The Little Things

“If you read a lot, nothing is as great as you’ve imagined.  Venice is—Venice is better.”

--Fran Lebowitz

Venice is unreal!  It is like nothing I have ever experienced before.  Everything is reached by boats, because there is no way to reach some of the areas by walking.  I have seen a few Venetian fortresses in Greece, but Venice does not really compare.  Venice is built on a different site, so they have to take into account all of the water.  It is still marvelous to see how the Venetians built around all of the water.  The buildings were all so large and grand and beautiful, and the canals and bridges are literally everywhere.  The church was ginormous and absolutely beautiful by night.  Brianna and I enjoyed some awful pizza from our hostel and split a bottle of wine while we sat along the river and walked through the town.  But we did officially uncork the bottle of wine on our own!  The night was pretty spectacular.

This morning, we woke up to do some minor exploring of Venice before we had to return to the train station to catch our train to Milan.  The town is just as magnificent by day, although it does look different.  The gondolas don’t have quite as much magic during the day, although I thought that the number of gondolas was lacking.  While the only significant part of our morning involved walking around and taking the vaporetto (water bus), we did stop in a church right next to the train station.  It was so peaceful right and was right next to the water, although it was strange to see others taking plenty of pictures with flashes and making noises with cameras and phones.  Only a little distracting while I was praying.

I took a nap for most of our train to Milan, but I did have to move and squeeze into a smaller space when more people got on the train and needed seats.  Sad day.

We made it to Milan with plenty of time, and so we took a break from the trains to grab some food and go exploring.  We decided that we wanted gelato from a place that also has a store in Rome.  On our way to gelato, we came across a magnificent church.  It was so tall and the ceilings were absolutely amazing.  There were so many little details that it I kept noticing little things everywhere, like the crucifix that was hanging over the altar, after being in the church for twenty minutes.  It was crazy! 

We walked around Milan and got our gelato before making our way back to the train station.  For a four hour “layover,” it was pretty successful.  Currently, we are somewhere between Milan and Barcelona—either in Italy, France, or Spain.  But that is part of the adventure.