Bye Florence - Hello Venice!

We got up today - packed... Asked ourselves what were we thinking buying that stuff and where did we think we were going to put it? Amy even serenaded us with her rendition of the country hit, "What was I thinking?" - it was lovely.

We put our bags downstairs and had our yummy free breakfast again. I turned Dana on to the sweet croissants that we had in our apt in Rome, and that I had eaten yesterday. The bread is sweet and then there is crystallized sugar on the top. We had them with a little nutella - and of course I had the cappuccino again. I'm hooked.

We headed out again, and had even less of a plan than yesterday. I knew I wanted to go by the purse shop we had visited before and get a little bag, and I was determined to find the Palace of the Medici family.

We found it! Success - and its kind of anti-climactic, its just a stone walled building - no real decor or architecture. We walk on to try and find the signs that point to landmarks, and we walk past a serial killer museum. Patti wanted to go (its her thing), and we could do without (in fact Amy and Dana were a little squeamish about it) - so we went exploring and let Patti do the tour on her own. She said that as soon as we left, she got a little creeped out because she was just alone with this guy... He said to wait her for a minute and he would be ready. So she's thinking, what if HE was a serial killer?? And he's going to prep the kill room?? But miraculously she survived! There was a little store in the front and it was bizarre - they had Linda Blair bobble heads (with her with green spew, sitting on the bed) - and "action figures" of Hannibal Lector and the guy from Saw.

The three of us had an hour to kill while Patti was in her tour - so we got our bearings so we could find her again (smart thinkin) and started walking to some marked sites on our map. We found big piazza with a old church that used to be DaVinci's workshop. But we thought there was tour there so we went in - there was lady begging for money on the way in, crumpled on the sidewalk with a cup out... We took some pics inside, there were frescos, and we hear this haunting voice - deep - almost sounds like one of those mechanical voice boxes that people use when they've had theirs removed. We realized that it was a mass in service - but we tons of people in and out of the church - someone tells Dana to go on in and "try it". So we do.

It was so beautiful - gold ceilings, statues and painted domes... Incredible. On our way out the same lady is now inside the church asking for money as people leave, she says, "prego, Bella" in the most weak and pitiful voice (but we've seen that before).

We decide to try and locate the DaVinci place so when we go back to get Patti, we'll know where we're going. We walk a few blocks up and nothing - walk back and found flyers for tix to the DaVinci museum in a hotel across from the church... 21 Cavour - hmmm Cavour street was just where we left Patti. The serial killer museum was 24 Cavour. Sure 'nuff, we've been hoofing up and back, and its right next to Patti.

As we're leaving the piazza we see that same woman who has been begging and weak and pitiful... She's screaming into her *cell phone* and smoking a cigarette - must be her break time. Amy made up dialogue for her - "I tell you I have not yet got 100 Euro, when I do, I will come and pay my cell phone bill!!". We laughed a lot at that and kept adding other things she might say...

We found Patti and went through the museum - they have working models of all his drawings, and included in the price is lunch! What a bargain! Its about 1:30 and our train is at 2:30, so we head out, and we stop at "our" purse shop (we've purchased 4 bags from her now) and I get my purse. The leather here is affordable and very nice (and everywhere). We all have new leather pieces from Florence now.

Got the train and we're traveling through the Tuscan hills now, and we were hoping to see pretty hills and valleys - but so far we've primarily been going underground, all we see is blackness. We have a two hour ride to Venice, so hopefully we'll get to see some of Tuscany before we leave the area. Every time we see daylight its just a glimpse (we did).

This is the nicest train we've had so far - like a first class airplane - with cool lights that come on when you touch them. The bathroom is nicer than the last one I used too. The one before was like an astronaut toilet, there was constant suction to catch "everything" - a little breezy.

We've noticed that both women and men here are drenched in cologne. You can taste them as they walk by - too much.

There was a cute older American couple on our train - their son helped them get on board and get settled, and they just had a ticket issue with their Eurail passes. They had exceeded their 7 days and were very confused - their travel agent told them this would be fine. But there are rules about travel and sometimes one trip can count for two days. They had to pay 50more Euro to stay on the train. But at least the didn't get booted out.

VENICE!!!! We got off the train and started looking for our Venetian host "Ricardo" - he told us that he was "quite tall and no hair" - he was SUPER sweet (and Dana has a little crush, shhh). The place is like a 5 min walk from the train station, but dragging bags it was a little haul, especially at Ricardo's pace. No time to stand in awe of what we're seeing - and we are in awe. Its more beautiful here than you can imagine. I think that Italians must have a law to make the place look like this - colorful buildings with grand shutters and overflowing flower boxes everywhere. Everywhere you turn is a postcard picture.

We get to the place and weren't sure what to expect because there were few pics online - its very spacious! A big bedroom with a double bed and a double bed couch - then a huge kitchen that fits another full fold out couch.. There is a washing machine, small fridge - its more than we'd hoped. But no internet here (we didn't expect it, but had fingers crossed) - Ricardo says that there is public wi-fi, but not from inside because the walls are so thick.

Must say, Dana is right - Ricardo is adorable. He shows us around, gives us a few pointers about the city. There is no crime here (no where to run), but the locals aren't friendly because they're sick of tourists clogging the streets, and its very commercialized now. Especially in San Marco area - he told us not to eat there because it would be all tourists, expensive and not even chefs from Italy...gasp. We notice he has a tatoo on his arm that reads "Made in Italy" - we told him it should be on his bottom because that's where that inscription is located on items. He didn't really get it - English is understandable, but pretty broken. We told him it was much better than our Italian. He said to add him as a friend on facebook - he would have 4 new friends. He has only been on for 6 months..

ventured out for an evening stroll along the Grand Canal and we saw a few Gondolas out. Ricardo told us they would charge about 80 euro for the ride, but split with 4 people. But for the Japanese tourists they charged 80 a piece because they had more money and would pay it. There are no posted signs for the rides, and when we asked at a station they said that we had to wait until we wanted to go, and then we would negotiate with our Gondaleer... Hmmmm.

Found a place for dinner - everything here is super pricey and ala carte. Dana and Patti got a ham and cheese "panini" that they expected to be grilled... It was served cold on a roll, for 6 Euro (about $10) and some greasy fries - I got a scallopine pork marsala for 13 Euro, and it was just two thin pieces of pork, no bed of pasta... Amy got a pasta, tortellini ragu that was the best choice - but I think 11Euro. That's in addition to the "cover charge" of 3 Euro that you pay to sit, and a 10% "service" charge (5.50). But you don't tip when that stuff is included... Still for all of that it was over 60 Euro for 4 of us. We shared a tiaramisu - its the signature dish of Venice - and we saw the guy get it out of the box. We laughed - well at least it was good - and maybe we could ask where to buy a box. ;)

We got a few groceries for breakfast tmw - and on our way we found a few much more reasonable places where we'll be eating in the future. We've done a couple of loads of laundry and hung them on the racks to dry.

We have two full days in Venice and we're in love already. The sounds of water lapping on the stone steps surrounds you.

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