As promised, here is my first blog entry about my Fall break. I started my break last Thursday October 21st. My roommate Erin and I started our journey on a night train bound for Venice. We left Perugia around 9 pm and went to Cortona, a smaller train station, and waited for our night train to arrive. The night train finally left at 12:30 am and we were so grateful we had beds on the train.
This was my first night train experience and I was excited to see what the train would look like. When we got on the train one of the conductors showed us to our teeny tiny compartment. We had a triple bunk bed in this very tiny space on the train. I had the very top bunk and it was an experience getting into it. I literally couldn't sit up in my bunk because it was so close to the ceiling but we went to sleep pretty soon anyway. It was also interesting to sleep on a train because of all the rocking and rolling. Luckily our bunk beds had straps on them so we wouldn't fall out. We got about 4 hours of sleep because the train arrived in Venice at 5:30 in the morning.
When we got off the train we realized that the train station wasn't even open yet. There were only about 30 people in the whole station waiting for the ticket counter to open. We had to wait for it to open with the other people because we had to buy our train tickets to Salzburg for that same night. After the station opened and we got our tickets we headed out of the station and saw the most amazing sight, the water! Even the train station sits on the water and even at 6 am this was pretty cool to me.
As soon as we stepped out of the station we realized how cold it was! As it was only 6:30 am and we were surrounded by water it was so cold. We had to get warm so we went right over to the water taxi station to catch a water taxi to the main island of Venice. It was still freezing on the water taxi but it took us to the main island. Once there, we found that none of the stores were open and the main piazza was practically a ghost town. So we decided to take some pictures as we knew the piazza would be full of tourists as the day went on. We also got to see the sunrise in Venice which was a beautiful sight. Here are some pictures of the piazza and sunrise over Venice. What a great way to start our Fall break!
After getting some cappuccino and warming up a little bit we decided to just explore Venice. We knew we would only be there for half a day so we wanted to see as much as possible. We went in a lot of little gift shops and saw the beautiful Murano glass. For those of you who don't know, Venice is famous for its glass. Murano glass is made right in Venice and is sold all over the world. But you can also buy it at almost any store in Venice. Before going to Venice I knew that I wanted a Murano glass ring and while there I found 2 of them! They are so beautiful and I can't stop wearing them. I am anxious to show them off when I get back to the States.
Since it was such a beautiful clear day we decided to take an elevator to the top of the bell tower in the picture above. It is called St. Mark's bell tower and the only way to get up there is by elevator, luckily no stairs to climb. We had to pay 8 euro but it was well worth it! We got incredible panoramic views of the entire city. Here are some of the many pictures I took atop St. Mark's bell tower.
At the top of the tower I also tried a new setting I recently discovered on my camera. It's a setting that allows you to take 3 consecutive pictures then stitch them into 1 picture. So here is my very first attempt at a panoramic picture, I think it came out pretty well.
After we did the tower we were getting pretty tired as we were running on only 4 hours of sleep. So we decided to get a panino (it's not panini in Italian!) for dinner and head back to the train station. Our night train bound for Salzburg, Austria left at 9 pm from Venice. Tomorrow I will blog about my 2 days in Salzburg!
Here is the link to my Facebook page where you can see all of my pictures of Venice!
Italian word of the post:
Venezia - Venice
Morgan :)
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