Venice and the Beach!

So, on Friday Hannah, Amanda and I arrived at the train station at 6:15 ish in the  morning. We got breakfast, which is always a chocolate croissant in my case, and waited for our train to arrive. The CRAZIEST thing happened.. Stacy Rebelski, a friend from Iowa, WAS AT THE TRAIN STATION. How weird is that?! She ran into me, we said hi, and she was off on her next trip! She's traveling around Europe with a friend after graduation. So that was pretty cool.

The three of us boarded the train and I slept like a baby the entire way. I suppose the dramamine knocked me right out. Well, it did... But I generally sleep like a baby on any long trip. Put me in a car, plane, train, bus, doesn't matter. I'm out like a late.

We arrived in Venice at around 10:30 and it was overcast and rainy. This older couple from the states asked if we could take their picture and we ended up talking to them about all the cool things to see. The man said, "Just follow the signs that say 'San Marco --->' and you can't get lost".

You can get lost.

Luckily, we kept a close on eye on all of the signs, so it wasn't too difficult to navigate around the city. But, my God, it's absolutely breathtaking. Venice is by far the prettiest place I've been in my entire life.. And that's saying something. There are so many canals and little shops, and some of the streets are shorter than I am in width. The three of us wanted to do two things for sure: 1) See Saint Mark's Basilica and 2) Ride on a Gondola. Amanda LOVES to shop, so every 4 seconds she wanted to wander into a little store and see all the things they had to offer. So, needless to say, we got a little sidetracked and knew we had to cut one of the two out. We decided that we must ride on a gondola. And, honestly, I'm so happy we did.

We arrived at the river entrance where all the men in matching hats and striped shirts were standing. One man asked us, "Three pretty girls? Come, come then!" And he was the best gondola driver ever! I asked him how long he had been doing this and how long it took to learn how to drive a tiny little canoe-like boat with one paddle. He said he had been doing it for roughly 20 years. He was amazing. He just kept saying, "Oooh, I love you. I love you," and chuckling to himself in between the romantic songs he was singing. It was an absolutely amazing day.

We walked back in the direction of the train station, ate dinner at a little restaurant, and boarded our train at around 7:30 that night. Upon arriving home, we decided that the three of us had collectively had the best day in Italy thus far. I'll cherish it forever.

The next day, Amanda, Bryce, Kendall, Mara and I decided to take a trip to the beach! It was the first really nice day since arriving in Rome (it's been raining every day), and we decided a relaxing day in the sun was in order. We met some other students from the University of Ohio studying interior architecture and hung out with them all day. It was a good time. :)

Classes have been going well, per usual, and the movies we've been watching in Italian Cinema keep getting better and better. I'm really starting to understand how much work and thought goes into making movies. Not only that, but the sequence of events is almost a scientific art form. Every little detail means something within movies. It's incredible. Anyway, I'll have to make another post about cinema entirely at some point because it's just so interesting.

Well, I'm off to read on the terrace. Ciao friends!