We interrupt this blog...

to ask an important question. (Can you tell I'm tired and bored? Oh, and I have a headache.). Why is it that so many Americans are overweight? In Italy we saw a handful of overweight people and I'm quite certain they were Americans. Can this be the reason?

Travel hour # 19

This is Rachel after 19 hours of traveling. We still have an hour to wait before getting on our flight from Chicago to Seattle. We are tired and bored.

Venezia – Murano Island

Today we took the free taxi from our hotel to Murano Island. I knew it was a scam when the concierge said we would need to pay our own way back to Venice but we went anyway. It turned out to be a lot of fun. It was really exciting racing through the Venice lagoon on the water taxi. We were met in Murano by a glass salesman and taken on a “tour”. It wasn’t too bad, though, and we did see a bit of glasswork being done.

Afterwards we ate at Ristorante Busa. Alex continued his eat-like-the-locals thing and ordered cuttlefish cooked in its own ink. Rachel was thrilled that a 1 ½ eared cat sat under our table and I was happy to finally order acqua rubinetta (tap water) and actually be served instead of having to buy the icky bottled water they push everywhere here. When we were done eating we walked through the streets of shops filled with souvenir quality (and mostly tacky) glass stuff, and went into way too many of them. Catching the vaporetto back was exciting – we transferred boats at San Marco and took the bus all the way up the Grand Canal to our local stop.

We were supposed to go to dinner at Sangal’s. But we got lost on the way there somehow, and arrived late, by 25 minutes. We looked at the menu in the window - super expensive. We decided to forget it and went to the Hard Rock Cafe down the way. It was fun, because we made a list of all our "best of's" for the trip. I'll post them later. This was our final big night in Italy. Tomorrow we need to pack and hit the hay early. I can’t believe the end of our trip is here.

Sometimes my mouth just gets in the way

While walking back from San Marco tonight Rachel said how Venezia is her favorite city of all time. We were crossing a small bridge, just around the corner from the Rialto. I pointed out to Rachel how dark the water was, and then proceeded to tell everyone how lots of mystery novels are set in Venice. Because the water is so dark, victims disappear, never to be seen again... What a dope! I scared her. I hope I didn't ruin the Venice experience forever.

Firenze – Venezia

Why is it that we feel the need to Americanize the names of places outside of the United States? I mean if your name was American Joe would you call yourself Giovanni because you crossed the Atlantic? It really bothers me. Florence is Firenze, Rome is Roma, and Venice is Venezia. Don’t Americanize them!

Firenze to Venezia - Part 2

Today we took the train to Venezia. It turned out fine, even though I rode backwards and was a bit sick. Rachel, Grandma and I were stuck sitting in the same pod as a big mouth Italian guy. He really thought he was a player. He kept sitting on the edge of the seat next to Mom and trying to look like a stud. He befriended the Italian-speaking couple from China next to him and then the poor Chinese guy had to translate to me everything Studly wanted to say. And he did not shut up for at least 2 hours. Even when we ignored him and looked out the window. I should have puked on him – that would have shut him up. (Have I ever mentioned that I HATE people who never shut-up and talk incessantly about themselves...)

After we got to Venezia we took the vaporetto to Hotel Antico Doge. It’s nice but not Casci. We ate a quick lunch / dinner of pizza and salad, and walked over to show mom the Rialto and San Marco. After looking at way too many junky shops and then getting Frulala juice drinks, we went back to the hotel to sleep.

Leaving Hotel Casci

Today everyone awoke with a sense of doom. We all wanted to leave for Venezia but were so sad to leave Signora Carla and Hotel Casci. We went down to breakfast to find that Signora Carla had presents for the kids! Rachel opened hers and it was 2 glass bunnies - how perfect is that?! I looked at Rachel and she was about to cry. Then Carla came to ask me if I was still sick, and I cried! She is such a sweet lady - and we will all really miss her. No hotel experience will ever compare. Hotel Casci is not very fancy but it is a perfect home base.