all kinds of cool stories and historical tidbits. There were lots of beautiful rooms, including the Grand Council Chamber, which is one of the biggest meeting rooms in Europe. According to my dad, it is worthy of the Sistine Chapel! I'll judge that for myself in a few days.

Afterwards came a very important stop- the best gelato in Venice. Indeed, although last night's was good, today's was even better! This is where it pays to have local inside information. Then before dinner, they took us to the church that was the front of the library in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Gotta have our movie stop!

Dinner was again their special recommendation of restaurant, which, as everything else, turned out to be phenomenal. We also shifted conversation gears from historical Venice to casual conversation, which was really nice because we just got to know each other some. As it turned out, we had a lot in common, from talking about music to Andrea's interest in photography to Chiara's language degree. It was really exciting because now I have my first Italian pen pals!

After dinner we went for a walk around Venice. It was starting to get dark, so we got more pictures of everything lit up and reflected in the water. The amazing part was how quiet the city is! Without cars and trains and buses and such, there is almost no background noise and it is really very peaceful.

Basically, the two of them were the best, and we couldn't begin to express enough thanks to them for all the wonderful things they had planned for us to make our first day in Venice as enjoyable as possible. It was just a fun day where I learned a lot of new things.

Although my favorite city has been Salzburg since I visited a little over two years ago, I think I can honestly say that Venice just became number one.

Milan Cathedral.

Our gondola and gondolier.

Dad got to wear the hat and hold the oar!

Ah, Venice...

The church façade from Indiana Jones.

Venice at night.

The Bridge of Sighs.