Holiday Adventures Part C "Italian Exploits 1"

Well... I can't say I envy those of you in Alberta at the moment.  I see so many Facebook statuses that are complaining about the freezing cold and almost as many that describe what happens when car meets ice.  Know that you have my condolences, but also know that it hasn't been crazy warm here either and we don't have central heating.  We just have little heaters attached to the wall and the main one is lacking an extension cord so we just wear lots of layers.  Plus if we don't open the window at least for a bit every day, it gets way too humid in our apartment!

I believe that next on the schedule is to describe our trip to Italy.  If you haven't read the previous to posts, you might want to, but it's up to you.  It was an awesome trip, and it was very cool to see so many places that we have read about in books, seen in movies or (in Evan and Dave's case) explored on video games.  It was pretty cold the entire time we were in Italy, most nights it got below freezing and we would find a little ice in the mornings. (I know... poor us...)  We had Gelato a few times and it was good but I'm not sure if we found the really good stuff.  I don't really care though, because I had Nutella Gelato.  My life is complete.

The first city we traveled to was Venice.  It was probably the best place on the trip to go as far as shopping is concerned (unless you want a leather jacket, then go to Florence).  Venice is famous for their Murano Glass, which we saw a lot of and I think it would be really cool to have a sculpture one day, but they are sooo expensive that I kind of doubt in the likelihood of this happening.  They also had a lot of shops selling quills and stationary and wax seal kits.  I kind of regret not getting one of those wax seals.  How cool would it be to send a sealed letter to somebody?!  There was a huge variety of masquerade masks.  I bought a cheap one but unfortunately, it didn't make the trip home.  I wore it on New Years Eve in Florence though!  While we were in Venice we saw the Grand Canal and St. Mark's square/ cathedral (which you could go into for free, but you had to pay if you wanted to see any of the 'extras' like St. Mark's tomb).  After that we toured the Doge's Palace.  Practically every wall and ceiling in The Doge's Palace was a piece of art (and there were a lot of rooms).  It was a very interesting place.  The palace contained a fantastic weapons collection and Evan thought he had died and gone to heaven, also we got to see the dungeons and you could see the graffiti from hundreds of years ago.  Florence was really cool to explore, it was like being transported to another time.  Crossing the little bridges over top of the waterways that serve as roads and squeezing through the tiny, twisty streets was an entirely new experience for me.  Venice is a really cool city, but I think it was my least favourite of the three.  Not because I didn't like it, but because after a day it all the streets and shops started to all seem the same while Florence and Rome had a little more variety to offer.

After Venice, we took a train to Florence.  Florence was a great place, the apartment we stayed at was fantastic, in every way... especially location.  It was a block's walk to get to Uffizzi Gallery, which was an experience!  It was so strange to go to an Art museum that was so crowded!  I was trying to imagine that many people at an art gallery in Edmonton.  Then I realized that I have only been to the University of Alberta's art Gallery.  I resolve to go to more when I get back.  I must say though, one reason that this gallery was so packed was because there were so many famous pieces of art.  There were tonnes of beautiful statues too.  It's kind of funny because the statues and people in the paintings often lacked clothes, but when you go to the Vatican, most of the statues had little leaves covering the 'essentials' that were added afterwards.  We spent new years day in Florence which is when I wore my red mask everywhere.  There were four different squares that had four different types of concerts going on.  We went 'square hopping' but my favourite was the alternative band that had a trombone :).  People kept setting off firecrackers which had such huge bangs, that you would feel them deep in your stomach.  It scared us the first few times but they went off so often that we got used to it.  The problem is, that the idiots didn't stop for the entire night!  That was the only point that I regretted our central location...  There were lots of cool buildings to see but most things were closed on New Year's Day.  One day I think I would like to go back and see more of the museums and churches.

I will stop here because this is getting pretty long so I'll talk about Rome next time.