Day 10: Monday June 13th

Today was another travel day.

We were on our way to Venezia. A.k.a Venice 

That morning, after cleaning up our Florence apartment, we spent about 3 hours driving to a train station about 30 minutes outside of Venice. Cars are illegal on the island so we had to take a train there. After getting to a parking lot to leave our car for a few days, we realized the car park owner didn’t speak English…but he spoke French. So again Kody and I had to attempt to converse with the man and try to tell him we needed 3 days for our car. I thought I was done with that language for 2 weeks! It took a lot of gestures and such but finally we figured it out and paid the man some amount of money for train tickets. We weren’t sure what he was asking.

So we got to the platform and accidentally looked at arrivals to try and find our train and therefore spent a few minutes waiting for the wrong train before realizing it was that. But we eventually figured it out and found one and got on it towards Venice.

After arriving we were supposed to meet a man named Guido to take us to the apartment. Apparently he flew in from Rome???! So we got there and went to our meeting place and then decided to call him. Turns out..we had the wrong number. So then we sat around trying to figure out what to do. My dad went up to 2 men and even asked if they were him. Obviously they gave him the weirdest looks. So we decided to text him and even look for a payphone for a phone book. No luck

But then suddenly a guy walks up to us and asks us if we were Larry Mallory…which we were...and so we found him. He took us to his apartment and gave us a few minutes to explore. It was beautiful. Then he sat us down at the table and pulled out 5 wine glasses and 2 mini bottles of wine. So he served us all up while explaining random things about the city. After he is done pouring, he makes a toast and then chugs his. During this, me being me, I’m nervously looking at my family trying to figure out what to do. I didn’t want to insult the man by not drinking it and I knew it was legal in Italy, but seriously! I have a reputation to keep up with! So my brother and mom are looking at me like “just do it” and my dad is just giving me this no good quizzical look. So I decided to just pretend. I lift the glass and keep my lips tight and then set it down. Then later…while he is distracted explaining the map to my dad...I switch my glass with my mothers, whose is less full, and have her finish it off. She was a little tipsy that night.

Next the man took my parents and brother on a tour of the ENTIRE city. They were gone for like an hour and a half. Meanwhile I’m at home starving to death eating saltines trying to stay alive until they get back.

When they do arrive back…we go to a nice little fish place for dinner. The only catch was that I don’t like fish. So I just ate the fried onions. Afterward we went looking for a pizza for me. But after awhile I couldn’t find a good one and stopped in at a bakery for a nice little corn dog. Good ol’ American food. And while we were in the bakery it decided to start pouring on us. When we left our apartment it was super hot so we hadn’t even thought to bring umbrellas. Our bad indeed. Regardless, we got soaked.

What a way to start off our stay in a place already surrounded by water?!