Vive Italia...

It's not every day that you get to visit a sinking city, but that is exactly what a visit to Venice entails. A short ride up the canals on the barges makes this evident as many of the houses right on the canal are right level with the water level, and high tide would raise the water even more. Apparently, during times of high tide, you can take gondola rides through St. Mark's square, my only question is where would all the pigeons go then?

Our experience in Venice was filled of meandering through the streets, perusing the little shops and just enjoying the atmosphere. After our first day we enjoyed it so much we decided to spend another night at Johnny's and explore the islands surrounding Venice.

Murono, about a 45 min boat ride from Venice, is where the famous glass blowing of Venice occurs. Here you can watch experienced Venetian glass blowers (they saw hammerhead sharks and horses being made). Murono was very quaint and had much less of the hustle and bustle than Venice. If I were to come again, I would definitely get a hotel here as it cheaper and so typical of what you think of Venice, without all the tourists.

The second island visited was Burono (Seriously, they've got a rhyme scheme going). A bit further out, Burono is famous for making the lace often associated with Venice. Watching the lace making was also amazing, but the best part of Burono was definitely the variety of colors on the houses.

It seriously looks like a Crayola add.

Laundry time in Burano.

After a long day or sight seeing, we enjoyed another Italian dinner, full of all the staples, pasta, pizza and over priced water.

After Venice, we headed out on the train to Milan. In Milan we were able to stay with a couch surfer. Nini lived at home with her family (Mom, Dad, Sis, and Grandma) and they were fabulous. Grandma would always try to help us and would explain everything to us in Italian, even though she knew we could not speak any Italian, it was really quite funny. In Milan we started out at Sforzesco Castle.

The castle used to house the ruling family of Milan in the 15th and 16th centuries but now serves as a home for various museums and art galleries.

Clock tower of Milan, just outside the castle.

After the castle we went to see the Milan Cathedral. The Milan Cathedral is the largest Cathedral in Italy and the second largest gothic cathedral in the world. With 100s of spires, it is an amazing view to say the least. Instead of paying to climb the stairs we opted to enjoy lunch outside the Cathedral.

After lunch, I took a short nap outside the opera house (as I chose not to pay for the tour and instead slept a bit while waiting for everyone else just outside), we went to visit the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. This is the church that houses Leonardo da Vinci's famous Last Supper. The original church was built in the 14th century, however during world war II it was bombed and nearly all of the church walls were destroyed. Luckily for all, the wall containing the Last Supper was relatively unharmed during the bombings as it had been sandbagged for protection and has been quite well preserved. The Last Supper specifically portrays the reaction given by the apostles when Jesus said one of them would betray him. Because the painting is very old and has been damaged over time, much time and money has been spent in attempts to restore it. Because of this, to view the painting you have to book tickets months in advance. Since we are no where near that on top of things, we did not have tickets to actually see the painting, but we went to see the building\church anyway. We checked breifly on tickets, but as they were booked until the end of August we had little hope- that is until a guy came up asking if we wanted to buy tickets for the 5:15 showing (one hour later). Being slightly skeptical, we had to go in and check the price and validity of the tickets with the office staff but finding them to be legit, we purchased the tickets and were able to see the mural.

The amount of security surrounding the painting is surreal. Each 15 minutes, 25 people are allowed to go in and view the painting. Before entering the hall, you pass through two different climate controlled rooms that measure for various things that could harm the painting. Of course no cameras are allowed in the room, but once through security you are able to view the painting for 15 minutes. The painting in itself is brilliant. The depth and perspective is fabulous and each of the apostles have distinct expressions on how they reacted to Jesus saying that one of them would betray him. While much speculation surrounds the painting and exactly who each of the apostles are, viewing the painting was brilliant, even if for only 15 minutes. Once you leave the room, you are also placed in a temporary holding room, to stop any outside air from entering into the hall (these guys are serious about this painting, which is a good thing as it is rad).

An interesting point I found was that even though viewing the painting is booked out through August (with 25 people viewing every 15 minutes all day every day at €8 a piece), the restoration of the painting was so expensive that private funding was used to pay for the process.

On a side note, I have gone to the bathroom in the Mona Lisa. Seriously, this is the highest class Port-a-Potty I have ever seen, and I could not leave Italy without making my 'mark'.

Following viewing the Last Supper, we went to explore the gardens behind the Castle. The garden is huge and except for the obscene amounts of mosquitoes are very beautiful. We found a cute amphitheater with chairs cemented in, along with a huge Soccer\Football field, Donovan Frankenreiter was actually preforming the night we were there, but sad for him, I don't think anyone was there as it was very quiet, it kind of sounded like he was singing to himself.

After the depressing concert (we didn't go either, as the last train left in about an hour and the tickets were expensive) we hit up the grocery, where we got food for dinner and an entire bucket of gelato which we devoured in a matter of minutes on the train ride.

Arriving home marked our end to Italy, all in all we had a fabulous time and saw many amazing sights and buildings. We payed to climb three different sets of stairs and ate about a kilo each of gelato. We ate lots of pasta and pizza and met some fabulous people. We learned a bit of Italian, including my personal favorite, 'excuzi' (excuse me), said by the little old women when they are bustling about. We only got one pay phone to work in the entire country (we tried to get many working, which resulted only in our getting frustrated and losing all our change every time). I definitely recommend a visit here, even though it is a bit expensive and I look forward to returning and exploring the southern half of the country as well. Ciao.

For all the Italy photos, CLICK HERE.