Venezia!!

Voiceover: 2 weary travelers slowly edge out into the light of the piazza in Florence, bound for Venice, ready for-

Martin: Who are you talking too? And I think it is "One weary traveler, and one rugged guide."

Me: Really?

Martin: You still have pillow marks on your cheek.

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Ok:
1. Apologies for being MIA and generally out of touch with everyone for the last week. Our apartment situation had me pretty cranky, and also yahoo stopped delivering some emails for awhile as well. So, if I haven't responded, hit me again! *Also, a picture ban was in effect of ourselves, what with our shower situation. Pic above is our nod to requests for pictures from parents. See--Martin drew us in in the lower left! He is awesome!

2. We are back in our original apartment, WITH lighting! Electricity! AND (drumroll) water! Ahh, to be clean. We are back to living the dream!

3. Enough of that, let's talk Venice! For those of you who have met me before, many of you know that Venice is one of my favorite cities in the world. Mysterious, beautiful, unique, and full of small but surprisingly aggressive people. Martin and I both noticed that people were all for plowing through you on the narrow and packed streets of the city located between the Rialto bridge and San Marco, and for someone with as poor depth perception as I have, it was almost a recipe for disaster. Uneven pavement, crazy stairs, water everywhere, AND small people knocking into you? How are you expected to stay upright? (I mean, I did. But it was a challenge!)

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and due to a dire laundry situation, immediately commenced clothes shopping on the way to San Marco. Martin has discovered that besides being my rugged guide, traveling companion, sherpa, and compass, he is also now my stylist! Fun for him!! I ended up in a shop with an awesome but somewhat aggressive sales lady who had no problems fixing the clothes while I was putting them on, or visiting me in the dressing room regardless of my state of undress. Fun for me!! Regardless, after my AmEx card started flaming from use, Martin did tell me that I had just: "edged my way up the style ladder by a rung or two." Eventually we did indeed make it to San Marco, bags aplenty! Evidenced by a photo of the same building that Martin sketched above.

We ended up trying to do the insiders tour of the Doge's Palace (secret hallways! A chance to pretend to be on Alias!) but were brutally rebuffed twice. Down but not out, Martin discovered a whole crazy international architect exhibit, that he was like: "we are going to this! You owe me one for the shopping!" and I was like: "Hey, if they let us in I'm there! I can totally make snap judgements about international architechture!" So off we went. It was amazing! Pictures below of a few of the exhibits. I stayed less time than Martin, b/c my simple mind is easily blown, but definitely worth the visit.


And then, out of nowhere was...PIUS! Who found me wandering on the streets near San Marco. He is in Italy on a whirlwind tour, and is now in...FLORENCE. Sitting next to me actually. Friends, Pius has set a high bar. Not only did he find me in Florence where I have an address, but he found me in Venice where I was often confused. Who wants to step up to this challenge? Who? (shout out in the comments! they keep me entertained!)

Finally, following our plan of asking random people stuff, we got a restaurant recommendation from a nice shopkeeper (Us: "Where is the best place to eat in Venice?" Him: "My house." Us: "Ummm....2nd best?") and ended up eating historic Venetian cusine. It was terrifying but also awesome, and our waiter was hilarious. He choose our food for us, took pictures, and gave us his facebook address! :) Now THAT my friends, is service!

We spent our last morning doing different things, me off to Murano to buy glass, and Martin back to the exhibit. We both emerged happy but tired, and were excited to get off the train in Florence and head back to our temporary apartment. Below are pictures of a canal, Church, gondola, and some really outstanding venetian masks. My favorite quote of the night, after I told Martin I was off to bed, was his response-

Martin: "I'm going to go and slip into a beer, and maybe some fries. You know, something a little bit more comfortable...."