Bellinis in Venice

Day 3

Jetlag set in as I woke up at 5:00 am and decided to Facetime the family as it was almost midnight back in Canada. I filled them in with what we have been doing. I tried to go back to bed after I talked to them but couldn’t until about 7:00 am, and we had to get up at 8:30 am for breakfast. I went down for breakfast with Kylee, and most of the food was already gone. I had banana yogurt which was really good, it seemed a lot creamier than in Canada. The water was all gone so I got some kind of orange flavoured juice and a jelly filled croissant (these are SUPER popular in Italy.) We met everyone in the lobby and made our way to the train station in downtown Treviso. Maria, the trip leader, bought our tickets using the money we made from fundraising and we took the 40 minute train ride to Venice. We were so lucky because it was such a beautiful and warm day. There were SO many people in Venice, most likely because it was also a holiday which is the equivalent to our Labor Day in Canada, called "The Day of the Worker" though mostly all shops were open. 

Kylee and I when you first get into Venice

Mint chocolate gelato

My friend Shannon was feeling sick so she stayed back with the teachers while Kylee, Justin, Alex, Christina, Melissa, Michelle and I made our way to the water taxi to go to Murano, to see a glass blowing demonstration. I was lucky to be with Melissa as she speaks Italian fluently and was able to ask for help and navigate our way around Venice fairly easily which was nice as it is such a large city. Everyone agreed that Venice was extremely confusing to get around. We stopped at a few shops before getting to the water taxi where I bought a few souvenirs. We walked to the hospital (Ospidale) area which is where the water taxi departs from and was funny seeing the boat ambulances. The only way to get to Murano is by a boat so we thought it would be fun to take the water taxi. The water taxi was pretty full, and my feet were already starting to hurt so I sat down and saw the view from the window. It was only 4 euro to Murano. 

Melissa's Zia (Aunt) told us not to buy the glass in Murano because it is all the stuff they can’t sell so they mark up the prices. We watched a free demonstration where the guy showed two techniques: first he made a sort of vase, and then he made a snail. 

Glass Demonstration

We decided to take the water taxi back to St. Mark's Square instead of going back to The Ospidale. We had to play "dumb tourists" and pretend we didn't know it cost more money to go to St. Mark's Square if we got our tickets checked, as we only paid for the 4 dollar tickets and it was more expensive. In total the boat ride was 40 minutes, which saved us a lot of walking. One thing that is different in Italy than in Canada is when buying train or boat tickets you have to buy the ticket and then validate it by getting it stamped or scanned before you go. We ended up getting our ticket checked on the boat ride but the man didn’t care that we didn’t pay the right price. We got to the Piazza San Marco, took some pictures then were all starving so had some lunch. We met back with the group at St. Mark's Basilica.

 Alex, Justin, Christina and Michelle decided they wanted a sit down lunch, whereas Melissa, Kylee, Kelly, Shannon and I wanted something quick so we split up and the four of us went to a little café and got pizza on foccacia bread, a cold drink and just ate of on the stairs. Shannon and I went into a little hotel to use the washroom and I thought I would try and say "bathroom" in Italian as Melissa taught us. The hotel receptionist had a good laugh at me and then showed me the right way to pronounce it. We did some more shopping and went to the Rialto Bridge that overlooks the gondola area and took some pictures together. Next we went down to the gondola area to find the rest of the group and waited so we could go for a gondola ride together. The gondola ride was 80 euro and you could have a maximum of 6 people on it. Kylee, Shannon, Kelly and I went on one while the rest of the group took another one. It was so amazing, being able to see the scenery from the water - definitely worth the money!! We later found out some people didn’t take a gondola ride because they thought it was too expensive, but I am so glad that I went. We went around the main stretch where the Rialto Bridge is and took even more pictues, we also ran into another gondola as there was quite a bit of traffic in the water. The only thing I was disappointed in was that the man didn’t sing to us in Italian. He pointed out some spots during the ride, such as the first post office in Venice, and a building which was Marco Polo’s house in the 13^th century, and told us there are 150 gondolas in Italy.

My favourite shot from the gondola

Rialto bridge

After the gondola ride we met back up with our group (the 9 of us) and did some souvenir shopping. There were so many stores, but it seemed like they all sold the same things. The one thing I made sure to get is a bottle of Bellini, which Venice is famous for. Melissa and Michelle are saying for 7 weeks, so Melissa wanted to get a sim card for her phone. The rest of us wanted to shop so we split up form them and decided to meet at the train at 6:30. Melissa and Michelle took a direct route back, but the rest of us had so much trouble getting back. We ended up circling back to where we came from, then it was starting to rain and we had to get over the bridge but couldn’t find where the bridge was. At this point, I knew I had blisters on my feet and felt like crying because I was in so much pain. Eventually we met up with them around the train station and the 7 of us wanted to leave right away to go to the train and get our tickets. We got our tickets for 2.80 euro and made our way to the platform. The train was already there, and all I wanted was to sit down in the train for the 40 minute ride. The train was absolutely packed, we walked half way down the train and had to jam ourselves in the train. People kept piling into the train with their luggage and there was absolutely no room. I was feeling so awful – my feet ached, my stomach hurt because I was hungry and I felt so claustrophobic. I wanted to leave the train and wait for the next one which would come in 45 minutes but everyone else wanted to leave them. Thankfully Michelle and Melissa showed up and I got out of the train and the 3 of us waited for the next train to come. We sat outside of this little bar beside the platform and just relaxed while waiting for the train to come. This couple beside us had an orange drink that looked really good and so I got Melissa to ask what it was (Spritz) and so we would order it at dinner time. We waited and the train time already passed, so we started getting worried that the train was at another platform and we missed it. We walked back to where we got the tickets and Melissa asked the man where the train was and he pointed us to another platform. We got on the train – with seats! I was so glad I stayed back.

Once we got back to the hotel, I unloaded my stuff in my room and washed up as I felt gross from the day, and went for dinner with Kylee, Shannon, Kelly, Melissa and Michelle at about 8:30. We went to the same restaurant as yesterday (de Pino) and all 6 of us ordered a spritz. It didn’t taste how I expected it to – it was some kind of melon/orange liqueur and fizzy water. Then I ordered gnocchi – it was amazing! I couldn’t eat it all and felt kind of sick after as I didn’t eat much that day. Kylee and Melissa ordered an appetizer of meat stuffed olives that were baked, I tried one and really liked it.

When we got back to the hotel there were a few people in the lobby but I was tired and went back to the room. I organized my stuff and Facetimed with the family again. Kylee came back up and we tried to go to bed, I fell asleep around 1:00 am. I woke up at about 2:30 and Kylee was very sick, and nauseous and didn’t sleep at all. She threw up and I sat with her for most of the night. She ended up coming back to bed at 5:00 am and we had breakfast at 8:30 am. Moral of the story, I had a horrible night of sleep.