EuroX Trip: Day 19, 20 and 21

Ave to you from Rome!

I haven't been near a computer for awhile, so I haven't been able to update as frequently. In any case ...

Day 19
Our second day in Venice. I liked the place we were staying - it was classy. They were playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons when I arrived at the breakfast table, and there were some nice selections of food available. After breakfast, we left and took a waterbus down to Piazza San Marco, where, much to my delight, it was partially flooded! There were walkways around for tourists to travel through, and with the huge volumes of people trying to make their way around, traffic was fairly slow. There were a lot of Chinese and Japanese tourists around, still playing true to the stereotype. In fact, there was even a whole primary school class around, easily spotted by the large amount of noise and the white marshmallow jackets. Inside the Basilica St Mark, the front was flooded, which I rather liked - it made it feel kind of like something out of an Indiana Jones movie or something.
After some time wandering through St Mark's Basilica and looking at the various religious things, Henry and I amused ourselves watching people in the Piazza San Marco work out whether or not to slosh through the above-ankle high water, or to try to find a way around. It was amusing to see people try to slosh their way through, most of the time by stepping with the heels of their shoes.

After the hijinks in Piazza San Marco, we ended up wandering around for another good hour or so trying to find our way through to some good restaurants. Unfortunately, none were forthcoming. So we ended up heading back to our room because Henry forgot his bus pass (good thing that the Italians don't seem to enforce having valid tickets very strongly), and we ended up eating lunch at a place near our hotel.
After lunch, we ended up taking a long ride out to an island in the sticks of Venice, called Burano. Now, unlike yesterday, where we went to Murano and there were some really nice examples of glasswork, Burano was famous for ... lace.
Lace.
I wonder ... why the HELL would a red-blooded man want to go out for an hour's ride to see ... lace? Because that is apparently what Burano is famous for. The only times that the word lace and man should go in a sentence is if it is man as in WOman, or it involves the giving from the man to the woman of lace unmentionables, or the removal of said unmentionables. I am rather worried about sleeping in the same room with Henry now, since he wanted to go out to an island to see LACE.
It was also pouring with rain.
On our way back, we made sure we were entertained.
Because it was cold and pouring with rain, the windows were fogged up. I was bored, so I started doodling kanji on the windows. Henry dared me to draw a hand giving someone the one-finger salute.
I did.
What I didn't notice was that there was also a little girl doodling on the windows and chatting rather loudly with her father.
She copied me.
Henry and I burst out laughing, and we couldn't stop for a few minutes.
Monkey see, monkey do.

We topped the day off with some dinner along the tourist strip of the Grand Canal, near the Rialto bridge over said canal.

Day 20
Most of it was spent travelling, first in the morning rush onto the waterbus back to San Lucia station, before buying tickets and rushing for the train to Mestre station. After that, a looong, five hour trip to Rome. It was surprisingly warm in Rome, considering how cold it was in Milan and Venice. Rome seemed more like an Australian winter, considering how it is sunny, but slightly cold at the same time.
It also has one of the most confusing metro systems, considering there are only two lines - the A line and the B line. You switch lines at Termini station, so it is one of the largest stations in Europe. Apparently the city council is rather proud of it, but as our host states, it is also the biggest confusion in Europe.

After setting up in our room, we went to get our laundry done, at a place which also doubled as an internet cafe, which was handy. We went grocery shopping, since our place had a KITCHEN this time! The night was spent enjoying the joy of cooking, and watching what cable channels Italian cable gets in English.

Day 21
The day started at 5am.
We got up at 5am, got cleaned up and ready to go, and then went carousing about the city, blindly stumbling through streets in pre-dawn light, looking for the Vatican, and the Musei Vatica. We ended up finding it after an hour or so of wandering the streets, and sitting in the cafe near the entrance to have breakfast and watch for the formation of a line.

The majority of today was spent wandering through the Musei Vatica, and the attached Sistine Chapel, as well as seeing St Peter's Square and the Basilica of St Peter. After lunch, we wandered down to see some fountains, like the Trevoli Fountain, I think it was called, and the Altar of the Nation.