Right now I am writing this post while I am on the train. We just passed Genova, Italy on our way to Ventimiglia, Italy. This is our second, and longest ride of the day, of three different trains. We started out this morning leaving our campgrounds at 6:30am on a 15min walk in the rain(!) with all of our stuff. Our trains today are Venice to Milan, Milan to Ventimiglia (which we are on) and then we have Ventimiglia to Cagnes Sur Mer. We just went through a tunnel and it blocks my ears – I really don't like that feeling. Cagnes Sur Mer is in the Monaco/Nice area. We will be staying with family friends of Katie's mom/grandmother.
I really enjoy the train, but feel that I mostly sleep on them, which really is too bad because the scenery is great. Our compartment is full today with six of us all crammed nicely into a Harry Potter type compartment. It was a little funny trying to get our stuff above the seats on this train. There were three Italian women who were telling us what to do in Italian (how to move the other bags so we can fit our packs up there) while Katie and I pushed our big packs over our heads. So far everything is still above us – I would hate for any of the bags to fall down.
On Monday Katie and I took the train to Verona for the day. We had about four hours to roam around the town before we went back to the suburbs of Venice to sleep. I really liked Verona, it is very pretty and not as tourist as Venice. We were able to see both Romeo and Juliet's homes. The weather was beautiful and warm! It was great. Plus we walked up a bunch of stairs and got a great view of all of Verona.
Sunday we spent the day in Venice. We wandered around trying to find the main sites so I could see them. Katie was here at the beginning of her semester on a class trip. St. Mark's was amazing! The ceiling is covered in mosaics. I'm not religious but I do like to see the different churches and how intricate the detailing is. We took at ferry ride to the island Murano (where glass jewelery is made). Katie hadn't been here before and we were both interested in what it would be like compared to all of the jewelery that you can find in the main parts of Venice. It seemed like it was just more expensive on Murano and neither of us found anything that we couldn't live without. I had found a shop that I liked earlier in the day so we went searching for it. Luckily we were able to back track our steps and I was able to buy a few things.
Venice and Florence have both been cities that I am glad I was able to visit but they were just too tourist for me. I like much smaller cities that aren't so crowed. I found this out in SE Asia but it surprised me and I thought that I may enjoy bigger cities in Europe.
We still have 2+ hours of traveling before we will be able to relax and get to know Elizabeth and Peter, the family friends we are staying with. After a few days with them we will be off to Paris where we wills stay with more family friends of Katie.
The tunnels are killing my ears! I need to chew gum but that means I have to pull it out of my bag.
Depending on internet connections I will be adding pictures soon.
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