Pisa, Lake Como, and Venice

Wow, I haven’t written in a few days...we’ve been so busy, so I’ve been knocking out as soon as we get back to the hotel! =P Okay, so here’s what been happening…

On Thursday (30 March), we left Florence and were en route to Lake Como. We stopped by Pisa to see the famous Leaning Tower and other monuments. Pisa is SO commercialized: tourists and vendors EVERYWHERE. The vendors were pretty pushy too, more pushy than the ones at the Trevi Fountain…I saw this one guy in our tour group practically get harassed even though he repeatedly said no to the vendor forcing a soapstone elephant on him. =\ Not cool.

Chinese without the H

Hey! The Leaning Tower really does lean! =P

After our stop in Pisa, we were back on the road, continuing on our way to Lake Como. We only passed by Milan, which made me sad because I really wanted to go shopping in the fashion capital of the world. =( I guess this is the closest I’ll get to Milan on this trip:

We got to our hotel later that night, since it was a pretty long drive from Florence. Didn’t do much; had dinner at the hotel and then knocked out.

The next day, we actually drove to the lake for a cruise. The way to the lake was CRAZY. I thought Japanese drives were nuts, but they ain’t got nothin’ on Italian drivers! Imagine a tour bus going through narrow streets with other trucks passing next to us. At one point, our driver Cornelius stuck his head out the window and would’ve been headless if our tour manager Franco didn’t pull him back. Yikes!

Despite the drive up, the lake was beauuuuuutiful. Beautiful lake + beautiful weather make for beautiful pictures. We even passed by the house they used in Star Wars. Since were already on the lake, we stopped by a little town called Bellagio (yes, the real thing, not the Las Vegas hotel!), which is on a peninsula on the lake. I love little towns like this, where it’s somewhat touristy but not to the extent that it’s flooded with people. Chris and I had our first taste of Italian pizza, which was pretty freakin’ good. =)

The Star Wars house

Some random staircase at Bellagio

Went back to the other side of the lake to continue our journey to Verona. Yes, the Verona where the supposed Romeo&Juliet lived. We were given a few hours to walk around, so Chris and I randomly wandered the streets...nearly got lost, but thank God Chris is good with maps! I can’t read maps worth crap…I probably would’ve been walking around in circles. (O_o) Paid a visit to Juliet’s house…her balcony is pretty small. Had dinner and then got back on the bus to go on to Venice! We got to Venice pretty late, so everyone just knocked out in preparation for today.

Today was our day of sightseeing in Venice. Unfortunately, my expectations were pretty high, so I would have to say that Venice is my least favorite city thus far. It’s pretty overrated, imo. The city is infested with tourists and pigeons…pigeons practically run into your face! Geez. Our entire group took a 30-minute train ride to the station in Venice, and then took 30-minute boat ride down the Grand Canal to Pizza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square). It was pretty nice, but since I was super tired, I fell asleep halfway through the ride. =P

I hate pigeons!

For all you 24 fans =)

Once we got to San Marco, we sat through a lace-making demonstration. I’m not a big lace fan, but some of these pieces were absolutely gorgeous. I wanted to buy a table runner for our dining table back home in Japan, but the really nice one was suuuuper expensive. =( After the lace-making, we sat through a glass blowing demonstration (ask me if you wanna see the videos). After about 10 minutes of contemplation, Chris and I decided to buy goblets for our parents, since the deal was VERY good: original price was 120 Euros per goblet, but they were selling it for 140 Euros for a pair. Plus, there was free engraving on the bottom of the goblets, so it’s a great present for our parentals. Pair that with a bottle of wine from the Castello il Palagio! Woohoo! =)

After the two demonstrations, we were free to wander on our own. I think we ended up walking around and taking pictures, buying postcards, and looking for stamps. Later that afternoon, we went on the ever-popular gondola ride. Soooooooo relaxing! Unfortunately, the excitement lasted for about the first 15-20 minutes, then I just leaned back in my seat and was so relaxed that I fell asleep. =P There’s something about a constant rocking that puts me right to sleep…tour bus, boat, gondola, car, you name it. It was pretty nice; it’s not overly hot in Italy yet, so the canals didn’t smell as bad as I thought they would.

More walking around after the gondola ride…Chris and I tried to pay a visit to St. Mark’s Basilica but it was closed by the time we finished with the gondola ride. =( So we just went around and got “lost” in Venice since there wasn’t really anything to do…and then I got hella grouchy because I hate walking around a million people. It’s fine if I’m sitting down and people watching, but walking through crowds is one of my pet peeves. >=O

The Bridge of Sighs...the small windows at the top gave criminals their last view of the city before they were sent to prison.

My gangsta pose...gotta protect my waffle door!

Our group met up again for dinner, and on our way to the restaurant, we saw a buttload of teenagers jumping up and down and cheering. I asked Franco jokingly if they were drunk, and he said, “Nah, they’re just teenagers…I don’t know if that’s worse!” HAHAHA…and then he went on to say that when he was teenager, the hotels they went on for school trips had to close down and renovate. Haha, our tour manager is awesome!

Dinner was awesome as well. Had some pretty good tiramisu, but the best one I’ve ever had is still in Korea, at Italian Tomato. Ironic, huh, especially since Venice is known for tiramisu. =P

Okay, I’m tired. Wakeup call tomorrow is at 6:30am, then we’re on our way to Assisi! Ciao!