Venice, Rome, and Athens

Venice

The city to get lost in! We had an amazing place to stay! If anyone ever goes to Venice, let us know because we have a great place, (just hard to find at first). According to the Italian man who walked me to the apartment, Johnny Deep is remodeling next door.  But that was in broken English, so I could have understood wrong! We walked every square inch of the 120 islands. We never took a boat, we just traveled by foot. It is a good thing that we only have a pack, because we would be buying some cool stuff!  When I look to buy something, I think to myself “Is it worth carrying?” usually the answer is no!

Rome

We took the train from Venice to Rome; once we got off the train we found our way to the hotel. So our hotel elevator was very very small. We both had our packs on and the bell boy took us to our room. I said we would take the stairs, but the bell boy said no. Chris and I were stuck on the lift with our packs. I never took that lift again!  We spent the rest of the day walking around Rome. We would just walk until we run into something special. We started with the Coliseum and the Ancient Ruins. Chris needed a nap, so we found our way back to the hotel. The rest of the night we spent walking and sightseeing. The Spanish Steps was such an amazing view and a very beautiful church. Walking around Rome, we found a free wifi area, so we were able to call home with skype. Modern technology is great! I usually talk to my dad everyday after work, so it just different only talking to him once in the past 2 weeks. It is weird to be so disconnected from our life at home! It sounds like Maggie and Riley are okay, hopefully they won’t be to mad at us when we return.  After talking to our parents and Charlie (our neighbor who watches out for us and the house), we had dinner in Trastevere.

My lovely dinner was sea bass, unlike most American restaurants; my plate had the entire fish. Chris could not believe what he was seeing, and refused to try it. There are some pictures with the fish! It was good, but next time I could do without the fish’s head.

The next day we got up early to go the Vatican City.  We started with the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel.  It started to rain a little, so we had a nice lunch next to the Vatican. After lunch it stopped raining and there were no lines for St. Peter’s Basilica. We toured the huge amazing church and listened to a mass. We left the church and went back in line to climb the dome of the church.  We climb another 550 stairs to the top. Chris said they lied to us because they were much larger steps.  It was a beautiful view of Rome, and it was worth the climb.  I think by the end of this trip Chris will automatically take the stairs!

Rome was great but there were a lot of people. I think I am getting old because it has really bothered me when I am standing in a line and people just cut in front of you. This happen yesterday in the line for the Vatican, but it wasn’t young people it was old! There were so many times yesterday that old ladies tried to run us over to see something, or cut in line! We were at a Holy place, and I would think you would want to be on your best behavior.

Our flight out of Rome was at 6:40, and we left the hotel at 4:45. Chris made me promise never to book flights that early again! We arrived in Athens and took the bus to the city. I found our way to the hotel. The plan is to enjoy Athens for 2 days, and then we are renting a car to drive to Thessonilki on May 5. We will stop and see stuff on our way there. This could be interesting because the language and road signs are in Greek! This might be the toughest language barrier! We will fly back to Germany and hang out with Rob until Sunday when we fly back.  

Tell next time!