Benvenuti a Italia!

I’m starting this entry in the Milan-Bergamo airport at 3:15 in the morning Monday, sitting against a wall surrounded by sleeping people. I just woke up from about 90 minute worth of sleep, and I don’t think I’m going to get much more sleep before we check in for our flight. Damn my bony hips…it’s impossible for me to get comfortable, so I’m just going to get what I can on the plane.

This has been a pretty sweet weekend. I had set my alarm on Friday for 4:45 in the morning looking to walk to the bus station, but I didn’t get up until 5:45, so I just took a cab. The bus and plane were pretty smooth. I landed in Italy around 12:00, and was in Milan by around 1:30. I met up with Matt and Blake around 3. We had about two hours before our train to Venice, so we took a trolley into the city center to see the square and the cathedral. It was pretty impressive.

Il Duomo Milano

(I wrote the rest after getting back to Sevilla)

It’s hard to describe Venice because it’s a city that so many people have heard a lot about. Everyone knows about the canals, the gondolas, carnivale. But I have to say that it’s something you really have to see for yourself. Every corner we turned revealed a postcard worthy waterway. We arrived at night, so we didn’t have much time to see it before we went to our hostel. We caught the 10:30 bus out of Venice (not realizing at 9:30 that the bus was just right next to us). When we got to the campground, there was a full on toga party going on at the bar. Our accommodation was nice, 3 beds and a bathroom. We hung out at the bar with the Aussies and Irishman that we met at the bus stop and were joined by a Canadian and a couple Kiwis. It was a fun time.

After sleeping in until 10:30, we caught the last bus from the campground back into Venice to grab lunch. We decided to just get lost in the city and find a place to eat. I had pizza diavolo, which is hot salami pizza. Pretty good, and about the spiciest thing I’ve eaten since I’ve come to Europe (unfortunately it wasn’t that spicy). Matt and I also split this massive mussels and clam appetizer. It was great.


We walked around the city for what seemed like forever, at one point before sunset making it to the complete end of the main island. Like I said before, we were just blown away by the city: the fact that the buses, cabs, ambulances and police are all boats. We went up the tower by St. Mark’s Basilica and then went into the basilica. Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures in the basilica, but it was beautiful.

La Basilica San Marco

We had dinner at a place off the main road and went in for the night.



Sunday we did more exploring. When we got to one end of the main island, we sat down at a bus stop (read:dock) and played cards. Eventually, we went to the train station and got some really cheap tickets back to Milan. We had dinner in Milan (pizza again), and caught a bus to the airport, where we met up with all the CEA people who had been traveling through Italy.

Venetian (Murano) Glass

All in all, a very relaxing weekend in Italy.