Venice, Italy

We left Milan pretty early in the morning, or we were supposed to anyways.  Our bus was an hour late, so we basically sat around for an hour in the lobby of the hotel just waiting.  Once we finally left, everyone settled in on the bus, and I began to work.  I had several things that I needed to get done, and the bus had Wi-Fi.  I was able to talk to some people on Facebook Chat.  It is about a 5 hour bus ride from Milan to Venice, so we were on the road for quite a while, stopping once for a bathroom break and once at a famous cemetery, Tomba Brion.  Originally a stop in Verona was on the itinerary, but since the bus was late Les and Rod decided to skip it.  I was a bit upset because Verona is where Romeo and Juliet originated.  Our bus driver told us that he has driven for Michael Jackson’s lawyer, Sting, and Rick Steves, the guy that does the nature shows.  I thought that was pretty cool! 
Anyways we arrived near Venice around 3:00p.m. and had to get a water taxi to take us to the city close to our hotel.  All 26 of us piled into two small boats, luggage in hand, and cruised through the canals of Venice.  Our hotel was a short walk from where the taxi stopped, so we had to drag our luggage a little further before we could set it down.  I was really bummed when we first got there because it was really cold and cloudy.  We were given a free day for the rest of the day so a group of us decided to wander around Venice and experience the culture.  Even as dingy as it was, the city was still beautiful.  Throughout the rest of the day we walked around, visiting shops and snack bars, and stopping periodically for photos.  I found a local artist’s shop and loved every single one of her watercolor paintings.  I walked in and she was painting in the shop, which was pretty awesome to see.  I bought some of her bookmarks because it was the only thing I could afford.  We got to Piazzo San Marco around dusk, so I got some great night photos of the place.  We ate an early dinner and headed back to the hotel because it began to rain.  On our way back we made our second gelato stop of the night!  The hotel had pretty good internet so I was able to Skype with Aubree and Facebook message several other people. 
The next morning we had a walking tour led by a native of Venice.  Unfortunately it poured most of the time we were touring so it was kind of miserable.  I was lucky we had taken photos that night before; otherwise I may not have gotten many.  Rod took us to a lady just off of San Marco square who makes her own sketchbooks and sells them.  Needless to say, about 20 architecture students had a grand ol time shopping in there.  I bought one for myself and a couple others for gifts.  We then quickly headed to the hotel to pick up our luggage, and then to the train station to catch a train to Florence. 
Venice is such an amazing and beautiful city, I am just sad that we did not have the greatest experience.  By the time we walked to the station with our luggage, everyone and everything was soaked!  So far I do not believe anything of mine was ruined.  At least I know now that my rain gear works.