My weekend in Italy

I don't know how, but we managed to fit Venice and Rome into a three day weekend, and I still feel pretty good about the few things we managed to see. I traveled with a new friend of mine who also goes to Penn State. We went to Venice first, and then Rome.

Venice:
We arrived in the morning but accidentally missed the correct bus stop for our hotel because it looked like we were stopping in the middle of shady nowhere rather than right next to the big train station of Venice. This messed up the rest of our day because we ended up in the heart of town and completely missed going to the beaches in Lido.
Walking over all the bridges and canals really was amazing though, and the old city was easy to walk around in because there were signs everywhere pointing either towards the Plaza de San Marco or towards  Rialto. We did end up splitting a Gondola ride, and I think personally it was worth the money, because you got to see the city from the water, and the owner gave us a very nice tour of various landmarks, as well as telling us a good deal of interesting facts about the city.
We stayed in Mestre by the station, in a small hotel run by one women who owned and operated everything. Somehow I didn't pack my second boarding pass for the planes, so we had to walk over to this little computer lab run by a nice young Indian man and his wife. It was their second day opening and they still had some bugs to work out, but mestre was fun in that it felt like a small town all on it's own, instead of feeling like Venice, which was a truly amazing place, but one that thrives on tourism, so it's commercial and expensive.


Rome:
too much to say.....We saw a lot of the major monuments and buildings at least from the outside. Toured the Colosseum. Saw my favorite church by my favorite Italian architect. Great food, Great service, great day really. Quite lovely.....

And that's probably all you care to hear in a brief summary. I will say it was nice to get back to Spain where I understand the language and can make my own way around more easily.

OH! And we made a great new friend on the airplane! She's a Chilean girl studying abroad here just like we are only with a different program. She's really good natured and instantly likable, and  I really hope we'll hang out a lot during the summer.

Later this week is the Camino de Santiago, so you probably won't hear from me again until Next Friday.

Love,

Laura