Venice: We heard many different things about Venice before arriving. Some supposedly love or hate Venice. We had to go check it out for ourselves. We have stayed in Venice for two nights. We are staying in a bed and breakfast just off the main island. It is located in a small residential area with a market across the street. It was pretty easy to find and it is quiet here. Breakfast is only a little bit of bread and juice, but we are provided with a kitchen use area and laundry, which is really nice. So for the first time we have made our own dinner. I am actually really ready to get back to Germany where there is a real breakfast in the mornings.

The verdict on Venice? We love it. We visited St. Mark's Square and today went into the Basilica. We paid to go up to the museum which was nice because we got to see a much better view of the square as well as the incredibly detailed mosaics at the top of the Basilica. We wandered around the back streets. (Actually, you have no choice!) We have discovered that there are no clear streets anywhere in Italy. All of the streets lead into another and you seem to be walking in circles. It is easy to get lost. Actually, Chris led us on quite an adventure through the shipyard on the other side of the island looking for a bathroom! OOOPS! We never found a bathroom, but found our way back to the bus station and decided to end the night and use the bathroom at our hostel. Great times!

Today, Chris enjoyed himself playing with the flying rats! Okay, not really rats, but St. Mark's Square is full of pigeons. (Thousands of them) Whoever thought it was fun playing with pigeons and encouraging their discusting behavior is besides me, but they are making a killing selling birdseed for millions of tourists!

Tomorrow we are off to Salzburg, Austria.
Ciao, Italy!

Cinque Terre and Pisa

Awesome! That is the word I would use to describe our time in Cinque Terre. After the hustle and bustle of Rome we were ready for a relaxing break and that's just what we did. We spent three nights in the Cinque Terre and hiked to almost all of the towns. The Cinque Terre is five small towns built along the coast of the Mediterrean Sea. After we checked into our hostel we hiked from the first town to the third town (easy hike). The next day we took the train to the last town and hiked back to the fourth town. This was a much more brutal hike. There were a tons of steps and Chris had to be patient as I huffed it up the mountain. Once you were up it was okay and absolutely beautiful! This hiked was 90 minutes. Once we reached the fourth town, Vernazza, we decided to take a swim. We had lunch and swam and jumped cliffs for a couple of hours. What a tough day!



After leaving the Cinque Terre, we had a stop over in Pisa for a couple of hours. Pisa is on the way to Florence, our ultimate destination. Pisa was just a cute town with really only one thing to see (The Leaning Tower). We walked around the Field of Miracles and tried to fix the ancient leaning problem by pushing it back up but unfortunately the ground was just too soft and it sunk back to its state. Which begs the question, Would anyone really visit Pisa if there was no leaning tower? We did think of La Nina, Derek. I think La Nina probably enjoyed Pisa as much as we did.

The People we Meet

Part of the fun we have been having is meeting new people. We have met many Americans and Canadians! In Rome, our roommate, Lin, spoke 4 languages, Chinese, Japanese, French, and Spanish. He didn't have much English but with my little Spanish and Chris' little French we got along just great. Our last night in Rome was the best one yet. We took Lin out to dinner and ate by the Spanish Steps. Afterwards, we all enjoyed a gelato on the the Steps. It had finally cooled off. Evidently all of Italy has been on a heatwave! I think it has begun to cool down some although it's a little warm in Florence today.

In Cinque Terre we met a Canadian couple and ended up splitting pizza with them two nights in a row. We bought a big pizza for 14 euros and bought a bottle of wine and sat on the harbor and just chatted. We've been collected emails and hopefully we will stay in touch with all.

Today, we stood in line to see the David for 5 hours! Yes, a bit ridiculous. I guess the city was on strike and the museum wouldn't open at it's normal 8:15 time instead it opened at about 11:30 and only let a few people in at a time. While waiting we ended up talking with a couple from New York. It actually made the time go by smoothly. So, we are making lots of friends and looking forward to meeting more.