Thursday morning started out with a 6 mile run past a few cool Roman sights like the Colosseum, the Vatican, Tiber River, and Piazza de Popolo. The fact that it took us 6 miles only furthered our theory that we were easily walking 6-8 miles a day.
After that, it was off to the train station. We opted to truck it with our luggage for the mile and a half instead of paying for a taxi.
We made it with plenty of time to catch our train. In fact, we were really about 20 minutes early because I have a strange paranoia about being on time. When we got there we must have looked confused because someone instantly looked at our tickets and started leading us to where we needed to be. Lest you think he was being helpful out of the kindness of his heart, let me assure you that was not the case. The second we stopped he held out his hand asking for euros. Unlucky for him, we had already experienced this situation with the Roses at the Spanish Steps the day before and weren't about to shell out anything more. We were grateful for his help though and slowly started to understand the way the train station works while we were waiting for our train to arrive.
After a 4 hour train ride that included various stops through Italy, a change in cars due to an air conditioning failure, and our worst meal of the trip, we made it to Venice! We quickly bought our tickets for the Vaporetti (water bus and basically the way everyone in Venice gets around unless they are cool enough to have their own boat) and took our first boat ride. We walked right to the place we were staying and were able to get settled pretty quickly. The little yellow building in the middle is the one we stayed in - in bottom right hand corner.
After getting settled, we headed into Venice to start exploring. To say I was overwhelmed in the beginning is the understatement of the year. I'm not sure there is any way to keep your sense of direction without a map. I was lost 5 minutes in and I'm not really sure I ever had any sense of direction. The streets are so tiny and winding that you rarely walk in a straight line for more than 50 feet before having to turn one direction or another. My appreciation for the grid system increased exponentially in a very short amount of time.
One of the first places we stopped at was Santa Maria della Salute. It is right along the grand canal and fairly close to where we were.
It was here that we first fed the pigeons in Venice.
It was also here that we learned of the definite pigeon hierarchy. Of the five or so that were feeding, there was no doubt which one was at the top of the food chain - we lovingly named him fat pigeon because he was noticeably bigger than the other ones. If any of the other pigeons even got close to the stair that he was on or any of the crumbs that he wanted he would attack and bully them until the other they had run off. A couple times he went as far as pecking at their wings. Also, that gurgling noise pigeons make? We think it's actually an angry growl. There was only one of them that was brave enough to keep coming back for more, we nicknamed this one skinny pigeon - although we doubt that will be the case for much longer based on it's behavior. This whole process lasted for a solid 5-10 minutes. We laughed so hard. It. Was. So. Funny. Who knew pigeons had a pecking order and were so determined to enforce it?
As we walked around, we took pictures of random cool things that we came across. Fun fact: all the buildings in Venice are made of brick. Even the ones that look like marble are just plaster covered bricks. Any of those other materials are too heavy to have built whole buildings out of.
And the quintessential Venice picture from on top of the Rialto Bridge:
And some cool night sights...
One of the most exciting parts of the day: Hunter came back to an email from Duke saying he has an interview for their PA School! There couldn't have been a better way to end such a good day. It was the cherry on top of an already delicious ice cream sunday.
Day 1 in Venice: Definite Success!
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