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| Good morning Venice :) |
Okay, so in order to distract myself from thoughts of fountains and flushing meadows, I will review the past couple of days. On Friday I left the dream like island of Venice. I woke up early because I wanted to make the most of my last couple of hours on the floating city, which was actually a wonderful decision because the piazza has considerably less tourists and pigeons (both equally as annoying) when the sun is still rising.
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| The perfect image of Venice |
I got allowed myself to get lost in the narrow, winding
streets which I decided is the perfect way to actually experience Venice. I
came across a lovely store which boasted signs to say it was “The Best Book
Shop in the World” and although I’m no expert on the matter, I’d have to say it
was one of the most interesting ones I have been to. It was absolutely filled with room of books on
every topic in every language imaginable.
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| so many books, they made a staircase out of them! |
I managed to make my way to the Rialto bridge which is the
main bridge connecting the island of San Polo and San Marco across the Grand
Canal. It was so beautiful, I could have stared at the view for hours.
I left Venice after stocking up on Venetian artwork and
jewellery and headed for the little known town of Udine. Now, I won’t even try
to explain the family tree connection here but somehow I have family from my
dad’s side living in Udine so for the past couple of days I have been staying
with them. I was greeted at the station by Jean-Carlo and my grandma’s sister
holding a sign bearing my name. After an exchange of numerous air kisses, I was
given a tour of Udine and an aperitif
of gelati. I swear to god, I have eaten so much gelati in these past few days
that soon I will start driving around in a Mr Whippy Van and snorting
icecream from my nose just like in Round the Twist.
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| my piccolo Italian Zia |
Now apart from my somehow related to me cousin, Gabriele,
who I only saw in the evenings, no one in the household spoke English. But
luckily between the minimal Italian that I know, the minimal English that they
know, a common ground of French words which sound and mean the same thing in
both English and Italian, and lots of flailing hand gestures- we managed to
communicate.
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| casual statue of Caesar in the middle of the road |
I had the loveliest time whilst staying there. I was treated to lots of delicious home made meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner oh my!) and shown lots of interesting places around the area- such as the Devil’s Bridge and The Monastery of Santa Maria in Valle (which was built in 830 !). We even went in to Slovenia for lunch, which the idea of going to a different country simply for something to eat pleased me to the nth degree.
Also I can proudly say I have been able to build up my
Italian vocabulary whilst staying in Udine. I now can say “forketta”, “cucchiaio”,
“zucchero”, “mooca”,” cavallo”, “pecora”, “mi chiamo” and “Io non parlo
Italiano” (which translate to fork, spoon, sugar an array of farm animals, my
name is and the most useful phrase of all – I do not speak Italian)
I left Udine this morning and after a quick stop over in
Venice (admit it, saying you have to change trains at Venice sounds about ten
times more classy than when you say you did it at Footscray) I arrived in
Verona around 3pm. Somehow, despite my uncanny ability to get lost simply by
stepping foot out of a train station, I actually did manage to find the
accommodation quite quickly and easily.
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| shameless sad face selfies in hour number three |
However, you win some you lose some, which is why I have been locked out of the B&B and sitting at the bottom of a staircase for what is now fast approaching four hours, craving food and in desperate need of the bathroom – I know understand the torture of pregnant women everywhere.
Note- eventually the lovely B&B owner show up at around
8 o’clock, apologising profusely. Or at least I think she was apologising
because as you can guessed… she doesn’t speak a word of English !
