Venezia 1: AKA Venice

I've resigned myself to that fact that this trip will not be completely blogged before I leave for the cruise TOMORROW! But maybe that's actually better because all of you can get caught up on everything and then I'll dive back in.

Bright and early we head to the Florence Train Station. My dad is always like in a panic rushing around on days we are switching cities. For example, he had brought the toothpaste for the trip. I go into the bathroom this morning to find toothpaste already squirted onto my toothbrush because he HAD to pack the toothpaste. Then we of course get to the train station an hour and a half early and have nothing to do because we don't know what track the train is going to be on. We did have a little entertainment this time as there was a woman with a little, white, unnoteworthy dog. A little Indian girl came up and asked if she could pet it. The woman said sure. Next thing we know there's a whole group of people from India surrounding this dog, taking pictures, posing with it, videotaping, etc. It was like dog paparazzi.

We take the train to Venice. No Italian guy helping us and trying to get money this time though. We take a water taxi to our hotel. My dad didn't believe that there were actually canals all over Venice. Conversation with him and my mom:
Dad: Then we're taking a taxi to the hotel, right?
Mom: A Water taxi
Dad: What do you mean a water taxi?
Mom: There's not cars. It's all canals.
Dad: Really? I thought it was like Disney where there's just one canal that everyone rides around on for fun and the rest was normal.
Mom: Nope.
Dad: Crazy. Benny, did you know that Venice is all canals?
Me: Yep, that's kinda their thing.

We're staying at the Danieli which I've heard (multiple times from multiple people) is featured in the movie the Tourist. The Danieli is kinda decorated like a Paris bordello...or what I picture a Paris bordello as being like. It was all decorated in deep red, dark wood, and gold. Like this.

That was in the hallway, but pretty much everything was like that. We go and get a ham and cheese panini on the street beside the hotel that was supposedly known for good sandwiches. I wasn't impressed. It wasn't as toasty and melty as I had hoped plus the bread is still sucky. My dad calls it "host bread" cause it reminds him as communion wafers...not good. From there we just wander around Venice getting lost, which is easy because most of the time you're following signs like this:
Yes, that is an actual city sign. Helpful, huh? Apparently either way gets you to San Marco. Why am I skeptical? If those don't work there is also this: Sign graffiti or this:
the random piece of paper sign or my personal favorite: Yes, that appears to be in Sharpie. Wonderful representation of St. Mark. We have strawberry gelato and hear possibly the best quote of the entire trip. A girl is stopped at a shop trying on hats, her friend says "that hat looks great on you" and the girl responds "I think I'm too drunk to buy a hat." That's pretty drunk. Then we had dinner on the Grand Canal. It was a little chilly next to the water. I ordered Risotto di Mare. I was a little nervous because on one hand Venice is supposed to be known for its seafood on the other hand if this thing comes out with octopus tentacles on it, I can't handle that. It didn't, and it was ok, not great. I ordered an espresso because I was feeling tired and knew I had to stay awake because we had signed up for a ghost tour. This is how my espresso was brought to me.Great presentation! Still too strong for me, even with the whip cream. We wander around some more and find a small coconut macaroonish pie and a blue licorice stick thing (pictures of that on another day since we're overloaded with pictures right now). The ghost tour is fun and very interesting with lots of good information about the city. I've been on a lot of ghost tours, and it was one of the better ones. We saw the beautiful winding staircase pictured at the top which we never would've found on our own...there might be a body buried in the well beside it. Also, apparently Venice has a rat problem...could've done without that news. We arrive back to the hotel and find chocolates on our pillow. That night I have a dream about the biggest salad bar I've ever seen. I think my body is trying to tell me that I've had enough carbs and need some veggies.