European Vacation Part 4

We had a plan. Eric and I were supposed to go do our thing in the Alps while Kevin went to Venice and northern Italy and we would meet up again later. The weather killed our plan. The Alps had been getting a lot of rain and the next few days didn't look much better. But the forecast said there was a 3-4 day stretch of good weather coming in 3-4 days. So instead of sitting in the mountains feeling sorry for ourselves, we decided sometime after midnight on July 2, to go with Kevin to Venice. We could enjoy ourselves there while waiting out the weather, then head back north into the Alps.

So after a good long train ride, we arrived in Venice. Holy crap...what a strange place. I rode with a bunch of other travelers on the train and learned a bit about the city from them. Practically no-one aside from a few thousand geriatrics lives in Venice. Theres no open space anywhere, the entire economy is based upon tourism, its ridiculously expensive, and everything has to be boated then hand-carted in because theres no roads or vehicles. Even bike are prohibited because its so tight. The local government will actually pay you to raise kids in the city in the hopes of keeping a local population.



Task #1: find Kevin's then Eric and my hostels. Should be easy right? We have the addresses and the city isn't that big. Castello 6573, Venice. No problem. What we soon learn is that there are no streets in Venice and the address refers rather to a neighborhood. The numbering scheme is rough to say the least. 6500 is somewhere in Castello next to 6400 which is somewhere near 6300. We find Kevin's hostel in a reasonable amount of time and make plans to meet up again in about 1.5 hours so that he can settle in and Eric and I can find our hotel and get back. We knew that our hotel was right next to the big hospital in Venice and followed signs that led us right to the hospital. But the numbers on the building were nowhere near 6573. Long story short, about 4 really long dead ends (some ending on water), one nasty thunderstorm, and an hour later we arrived at our hotel. The way the bird flies, it couldn't have been more than a 500 meters from Kevin's hostel.









We finally found each other again. Luckily, we had some provisions and managed our own classy Italian dinner of bread, wine and cheese.



The food and wine lifted our spirits and we were ready to wander the town and see what we could see. Forget the map and route finding...just wander.





We ended up in St. Mark's square, which is the famous heart of the city. It was pretty late and night, so practically no-one was there. I had heard that it could be shoulder to shoulder crowded during the day, so having the whole square to ourselves made it even more special.











The next day we took a water bus over to the island of Murano. Murano is famous for its glass factories which were purposely isolated to this island, so that if one burned down it wouldn't take all of Venice with it. We had heard that there were factory tours where you could see glass being blown, but finding one proved difficult. As soon as we stepped off the boat, a guy waved everyone over saying "Glass factory tour this way". So we followed him as he led us straight into his glass showroom. Damn tricky. Walking further down the main canal in town provided us with nothing more than glass store after glass store. Don't get me wrong, the glass is beautiful and many of the stores had very unique pieces made my different artists. One of the storekeepers told us that there are only 2 factories left in town that would admit visitors because the insurance is so high in such a dangerous factory. We ended up not finding either one. It was a beautiful sunny day though and Murano had its own distinct character from Venice.







Back in Venice, we spent one more night as a group before we went our separate ways. Kevin was headed southward in Italy, toward Rome and family living there. Eric and I were headed back north to the Alps. However, Eric really wanted to see Florence which was another few hours south of Venice. Eric and Kevin had super duper Eurail passes and could travel anywhere since it was already paid for. I was paying for each train ride individually and didn't want to travel any further south just to head north again in a day. So Eric went with Kevin to Florence and I headed to Verona. Eric and I would then meet up again in 2 days near the southern edge of the Alps.



I arrived in Verona on a very hot and sunny July 4. I had heard that it was beautiful and romantic, the city of Romeo and Juliet. I was not prepared for how beautiful it was. Venice had been unique and interesting, but certainly not beautiful. Verona was gorgeous. I walked all the way across town with my backpack to the hostel so that I could see some stuff on the way. I arrived sweating and dehydrated, but ready to run back out there and see some more.
So I left my pack at the hostel and climbed up the hill behind it that overlooked the town. On the way up, I meet some New Zealanders who were actually in Verona for the second time in their trip because they had to see it again. Just as we reached the summit as storm started to brew.







We went our separate ways and I headed back toward the center of town. Just as I was walking over a bridge that led to the town center, the wind picked up and it poured. I already had my jacket on and wasn't that afraid of being in the open and getting wet, but there was a little monument rising above the rest of the bridge wall so I ducked behind it. The wind was so strong and steady and I barely got wet while sitting next to the monument despite having no roof over me. And I got some great pics of the storm.











The storm cleared after about 10 minutes. Onwards. 20 minutes later the sun was back out.






This bridge/fortress was built by Napolean.







Verona has a coliseum in it just like Rome's, only smaller and better preserved. While I was there, they were building up a stage inside for a production of Aida that they do every summer. I saw pictures from the production and it looked amazing...talk about aura.











My next tourist stop in Verona was Juliet's tomb. I know, Juliet is a fictional character...but I thought maybe she was based upon someone real, so its worth checking out. There was a little museum attached to the actual tomb which was filled with Italian frescoes and busts, but it was all just a hokey little prelude to the actual attraction. I went into a small underground room which held the tomb, empty except for some flowers. Nothing written at all about what it actually was. On my way out I asked the woman who sold me the ticket, who's tomb it actually was. She pretended not to speak English, even though she spoke it fine when she told me how much entry was. Oh well...thanks Shakespeare.




I had seen what I came to see in Verona and walked practically every street. So I took off for the small town of Rovereto at the southern edge of the Alps where I would meet Eric. Also, I knew our hotel there had a pool.