Venezia

It's really true. I'm in Venice now and for the next few days. The picture above is one of the first ones I took. I think everyone has seen pictures of the place before, so I will only put a few more up. I will tell you about my trip here and the first day and then give some remarks about this city.

I bought my ticket the morning before my departure. I flew Swiss for the first time to Zurich from Boston. The flight was nice. Each passenger had their own flat screen with which they could select music or audio books to listen to or watch movies etc. I opted to sleep instead which was difficult because there was this one Turkish kid three people away who was whining to his mom all night long. I could understand most of what he said and it fueled my dreams. When I woke up, the kid stopped whining and then fell asleep. The Zurich airport was not that exciting to me. All the stores in the airport were displaying Swiss watches for $500. The scenery was rolling hills and forest. I could have believed I was in West Virginia or something. The flight to Venice was short and it was over the alps which was spectacular as always. About 5 minutes before the plane landed a thought suddenly occurred to me: 'Holy vino, I'm in Italy! about to land in Venice!' I just felt so excited all of a sudden. It was like I just remembered that I have always wanted to visit Italy.

I am staying with my friend from WPI, Kyle. He gave me very good and detailed instructions for how to get to where he was from the airport. By the time I arrived on the island where Kyle was, I had already gotten a nice view of the city on the boat ride in. He took me to the WPI project site office where he works and later we went out for a long walk around. The first thing I noticed were the tourists:
They are everywhere. It is like the city is one big museum on a Saturday during the busy season. The good news is that they stick to only one section of the city.
Kyle took me all over one half of the city. One thing I liked seeing was the sundial pictured right. The other thing I liked seeing was EVERYTHING ELSE! Everywhere you look is just as beautiful as the next part whether there are lots of people or no people. It's like I was only expecting a part of the city to have that old elegant feel, but really it's the whole thing.

In the evening we found ourselves at a restaurant not far from Kyle's apartment. It was a cute family-run restaurant and bar that Kyle frequents. Everything about the experience was lovely and perfect. I know that lacks description, but it is how I felt during and after. I had fish lasagna with a salad and chicken. Needless to say it was phenomenal. restaurant was picturesque but I decided not to take a picture.Everything about the food and the the street to the park. The experience was very authentic as we were nowhere near the After the meal, we each had an espresso and then walked across touristy part of town (and hence the cost of the food was an order of magnitude less). We watched the light fade over the city.

When the Sun went down, we went back inside the apartment. Kyle lives on the top floor and there is an attic room where I sleep. Since the apartment is under construction, it is very empty and open. I love it. We conversed about Venice by large open windows over glasses of Grappa and then went to bed. I slept like a baby. Kyle woke me up to a bright morning at 7:00. We got ready for the day and then walked along canals and through narrow streets the couple kilometers to work. We stopped at a small café for cappuccini. I hate to gush over everything because it makes it seem like while I was there, I gushed. Well I didn't. The café was what it was: busy, relaxing, adorable, and friendly. Thinking back on it (it was a couple hours ago now) it rocked. I love these simple yet wonderful experiences.