venice dec 2010: welcome to the labyrinth of potential flooding?

I figure I should probably stop posting travel reposts -- just because I miss Europe so much. But then again, I know, I just know I'm going back there. GOSH-DARN-IT I'M GOING BACK. So....here's Venice.

From Rome, we took another ungodly hour flight (7am) to Venice. Getting up at 3:30am is not peachy at all. Good thing we got a taxi to get to the airport (easy and cheap). The hotel was a 10 min bus ride into the heart of Venice, which was pretty good for the price we paid. The room was super nice and it came with complimentary breakfast (which was awesome breakfast). After getting to the hotel, the 3 of us passed out for about 2 hours. Finally refreshed, we were prepared to get lost in Venice. We were stuffed from breakfast, so opted not to get lunch, instead stopping at a cafe in Venice to get something small. Our decision in Venice to get lost (because that's how you find your way) was a good choice. We hit probably 2 or 3 dead ends, meaning we hit a canal, or a wall. Otherwise, we were good. There were signs directing us to St. Mark's square...which was actually quite hard to follow. In the process of trying to find St. Mark's square, we stopped by a gelato place and decided to get some of that awfully good ice cream.

Entrance into Venezia

beautiful

By the gondolas

The port of St. Mark

Good thing it wasn't raining, but I did see that the planks at the Square were prepared. Just in case.

The bell tower at St. Marks

Along the way, there were many little delightful shops with plenty of masks (for the carnival) and other things. There also little markets, in which I had picked up a pair of owl earrings (can't resist them). At the square, there was a really old church (Basilica di San Marco) -- admission is free, but if you want to go upstairs and see the upstairs museum and what not, you'd have to pay 5 euros, I believe. After wandering around in the square, we stopped by another café to get some awesome cappuccino and some pastries.

How narrow some streets just are...

In an attempt to get back to the bus station, we got...lost. Yes, lost in the dark, with no sense of direction because everything looked the same. In our effort to try and find our way back, we stumbled into some navy training ground...

Starting that night we started to meticulously track flights--- because at the time we started hearing about the weather crisis going on in France, England...just about everywhere in Europe. We hoped that our flights weren't going to delayed or cancelled as well.

Flooding?

Wednesday and Thursday were pouring rain. Did I mention that I broke Minerv's bed in Venice? It's because she's the hardest person to wake up in the morning... so it was around 11am by then and Elliot and I looked at each other and we were like, yeah, we need to get going. She was still in bed. I said, Minerva get up, we need to go, she said 5 more mins! 10 mins later, I come back and she, of course, was still sleeping. So I yelled out her name and jumped on her bed. The problem was that I concentrated all my weight in one area and jumped fairly hard. There was a loud CRACK and she shot up from bed and was like, WHAT WAS THAT?! I started laughing and said, well, at least you're awake... 


Luckily for us, the hotel didn't notice....


We did go into Venice on Wednesday, but we left when it started to rain harder. The water level rose at an unbelievable rate. Water was already starting to creep into people’s doors, ones that border the canals. 

After meticously tracking our flights, due to the fact that many flights were interrupted, so many of our friends from the EAP program were cancelled and stranded at the Heathrow airport in England. Minervs’ flight from Venice to Paris was cancelled. Mine was ok, until boarding time. Turns out that my flight was delayed for 3 hours. Yay. After finally getting home, I went over to my neighbor’s house to give them Panettone, an Italian speciality. Because, I really don’t know what to give them that will fully express my gratitude towards them. 


What a trip to Italy. Short, but fun and I certainly hope to go there again. Next adventure, Trier and Luxembourg!