Second week in Italy
Siru fell ill. On Monday morning she was coughing her lungs out so we made her stay at home. She had to stay in bed for three whole days and have antibiotics. We ate our first fragola in Italy – the strawberries were sweet and tasty. The English lady and Marta made strawberry marmalade which Noora helped to put in jars while Siru was laying in bed at home getting really bored, but eventually better.
On Wednesday we found out that the best time for a longer vacation for us would be on the following weekend, so we started hastily planning a trip to Venice. On Friday we worked only half the day and got a lift from our neighbor to Arezzo, where we jumped in a train to Florence and from there to Venice. It all came on such a short notice that we didn’t quite realize that we were on our way to one of the world’s most famous city – a city that Noora had always dreamt of visiting and Siru had never even dared to think about going to. We got instructions on where we should go in Venice over phone, but we still managed to find our way to a right bar, where we met with our friend. She drew us a map and provided us with a key to our apartment for the following three nights. We headed back to ferrovia stazione and as the first thing bought ourselves a proper map, not knowing we wouldn’t actually need it that much. The apartment was within a walking distance from both the railway station and San Marco’s square and it was really gorgeous. Enthusiastic about the city we walked around for a while, had some gelato and went to sleep smiling like idiots.
The next morning we were supposed to wake up early and go to San Marco’s square but instead we decided to go shopping. We also decided not to use our map and try to walk the little alleys but as we tried to get ourselves lost we found ourselves back on the main street. A little disappointed on our too good navigation skills we went on with our plan and bought a little this and that. We found a really nice gelateria nearby the railway station; we ended up having yoghurt & limoncello and mela verde & melon. The gelato was just divine. From the railway station we decided to head to Ponte di Rialto; we just wandered around the narrow alleys every now and then crossing a canal. We had a little break at Chiesa di S. Stae to look at the map but after we realized we could just follow the signs to S. Marco, we abandoned that little piece of paper in our bags. We bought some strawberries on a marketplace near Rialto Bridge and decided that our 4,5 hour long afternoon walk was enough for the moment. Back at our apartment we had some lunch and some sleep – both of us unintentionally fell asleep reading a book. After we woke up we hit the road again; for the next 3 hours we were walking around Venice and finally we had pizza take-out and a glass of wine at a nearby bar with live jazz music.
Next morning we actually woke up early enough – we had quick breakfast and found our way to S. Marco before the herds of tourists. We wandered around for couple of hours, buying some more souvenirs and gelato. We were quite exhausted from the day before so we took it easy. The day wasn’t as sunny as the days before, but nevertheless war m and nice. In the evening it started to rain and thunder, but we didn’t mind – tired of a day of walking we fell asleep early, as we would have to catch our train in the morning.
We’ll be back soon with our latest adventures!
