Water day!

We are wearing our little washing machine out - laundry is hung on these great drying racks that every Italian seems to have (and many hang out their upper story windows). We need one for home.

We bought three big bottles of Peroni's beer at the store last night to share, its like buying a bottle of wine - it tastes like Yeung Ling, if you're familiar.

Its seems more roomy here in Venice than other Italian cities, less cramped on the streets, but they're not any wider really... Then Patti pegged it, duh - we're not sharing the streets with cars. The "streets" are all walk ways, no cars here, so its the perfect place to have a dog - and many people do. We see lots of "free range" dogs with collars trotting around corners, followed by a person that seems to walking in that same direction. We've seen many dogs coppin' a squat right in the middle of the cobblestone streets, the puddles eventually make their way to the drains... I don't trust any puddle here.

So even without cars, they still have a metro system - water buses! We bought a 24 hour pass last night that activates the first time we use it, that was advised if we were going to take more than one trip, so we did (it was 18Euro, so we shall see).

Our apartment is by a high traffic area and there is no glass in the windows, so we hear a lot of lost tourists. Last night I was outside trying to get a signal and someone even asked me for directions to the train station (and I knew the answer) - yay.

We ate our nutello and sweet croissants for breakfast and caught the waterbus - and WOW - public transit shouldn't be so pretty. We headed down to Piazza San Marco. The bus ticket is good for 24 hours and we want to use it to its full advantage today and then walk and gondola tmw. There are little islands off of Venice - like keys, and the bus goes there too.

One of the stops along the way was Palanca - I heard it and asked Patti, "Did they just say 'Paul Anka'?". That's exactly how its pronounced. We stopped at San Marco and checked out the square (lots of pigeons, and Patti and Amy didn't scream once!). The Basillica is free to enter - and they hold St. Mark's Horses, brought back from Constantine in the 4th crusade. Copies on the outside of the church and the originals are inside (it was 4 Euro to go up, but it was worth it). The cathedral was beautiful - lots of mosaics. We grabbed quick sandwiches to curb our hunger pangs - this was the area where Ricardo told us not to eat, so we didn't want a sit down meal.

We caught another bus out to the first island (Lido) - it was MUCH more crowded than our first bus ride, we were smushed inside and they kept letting more people on. We had to switch lines at Lido because the buses that go further out are on a different line and they run once an hour. So we walked around for a while, sat in the shade and enjoyed the view until the bus arrived. Lido has cars and motorbikes - I guess they don't have enough canals to get around like in Venice.

We headed to Burano - its a long trip out, about 45minutes - and we weren't sure what we would find, but we're using our tickets to go as far as possible. We almost got off at an earlier stop, but ended up being very happy we waited. Burano reminds us of Puerto Rico with all the brightly colored buildings - more picture postcard moments. We ate, some nice fried calimari, lasagna, a bruschetta, and Patti and Dana experimented with hamburgers. They were ok - like cafeteria burgers, but good fries!

We went into a few shops, and this area has a lot of glass workers. There are these very cool fish bowl things everywhere - they look like fish in a bowl... But they're very expensive even for a tiny piece, about $30. Too much for something so small. Amy found some handmade clothes she liked - beautiful orange color... But the skirt was €239 and the top was €150.. And then let's convert it to dollars, its about $500. No thanks.

Its getting to be late afternoon now, so we decided to head back, we make a short trip over to Torcello (where we thought we could catch another line, but couldn't) and got right back on the bus and headed back to Burano. Oops. See good thing we have the unlimited pass. We plan to take the bus back to the main island, transfer to a bus that goes around to the Grand Canal - and again to one that goes up through the Grand Canal to get us back home.

We see the gondolas going up and down the canals, and some have people serenading them ... We've heard "Volare" so many times and we only been here a day.

We are water bussed out! We actually ended up going the wrong way and going up and down the Grand Canal twice, but it worked out. On our way back to the apt we got some gelato.. Patti got pistachio, Dana got mint choc chip, I got Choc chip and Amy got coconut. All very good.

Now we're just going to finish laundry, pen some postcards, chill out with some Peroni, and try to remember to take the trash out. Riccardo said we have to put the trash out every night. They pick trash up EVERY morning! I guess if you don't have a trash truck, you have to pick it in smaller amounts. I'm not sure what they use - maybe a bike?

We remembered another Ricardo story - he is from Genoa - same as Christopher Columbus, he pointed out - so we can thank him for America since he represents Genoa. We told him we were from St. Louis, Missouri.... Umm... In the middle... Ok! South of Chicago... OH! Missoooooolri! Yes! ... Hucklebirry Finn? Yes! Ha!!

Oh, and its Bizarro world with mosquitos here. I never get bit - and if I do, I don't really get a reaction. Amy and Patti are like mosquito bait back home, but here they have no bites. I have a bite everywhere I have skin - and not just normal bites, quarter sized, hard bites that itch like crazy. I had a theory that because they're always cold, they wrap up, there is no place to bite, so they move on to me with my feet and arms hanging out of the covers. Tonight I'm spraying down with OFF... Grrrr....

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