Never Have I Ever...lived in a palace, eaten middle eastern food while wearing a mask, and rubbed a boob for good luck...

 Until this weekend! We left early Friday morning for our trip to Venice. Our train left at 8:30 in the morning so we got up and walked to the train station. And those of you who know me well, know that public transportation can freak me out at times. And then, to make matters worse, we found out we were all in different cars on the train. But I had no choice so I held my Italian phone tight in my hand and boarded the train and sat next to some Asian girl taking selfies of herself the whole train ride. I was texting my roommates from my Italian phone saying things like: "I've never felt so alone" and "Literally so scared" and a few other dramatic remarks, but really, it wasn't bad at all. The train took about 2 hours and we arrived in Venice at 10:40 where this man named Tommaso was waiting to take us to the apartment we were renting from him for the weekend. Now, this had all the makings to be a horror story. A strange Italian man, who sent me an email saying to meet him by the green clock outside the train station, leads 4 clueless American girls into a dark alley with a key. He opens the door and....well you can use your imagination the way I did as the four of us followed Tomasso inside the door and up three flights of stairs into our BEAUTIFUL apartment! Literally, all our fears disappeared and we had never been so happy. It was like a palace, huge king size beds, a full kitchen, and a gorgeous bathroom with a luxurious shower that had the hottest water. And in reality, Tomasso was the nicest, most friendly man who gave us maps and advice about how to get to certain landmarks and gave us restaurant recommendations. He gave us the key and we were free to go, but not before we first enjoyed the warmth of our apartment (21 degrees Celsius and we loved it!) Then we set out to explore Venice. We first picked out some masks along the way and then made our way first to the Rialto Bridge for an amazing view and then continued on to Saint Marco Square where we saw everyone really decked out for Carnivale!












So we wandered around Saint Mark's Square and went into the Basilica and took pics with the people who were all dressed up for Carnivale! We ate lunch at a cute little Trattoria on a side street. And then we sat along the river for a bit and of course got gelato. After much exploring and walking, we wandered in the direction of our apartment and got a little lost which was fun and then came back to nap before dinner. We all crashed for like 2 hours and woke up and were starving. So we left our apartment in search of a good meal but quickly realized that you need a reservation for dinner at nearly every restaurant in Venice...who knew?? So we ended up.....at a sketchy middle eastern restaurant. We got some bread and some weird vegetable and couscous dishes but we didn't really care because we were so hungry. Then we went home and went to bed because our train to Verona was going to leave at 730am!

Saturday, Day 2: Our train for Verona left at 7:30am right on time! We got to Verona around 9am and took a cab to Juliet's house immediately. Dana is obsessed with Romeo and Juliet so she was in her glory. There was a wall of love that people could write on and then you entered the courtyard that had a wall of locks and of course the balcony. And then the statue of Juliet: where you're supposed to rub her right boob for good luck..so we did! Then we went through the museum where we saw Romeo and Juliet's bed among other things...until Colleen pointed out the obvious: that none of this is real because its a fictional story! But that was the last time we mentioned that, since it upset Dana too much.
Then we climbed a tower that had 368 steps and gave us an amazing view of Verona, then went and saw a castle, a roman amphitheater, went into 2 churches, and then snuck into these gardens illegally. We were definitely supposed to pay, but no one was guarding the gate so Mikey and Colleen snuck in, and I reluctantly and anxiously followed. They were beautiful though, and there was a fountain with coy fish in it. We also got lunch at this place where there was an Italian buffet with an amazing dessert selection for only 15 euro. So we did that for lunch and decided our dinner would be a big gelato at this amazing place we saw when we first got there. So, towards the end of the day, we all got gelato: best coconut gelato i've ever had!! And then we killed sometime at a cafe until we took a cab back to the train station to go back to Venice. When we got back we went to bed since our train left this morning at 830am. In the morning, Tomasso's mom came to our apartment to check us out, and she couldn't speak any english so we tried to communicate with her a bit, I handed her the keys and we were on our way home! It was a great weekend with a lot of walking, beautiful sightseeing, and of course adventure! Next trip: this weekend we are going to PRAGUE!

xoxoxo
Alli