I went to Italy.......to get rained on

So I will start my adventure from the beginning....

I boarded the plane to fly to Milan, Italy for the weekend at Prague International. This week I traveled alone and met up with my friends in Milan. I met up with three friends in Milan, Jordan, Kari, and Val. Since they do not have class on Thursday (unfortunately I do) they flew to Italy a day early and enjoyed an extra day there. We took off the tarmac and made it to the city within an hour and twenty minutes. I followed the instructions my friend had given me to the T and found my way onto buses, the subway, etc. etc. As I was making my way through the city, I noticed that Milan was not as Romanesque as I thought it would be. All the buildings seemed new (at least new within the past 200 years). The city just was not what I was expecting (not a bad not expecting, just a little different). I finally made it to the hostel and my friends and I got talking about the plans for Friday and Saturday. We decided on a walk around Milan for the day and then the next day (Saturday) to grab the earliest train out to Venice and spend the day there.

We packed up and headed out into the city for the day. We basically wandered the entire day and ended up in some pretty cool places. The main shopping center of the city seems to be fairly old (within the past 500 years) and houses some beautiful store and architecture. We then walked outside of the center and saw the Duomo, which was beautiful and great to take pictures of. We then ended up wandering through a park, and then wandered around the park, and then up the park, and down the park, and in the park, under the park....it was a big freaking park. My legs have not been sore from walking at all since coming to Europe, they hurt after that walk, haha.

We made our way back to the hostel, hung for a bit, and then went out with one of Jordan's friends who is studying in Milan. We wandered around for a bit and found a nice little cafe, where we at and shared a bottle of wine. It was a nice relaxing night in Milan, much fun.

We woke the next morning bright and early to make our way to the Central Station to grab our train to Venice. We enjoyed our solitude for the 2.5 hours we were on the train. We made it to the train station in Venice and...........well............lets just say you walk out of the Train station and see the most picturesque canal in the world. I knew at that moment that this trip was worth the time, money, and everything in between. We wandered through the city, over this bridge and that bridge. The canals were beautiful, and by the end of the day, I had taken enough pictures of them to satisfy my lifetime. We walked for a bit, finding all the signs that said S. Marco --> hoping they would actually lead us to St. Marks, haha. Then all hell broke loose. The rain started coming down like mad. I got completely and utterly drenched. Jordan and I found a street vendor, bought some umbrellas, and we all went and found a nice place to dry off. We realized the rain was not going to stop any time soon, so we decided that moving on and enjoying the city as much as we could was the objective (as long as we had our umbrellas, we were fine). We finally found our way to St. Marks where I stood in utter amazement at the giant in from of me. I was so beside myself at the size of the church and could not believe how many people were still out in the rain. Unfortunately, for the hour or so it rained, my camera was in my bag for protection, so I did not get pictures.

We then moved on wandering through the rain exploring the city until we found a nice little cafe to sit and enjoy some coffee while the rain came down. Plus, in Italy, there is that wonderful time in the afternoon when all motion stops, everyone takes a break and the country is silent. We enjoyed our coffee and then finally, the rain stopped. I took out my camera at that point and started taking pictures like crazy. We made it to the edge of the city, where the sea hit the city, and the sun came out. It was a bloody miracle, haha. We walked and enjoyed ourselves so much. I took so many pictures at that point my finger hurt. We left plenty of time to make it back to the train station because A. We didn't have a map and B. it takes a while to walk 3.5 miles through crowded, narrow, winding city streets. Kari and I did a good job remember how to make it 9/10 of the way back, but for that last little bit we forgot and ended up asking for directions. We followed the same path back that we came, so all the things I did not get to take pictures of because of the rain, I shot. St. Marks is shot and ready to be digitized.

We made it back to the train with some minutes to spare. Val and I went off to get some Gilato and wandered a bit, then we all got on the train, ready for the ride home. We got back, found our beds, slept for a few hours and woke early to get to our bus back to the airport. We had a very successful trip. Milan was good, Venice was awesome, and Italy will always be Italy.

Until next time....