6/16/2011 22:00 Verona, Italy

Early, Early morning today. We left at six for venice. We won't have any internet in Italy, so that is why all these posts are coming at the same time. It was a long morning, especially for KB with her jet lag. It was a very long car ride. It was interesting thug. We went through a toll road, but you take the ticket at the beginning and pay at the end. I think it's a little backwards, but I guess it makes sense because they have you pay depending on how long you were on the highway. We took a train the rest of the way into venice. it was hot and humid inside the train, and it smelled weird. It wasn't too exciting. We finally arrived in the city around 10. We walked around the shopping area and over several large bridges-very beautiful marble ones, and made our way to saint mark's basilica and all the other things in that area. We got some gilatto and went into the castle of the dodge. It had beautiful carvings and paintings everywhere. its also home to the largest paining on canvas in the world (7X24 meters). It was interesting to learn that the carvings at the tops of columns were not just decorations, but also political statements. We were all very hungry after that, so we went and ate lunch next-we had calzones of various kinds. Then we went to saint Marks's Bascillica. The mosaics all over the ceiling were so cool! lots of interesting stories about st. mark's body buried there. Then we went to the top of a nearby bell tower, which was really cool. it had a beautiful view of the city, but because of all the buildings, you can't see a single canal from the top. We were all pretty tired by this point, so we went and got some more gilatto and water before shopping for souvenirs (which was super easy, just by the way). We took a bus boat back to the other side of the city and went to a cart where i found my souvenir (a black and silver half mask with a feather on the side-i'm all ready for a masquerade ball). Then we went to a glass shop and that's where everyone else got their souvenirs. we took the train back to where we parked, and drove for another half hour or so to get to verona. we checked in at the hotel and then set out in search of dinner. We got a little lost and eded up finding a Kebab place where we stopped. These kebabs were delicious, but they had some different toppings than we'd seen before, like french fries. We also had sodas, and there's this really good soda we discovered called lemon soda which may possibly be my new favorite. It's italian and delicious. After dinner, we all felt tons better, so we walked up the steps of an old structure on the mountainside for a good view of the city. it was nice and beautiful . Then we went home to bed. PS this hotel was really nice. Really nice. Good sleep.