Heading North

On the Forth of July last week, we hopped on a train in Rome and headed across the Italian countryside up to Venice. I’ve put the first batch of m photos up in the gallery! The pictures were all so nice, I think I’ll keep the writing here to a minimum. Check out the descriptions to the right of each photo for more info about the subjects.

The trip on the train took a little less than 6 hours, and we stopped at several towns along the way: Florence, Bologna, and Padua among others. Mark experienced instant Italian Espresso (for 3.50 euro), and I got to sit next to an old Italian man who smelled like a frat house: beer and pizza!

Arriving in Venice, the place didn’t seem real. It felt more like… a casino in Vegas. Or an expo in Epcot. It didn’t help that everybody we could see seemed to be American. The place was full to the brim with tourists, from all over the world. I suppose the Americans were just the loudest.

On our first full day in the city, we saw the view of the island from the Bell Tower, and explored the courtyards, prisons, and beautiful bridges around the Doge’s Palace.

Dinner that night was at a small restaurant in a dark alley near the Rialto Bridge. It was a wonderful seafood ratatoria. I had a whole grilled sea bass, and it was great, even though I came at the fillet from the wrong side. Walking around the city that night was warm and full of soft lights reflecting off of smoothly lapping waves. It may not have felt real, but it still felt wonderful.