Daily Details: July 9

Feeling MUCH better than the previous days, I wake up, get ready, and head off to the train station to catch our train to Venice. In the station, I start blacking out and becoming dizzy—I guess that’s what 2 days of really eating nothing does to you. My roommate, Becky, runs to the McDonald’s in the station and grabs me some chicken McNuggets, or as I now like to refer to them as, manna from heaven. They tasted GLORIOUS!!! It was the first protein I’d had in 3 days, and the only chicken I’d had in a week. You’d be surprised at how hard it is to find anything but prosciutto here! The train ride is uneventful, and 2.5 hours later, we arrive in Venice.

We catch a water taxi to our hotel. As we wait, I look around me and everything looks just like a postcard. The water is a turquoise blue, albeit a little murky, and the town is SO much quieter than anything I have experienced in Italy thus far. Getting off and on the water taxi proves to be quite the feat, because the drivers could care less whether your whole group gets on or off together. We lose a couple of people in the process, but they quickly catch up to us on the next water taxi. On the walk to our hotel, I enjoy the much cooler weather and the fabulous sea breezes that cool our skin. As we look over a bridge into the water, we even see a few white, transparent jellyfish!

Our hotel, we’re told, is the nicest hotel we’ll be in during our whole time in Europe. It is easy to see why! This place is immaculate, lush, absolutely divine! The young Italian that shows us to our rooms looks very much like the cute British guy in “What a Girl Wants”. He is the first Italian to turn my head, because he is just as sweet as he is nice-looking.

After freshening up a bit, we go to see the Rialto Bridge, the fanciest bridge in Venice. The views from it are absolutely stunning, and we see many loaded gondolas pass underneath us. We grab a bite to eat and visit the beautiful shops surrounding us. The food in Venice is MUCH better tasting, and the desserts look divine! Already, I feel more at peace here than anywhere else we’ve been. Here, there are no cars to mow you over, no incessant honking horns. Here, there is just the water, the bridges, and you.