Pisa to Florence, Florence to Venice

Day 19 - Monday 13 April
Early Monday morning, we left Rome and took a train to Pisa for the day. While there, we saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa and two other really cool buildings that I am sure have some great significance, but as to what that is, I’m not sure. And yes, we gave in to our inner nerdy tourists and took pictures “holding” the tower up… it was a moment – or hour – of weakness for us! After satisfying our inner tourists, we wandered the streets of Pisa for awhile, found some grass to lie on, which gave me a rash similar to Laura’s disease de la franc, and relaxed… it was lovely. From there, we took a train to Florence.
Florence
We got to Florence relatively late Monday night, late enough that the buses had already stopped running, which left us relying on our feet for transportation to our hostel. Thus, we ended up walking through a pretty decent chunk of Florence at 9:30 at night. At first we were a little hesitant, but after a few minutes of walking, we reached some of the Florence squares, where tons of people were out, street musicians were playing amazing music, and lights were twinkling along the river. It was magical… I know that sounds cheesy, but it is true – the entire atmosphere was something out of a movie. Eventually we found our hostel, which seemed kind of sketchy at first because it blended in with other houses and didn’t have a sign outside. But our fears were laid to rest when we finally found the office (on the third floor of the building) and checked in. The staff worker took us to our room that ended up being on the 7th floor – kind of annoying because we had to take the steep stairs up 4 more flights of stairs while carrying our enormous rucksacks. But it turned out to be worth it, since the 7th floor was the top floor, and we had our own little “suite” consisting of a little room, a bathroom, and a balcony with an incredibly amazing view of Italianesque houses. We called it our penthouse suite. Once we settled in a little, we had this insane urge to explore Florence some more, so we ventured out… only by that time, most of the city had settled down for the day, but it was still beautiful out, so we decided to stay out. Laura bought a bottle of wine, Hannah bought potato crisps and Jess and I, well, we decided to just mooch off of them. We ended up eating our treats on this huge concrete slab-hill type thing in front of this huge museum across from our hostel and playing ‘hot seat.’ To top it off, the background noise was none other than drums, because there was this huge group in one corner of the lot sitting around banging drums. I don’t know why. Oh, and the next day, we found out that it is illegal to drink outside, which we were really confused about because a lot of people were walking around with open bottles of alcohol… who knows.

Day 20 - Tuesday 14 April
In the morning, we all took turns showering and going to the grocery store. After we were all done, we just chilled on the balcony for a long while, basking in the Tuscan sun and eating our breakfasts/lunches. Then we went up to this hill that overlooks the whole city… the view was spectacular, the weather was perfect, and I was purely content. We spent a while there, then consulted the map to find out where to go next; according to the map, there was another spot a little further away that provided some more spectacular views, so we decided to go there. The “there” turned out to be this old church and cemetery. It was the most amazing cemetery I had ever been in, so aged and beautiful and serene, and I probably could have spent forever and a day there. I spent a little time by myself there, surrounded by brilliant gardens, old gated tombs, and elegant sculptures. God really met me there, and my alone time wasn’t so lonely. Later we went back to our hostel, did some things we needed to take care of online, then just rested. Then we tried finding a relaxed pub to hang out at, but couldn’t find any casual, appealing ones, so we decided to just get some snacks and go back to our hostel, where we watched a movie and fell asleep.

Day 21 - Wednesday 15 April
Wednesday morning we got up, checked out and then took the train to Venice. We took a bus to our hostel that was actually a campsite outside of Venice. The website had said something about that and trailers, but we didn’t really know what to expect. What we got was a pleasant surprise. It was indeed a campsite –right on the water!- with small but nice trailers as the “hostel” rooms. The campground was similar to ones we would have in the States – complete with a restaurant, bar, and camp shop. We spent the afternoon wandering around and sitting by the water and later, checking our e-mail. And that was our first day in Venice.

Day 22 – Thursday 16 April
We took a bus to Venice for the day. Venice is such an amazingly unique place, with quaint bridges, rivers, and boats everywhere, but there isn’t really much to do there other than shop and wander around. Venice has lots of neat glass stuff available from vendors all over the city, so it’s a great place for buying souvenirs. We left in the late afternoon because Jess had to leave to go back to Malta. We accompanied Jess to the airport shuttle stop, then said goodbye. Hannah, Laura, and I went back to CampingFusina and just hung out the rest of the day.
Day 23 – Friday 17 April
Friday was another day spent in Venice. Mission: Souvenirs. Mission: Accomplished. We stayed there until late afternoon, then went back to our little trailer. Hannah and Laura napped while I watched The Breakfast Club. Then Hannah and Laura went to the bar while I packed and did my devos.