Western Europe: Italy

Buon giorno!!!

I made it to Italy! We arrived in Venice on the 8th and stayed for two days. Let me tell you, it's just like the pictures. There are water canals everywhere, and we rode a gondola the first night we arrived. The entire town is an island, and exploring the city is like walking through a maze. I managed to get lost on several occasions. Fortunately, the hotel was near the Academia bridge (a major landmark), so I was never lost for more than 30 minutes at a time. Last night, I watched Italy win the world cup while in Italy! How cool is that? The people here went absolutely friggin' nuts!!! As I was walking through the city during the game, I could hear the game blasting on TV's in apartments and bars everywhere. Every self respecting Italian citizen was hooting and hollering in unison throughout the city whenever a good play was made. People take soccer waaaaaay too seriously here.

Ok, just a little housekeeping before I move on. I noticed several of you have been gracious enough to leave me comments.....and I can't thank you enough for that (keeps me from getting home sick)!!! However, please sign your name to the comment at the end if you're posting comments anonymously. Ok, got that out of the way.

So today we arrived in Florence, and I'm still getting used to this city. It's not as picturesque as Venice, but there are some great sites to see here. Tomorrow, we are scheduled to visit several museums, and I'll get to finally see Michelangelo's David in person.

The hardest part about Italy is trying to refrain from using my German phrases in lieu of the newly acquired Italian phrases. The first day I was here, I said "danke" instead of "grazie" on several occasions. Fortunately, most of the Italians here knew German anyway and responded appropriately.

One of my favorite parts of Italy is being able to have a proper espresso for a mere 80 cents (and getting to speak Italian to order it). Plus, this is wine country, so a good red is usually cheaper than a soda or bottled water.

Guess what? I don't have my camera with me and this computer has a USB port. DOH! No worries. I had a shop in Venice make a backup of my camera's memory cards onto CD (in case it gets stolen here in the pick pocket country of the world), so I can use my hotel's computer later tonight to post pics, so stay tuned!!! Woohoo!!! I promise I'm not holed up in some hotel in NYC or anything....I'M ACTUALLY IN ITALY!!!! :)

So until next time...

Good times!!!