Venice was still wonderful the next morning, so things were looking promising. Though my plantar fasciitis decided to act up, so I spent the next week or so hobbling around Europe. THAT was fun.
We slept in a bit and got breakfast at a cafe before hopping on the water bus and going to St. Mark's Square. It's insanely crowded and touristy (but really, all of Venice is), but it's still really awesome. We went into the basilica, which actually really impressed me. It's basically entirely gold inside. Quite amazing.
Most of the day was spent wandering. We got gelato and sat by a fountain to eat it, while Amanda crumbled up her cone and... well, did this.
Crazy.
We walked up and down the canal for awhile, stopping into countless glass shops, before taking the boat over to the island called Murano. We'd decided to go over there to see the glass museum, which ended up being closed due to strike. It was okay, though, since Venice has so many glass shops it's like a museum anyway. It's all ridiculously beautiful.
We stayed on Murano for a few hours and went at a very lazy pace. We got lunch and ate gelato sitting at the edge of a canal, which was absolutely glorious, and then just kind of walked. We stopped in tons of shops and found some artists painting glass, and then sat in a playground for a bit. It was a pretty residential area -- there were even some Italian kids that sat around and laughed at us tourists. :P
The hostel ended up being our next stop, as it was getting close to dinner time and we had to do some planning. We ended up just wandering down the canal nearby and found a little place with outdoor seating. It wasn't very touristy, which was a plus, and the food was DELICIOUS! God, I love Italy.
Afterwards, we were going to explore a bit more, but it started raining, so we just got gelato (third time's a charm!) and went back to the hostel. We ended up watching an episode of Tyra on YouTube, and I rolled my hurt foot on the glass champagne bottle we'd gotten.
April 8th
The original plan of the day (Easter Sunday, by the by) was to make it to mass in St. Mark's at 9, but that ended up being when we finally dragged ourselves out of bed. Oops. We got there for the 10:30 mass, though. Mass isn't usually my thing (for obvious reasons), but ya know, Easter and all. We ended up in standing room only, which sucked for my foot, so I ended up sitting on the floor for bits of it. I hope Jesus can forgive me! The service was in Italian so none of it made sense, which actually might've made it more enjoyable. The singing was beautiful, and I didn't have to ignore all the religion-y stuff to enjoy it. And it was only about an hour and a half long, which felt like nothing compared to temple! So I had no idea what was going on, but I enjoyed it.
Afterwards, we had nothing planned, so it became another day of wandering. We explored an area near St. Mark's that we hadn't been to yet, and got a delicious lunch at a little restaurant before getting gelato. It was chilly and rainy at this point, so we did a little more walking and came back to the hostel in late afternoon to relax. We all kind of crashed, lol.
We went back out that evening and walked around the Jewish ghetto for a little while, which was really cool. There wasn't much to actually see, but exploring Venice is always a winning situation. By then we were getting hungry, so we hopped onto the water bus and went to Accademia to get dinner at a restaurant that Jen and Cynthia had found on their first day in the city. I got spaghetti with tomato sauce and prawns, and tiramisu for dessert! Finally! :)
Everyone else wanted gelato, so we stopped at a place close to the hostel and did some final souvenir shopping before gearing up for our 4 am wake-up call.
Overall?
I love Italy. So, so much. I'd forgotten how much, actually. It's all twisty cobblestone streets and gelato and wonderful. And Venice is Venice. Nothing bad can be said.
However, as much as I love the city, pretty much all it is is tourism. There's not really a ton to do or see, either. I don't regret my decision to go back for a second, but if I had the chance to visit a city in Italy in the future, I'd probably pick a different one. Venice doesn't really require a second trip.
It was great to decompress here after losing all my money in Paris, though!
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