With my journal of places visited and my photos, I will attempt to re-tell stories accurately..
August 12th - Venice, Italy
Train ride to Venice wasn't too bad. Very hot though! You could feel the Venetian heat as soon as you get off the train. When you leave the train station, you already see the main canal. The view is surreal -- right out of a storybook!
We booked our next train ticket to Florence (Firenze) and took public transportation to our hostel. The main mode of public transportation was via boat. The boat ride gave a pretty good overview of what the city was like. It's weird seeing doorways that lead to water and instead of a sidewalk or a garden. Basically, in place of streets, there were canals. Many residents had their own motor boats, and there were always water buses. Of course in the downtown area there were many gondolas. Surprisingly, out of the many gondolas I saw, few of them were in use. Gondolas were very expensive (about $150 CDN for a ride), but I suppose that is why there weren't always many gondolas out at once. Instead of consistently doing work all the time for small amounts of money, they wait until someone is willing to pay them big money for their services. Since we arrived in the late afternoon, we grabbed some lunch: pizza. Not once was there bad pizza in Italy from all of our experiences! Then we wandered around the streets of Venice and hung around the main plaza. We decided to go up the belltower to get a view of the whole city. It looks so weird! It just looks like a floating city!
Left: A picture of what I mean by a floating city. This is an island with a church and a few other buildings on it I believe. It's across from the main square (Piazza di San Marco).
We booked our next train ticket to Florence (Firenze) and took public transportation to our hostel. The main mode of public transportation was via boat. The boat ride gave a pretty good overview of what the city was like. It's weird seeing doorways that lead to water and instead of a sidewalk or a garden. Basically, in place of streets, there were canals. Many residents had their own motor boats, and there were always water buses. Of course in the downtown area there were many gondolas. Surprisingly, out of the many gondolas I saw, few of them were in use. Gondolas were very expensive (about $150 CDN for a ride), but I suppose that is why there weren't always many gondolas out at once. Instead of consistently doing work all the time for small amounts of money, they wait until someone is willing to pay them big money for their services. Since we arrived in the late afternoon, we grabbed some lunch: pizza. Not once was there bad pizza in Italy from all of our experiences! Then we wandered around the streets of Venice and hung around the main plaza. We decided to go up the belltower to get a view of the whole city. It looks so weird! It just looks like a floating city!
Left: A picture of what I mean by a floating city. This is an island with a church and a few other buildings on it I believe. It's across from the main square (Piazza di San Marco).After the sunset, we had some coffee in the main square then got some gelato and chilled by the shore of the water. The water was warm to my surprise!
The next morning, we decided to go the Lido island beach to eat lunch. We brought some cold cuts, cheeses, bread and some wine to hang out on the beach. The waves were pretty crazy there so many people were body-boarding. Too bad I didn't have a board! After we came back, we took the water bus around the outskirts of Venice and then finally headed out for a train ride to Florence. All in all, a beautiful city. It's astounding how everything can be built over the water. A great place to visit, but I don't think I could live here!
August 13 - Florence, Italy
Since we got in late, we didn't want to do too much once we settled into the hostel. We just took a stroll in the downtown area and saw the Duomo (main church) by night light, grabbed some late night pizza and called it a night.
The next morning, I woke up and one of my eyes barely opened! I thought, "what's going on?!", and later discovered that a mosquito had bit me in the eyelid during the night! My entire left eye was swollen and barely open! I ended up wearing sunglasses for the whole day, and the swelling went away (thank goodness!). We walked around in the morning and saw the Ponte Vecchio (the oldest bridge in Florence) and climbed the stairs to the hill where the replica statue of David stood. Since I wanted to visit as many places as I could, I convinced Joey to go with me to Siena.
Left: The Ponte Vecchio and the view from up top of the Piazza di Michelangelo.
August 14 - Siena, Italy
So we took an afternoon train into Siena. Boy was it different from the other Italian cities that we had visited! All of the different cities were so different from each other in fact! Anyway, Siena had many medieval elements, because it has apparently maintained its medieval style from that period.
Left: Random Asians we encountered sitting on the steps of a random place in an alley. Gosh those Asians will sit anywhere in order to get their dose of internet access! The second photo is of a race-horse. Unfortunately we had just missed the race (because we didn't know about it). The horses have fans originating from different family histories. Different families will cheer for their horses as tradition goes. Afterward, they bring their horse back to its home and all of the families celebrate. I think this was a winner as everyone was singing and chanting with an air of excitement and happiness.
The next morning we walked around the street market, bought some food and headed to the train station. Our strategy was to avoid the heat of the day by riding in the air conditioned trains.
August 15 - Rome, Italy
We took the train in from Florence and discovered that our hostel was farther than expected. Our hostel ended up being on some campgrounds about 45min away from the city centre. However, to our surprise, we had our own cute little cabin to ourselves, with a clean washroom and our own air conditioner!
Since we got in in the evening, we grabbed dinner at the hostel, then headed out to check out Rome for what was left of the day. The trains were very cool and awesome, but varied from brand new to completely graffiti-ed on the outside (which I actually found cool).
The first stop we made was to the Colisseum. I walked out of the station expecting to need to walk a few blocks from the train station. However, as soon as I stepped out of the station, it was there, right in front of us! It was definitely colossal! ;) Normally sites are less than I expect them to be because people/media put so much hope into me that I am disappointed when it is not as magical to me as it was described. Even through all the hubbub about the Colisseum, I was taken aback when I actually saw it. We loved it so much we came back the next day during the day. I had seen so many pictures of it before, heard of so many references, but to be able to stand right in front of it, to touch it, made me feel so weird! We walked around for awhile and enjoyed the eclipsing moon. 
Then we walked by some of the ruins, towards a huge monument for Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoia, first king of Italy. The structure was unbelievably large and beautiful. We then wandered to the tourist-infested Trevi Fountain. Of course I tossed a coin into the fountain! We'll see what comes of it! Maybe I will be back in Rome ;)The next day, we got up bright and early to lign up for the Vatican City. It was a good choice, as the line wrapped almost around half of the Vatican City when we came out. We only waited for about 1.5 hr, and that was because we arrived about an hour before the Vatican City opened. I was flabbergasted by the Sistine Chapel. It is so beautiful! We sat there for over an hour admiring his work. Pictures and replicas just don't do it justice! The rest of the Vatican City museum was nice, but I just wasn't too into religious art. It was really funny while we were in the Sistine Chapel. There'd be these security guards that just shout "Shh, quiet, no photos" in random intervals and a funny italian accent. It made the experience comical. Then we mailed home post cards from the Vatican City as they have their own postal service independent of Italy! I suppose it's the privilige of the Catholic church! Then we went to check out the San Pietro church -- the Pope's church. 
There was actually a funny story here (elaboration to come later). We went back to the Colisseum first, grabbed gelato on the way and since Joey's leg was acting up, I went to Vittorio's monument on my own. It was also because I wanted to see the ruins by daylight. Then we went back to San Pietro Basilica. I had to pee SO badly but there were no washrooms nearby. I didn't think there'd be a washroom in the church (hey, don't laugh), but I had to try asking anyway. I ended up trying to ask an employee of the church. He was Asian, but only spoke Italian. I actually used Mandarin to find out where it was! Yes, I feel accomplished. Shush. There were washrooms, and that saved me from missing out checking out the tombs of the Popes. There were people mourning and literally crying for Pope John Paul II. After dinner, we hit the Pantheon and tried some fried rice balls. Then we headed back to the hostel. The next morning, we decided not to strain ourselves too much and chilled at the hostel instead. Went for a dip in the pool, and took a bus to the Ciampino airport in anticipation for our flight to Barcelona. And so ended our Roman trek. It is a beautiful city with so much character and history. I would definitely come again!
There was actually a funny story here (elaboration to come later). We went back to the Colisseum first, grabbed gelato on the way and since Joey's leg was acting up, I went to Vittorio's monument on my own. It was also because I wanted to see the ruins by daylight. Then we went back to San Pietro Basilica. I had to pee SO badly but there were no washrooms nearby. I didn't think there'd be a washroom in the church (hey, don't laugh), but I had to try asking anyway. I ended up trying to ask an employee of the church. He was Asian, but only spoke Italian. I actually used Mandarin to find out where it was! Yes, I feel accomplished. Shush. There were washrooms, and that saved me from missing out checking out the tombs of the Popes. There were people mourning and literally crying for Pope John Paul II. After dinner, we hit the Pantheon and tried some fried rice balls. Then we headed back to the hostel. The next morning, we decided not to strain ourselves too much and chilled at the hostel instead. Went for a dip in the pool, and took a bus to the Ciampino airport in anticipation for our flight to Barcelona. And so ended our Roman trek. It is a beautiful city with so much character and history. I would definitely come again!Well, I think I'm going to post this before somehow I lose everything accidentally. I will start Spain and the rest of my European travels for later posts. I will hopefully complete this summer project by the end of summer 2009!
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