Venezia aka Venice, Italy!

On a cold and cloudy Monday two girls take a train from Milan to Venice. After getting rid of their luggage and tricking the men into thinking that they only have 1 backpack instead of two, and purchasing a city map (2.50 euros = tourist rip off) they head out of the Train Station to discover the Grand Canal and a crapload of people. And by crapload, I mean THOUSANDS, most of which are gray-haired and following people carrying flowers, i.e. tourist groups. Deciding that the plan of attack should be to get away from the "tourists" as fast as possible, they head for a bridge, but not before getting distracted by a Patisserie. Bread stuffed with green olives and cheese? Count these girls in! 7.50 euros later (1.80 euro per 100g...tricky Italians), they're over a bridge and taking lots of pictures.

Then it happens, the rain kicks in and lots of it. Being that the city is AT sea level, more water poses a problem to this small city. Oh well, these girls aren't made of sugar and won't melt (after all they haven't had an umbrella or rain coat in the 6 months they've lived in Europe, why start now?). They continue on their unconventional tour of the city. Heading in the direction of Piazza San Marco via the Rialto Bridge, they finally cave and purchase a 5 euro umbrella. After all, what fun is it to be soaking wet and miserable in the City of Water?

List of "to sees" in Venice:

• Piazza San Marco - check
• Doge's Palace - check
• Bascilica San Marco - check (the girls will actually go inside at a later time thanks to the LONG lines)
• Campanile di San Marco - check
• Biblioteca Marciana - check
• Grand Canal - check again, oh but this time it's starting to flood the shore and all the gondolas are tied up!
• Bridge of Sighs- check and covered with a GIANT advertising campaign for Chopard watches.

The girls continue to wander for a few hours before deciding that it's best to go sit in a coffee shop and dry off a little, while mapping out where they still need to go in the city. Oh, and one of them needs to go to the bathroom really badly (*cough* Julie *cough* Didn't you're mother ever teach you to go BEFORE you leave the house? LOL).

After a good break, they're off again. Is this the best idea? Probably not considering the wind has picked up considerably and they're walking along the shore. This is the part of the story where I'm sad to report that the 5 euro umbrella starts to break and the girls are driven into hysterical laughter while people walk by and stare.

They can't let this little setback deter their plans however, so off they go to see some churches (there are some 97 odd churches in Venice, you ain't getting the names of the ones we saw, cause even we don't know them!). Before long, these two girls find themselves back in Piazza San Marco, and one of them gets the bright idea that the other should feed a pigeon while she takes a picture. Après, they head into the Basilica, but don't stay long thanks to the hundreds of people who never seemed to learn that it's not nice to push.

Off and running again, they head in the direction opposite of all the tourists and proceed to get lost in "suburban" Venice (or just the part where people actually live and tourists don't venture). Oh well it's an experience, and once they find themselves back on the main streets, they hit up a Gelateria as a treat!

To the train station they go, and into the tiny town of Preganziol, where they will be staying for the night. This town has one restaurant that is open, and despite being a little more fancy than what they are dressed for (being as they are soaking wet and have been wearing almost the same clothes for 4 days now), they eat pizza and pasta there anyways. They stay with a nice girl named Lucia, who's a little "off", but still lots of fun.

Day two for these girls is pretty chill (because they've seen most of what they came to see) and thanks to the rain finally stopping, they are able to throw out the broken umbrella and see some Gondola rides in progress. They also head to Murano on a waterbus to see where all the Murano glass is made (i.e. those too expensive to use glass blowing pieces). This trip costs them 13 euros each thanks to the expensive waterbus tickets that no one checked. At lunch time, they eat crackers, cheese, salami, and fruit that they bought at the grocery store and they feed a mangy cat and pigeon that seem to be unlikely friends.

Sadly 3:00pm rolls around and the girls must head out of the city to catch a flight. This is easier said than done, as they miss their stop on the train and arrive at the airport 15 minutes before their flight is scheduled to board. This isn't a problem however, as these girls are experienced travelers and they catch their flight to Rome with time to spare.

The end.