Venice! (Day One)

"We're in Venice! I can hardly believe I'm here. I've wanted to come to Europe all my life & I thought I would have to wait longer to actually be here. It's pouring rain and it's beautiful.

"We took a boat 5 stops around the city, then navigated through allies to get to our lodgings. I can't believe how beautiful it is. Venice is exactly what you think when you think of the city on the water & Tuscany. There are gondolas everywhere, flower boxes hanging from the windows. Best of all, it's warm!"

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Venice truly is exactly what you would imagine it to be.

Water everywhere (of course), boats everywhere (obviously) and the men who work the gondolas even wear striped shirts. The city is made up almost purely of allies that open up to unexpected squares.

We were all in kind of a weird place when we arrived in Venice. Though the whole group was in various states of alert/tiredness, after we checked into the hotel our professors insisted on taking us out. We went out to St. Marc's Square, had our first gelato (ice cream has now been ruined for me) and were sent off on our own to figure out dinner.

Actually, Mark helped a group of us find somewhere to eat. A couple of the girls ordered gnocchi, and the rest of us ordered pizza. A margarita pizza. Just a "plain" pizza. Thin crust, gooey cheese slipping off the marinara sauce, the whole pie the size of the plate. It was so completely un-American, it was beautiful. Our first real Italian pizza. So darn good. Each of us stared at the pizza the size of our plate when it first came to us. We thought maybe we should have split a couple. We each finished our own. All of it. Pizza in Italy is meant to be eaten. Every dish you are given is meant to be eaten in whole. And it is very poss

ible to. I doubt to-go boxes for your leftovers even exist in Italy. The thin crust makes it so easy to eat all you are given. (I'm sure all the walking everywhere doesn't hurt either.)

After dinner we walked around Venice. It was the perfect city to start off in; you could only go so far until you hit water. Then you turn around and go a different way! I truly couldn't even believe we were actually there for the whole afternoon. Not until we we were walking around and I looked at some of the pictures I took did I believe that we were actually there. I had wanted to go to Europe for so long and I never thought I would get the chance to go so soon. I figured I would be at least fifteen years older than I am now before I went. Yet there I was!

In the sinking city

with people that I'll never forget.

(The picture that made me realize: We're in VENICE!!!)