Day 32 - Oh, the...boats?

First Looks at Venice!

Last day in Firenze. We began our day with the same sugary breakfast and then headed out to make our reservation with David. He is truly magnificent. So much detail, and the pictures don’t really do him justice. I never understood how people could stare at him for so long, but he really is a masterpiece. I was there for at least 20 minutes. Then we stopped at H&M to get a skirt for Dom. She also got a pair of lace shorts, which she liked a lot more than I did. I got new sunglasses, and a pair for Jenn and a necklace for Maryn. Then  I waited in line for the Dome while Dom went to find a bank machine and some lunch. I had a pretty tasty panini. Then up the stairs to the Dome, and man, I thought I was tired before, but it really is a great view. Then we started back towards the hostel, but we stopped in an international bookstore. I got another book set in Italy, just for fun. Then we went to pick up our stuff from the hostel. We reorganized and checked our email. Then on our way out the guy at the front desk made a joke about how tired I looked and gave us mini-ice cream cones for the road. They were so cute and tasty. Then we headed off to the train station. I read my book the whole way, instead of writing or napping like I should have been. Anyways, we arrived in Venice and lined up at the tourist desk. She gave Dom a crappy map with even worse instructions. But being so tired and lazy we followed them anyways. Luckily we were on the right bus-boat. So went went on it down the river to the academia stop. The ride down the river was pretty cool. I like how all the doors are right above the water; some even had stairs descending down into the water. I enjoyed the view from the boat, and the breeze too! It is still so hot! I thought, heading North, it might cool a bit, but it really doesn’t feel like it. Off the boat, we headed towards where the woman had indicated. This was hard because the map she gave us had no street names, and the streets were much narrower than they seemed on the map. Luckily, we had bought another map. Too bad where this woman had sent us was actually on the other side of the river from our hostel. So we had to stop and ask directions, twice because Italians aren’t very good at giving directions. If you can avoid it, never ask an Italian for directions; ask a tourist instead. We eventually found it down a street that would be considered less than an alley in Canada, but which is apparently the norm in Venice. It was quite a nice room on the top floor, and I passed out immediately. I hadn’t even changed. I woke up later to change, but went straight back to bed.