Day 14, October 3, 2006

Well it feels like it’s been much longer than a day since I wrote that last post, and although my mind feels like it’s been weeks, my sunburned shoulders and achy feet are telling me it has only been one day we have spent so far in Venice.
We arrived yesterday, mid-afternoon. It took us a few minutes of gaping and turning about in circles on the steps of the Venice train station before we were able to move past the initial “yes, I am actually in Venice” shock. The view (as you’ll soon be able to see from the pictures, once we upload them that is) was picturesque, much like out of a painting or a movie…Well, minus the hundreds of tourists mulling about, anyway.
Once we were oriented and had harassed the nice but definitely overly stressed lady in the tourist office enough for one day, we found the boat that would take us to Lido and awed some more at the awesome bridge, the awesome buildings, the awesome fact that we were sitting beside the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, and it was all just as marvelous as it could be (well, besides the fact that steven wasn’t there to share it with).
It didn’t take long to find the street with our new home away from home on it once we arrived on Lido, and soon we were being shown into and around a beautiful 3 bedroom suite in a classic Italian Villa (of which we also have pictures), by a silly and wonderfully nice little man. He made certain that we knew that the gate was a little sticky, that BBC came in clearly with a few adjustments to the TV (in case we needed to watch “English news”), and that we were welcome to everything and anything in the kitchen and that the washing machine was a little complicated, so if we needed to clean any clothes we should just give him a call at home.
We were very appreciative of his kindness, however we were practically dancing in place by the time he had finished. The late afternoon shade and the situation of the back yard caused it at that moment to be absolutely swarming with mosquitoes, and I watched in horror as they flowed through the very open doorway to where we were standing in the hall. I don’t think I have ever seen Chelsea run as fast for anything (well maybe besides a nice cold Coca Cola) as she did for her bug spray once our tour had finished and our little host was paid and had left. It was too late though, and today we are all suffering from it.
This morning was quite an exciting morning as we had so much time to do whatever we wanted with. We decided first to head down to the beach, across the remarkably narrow Island. We turned left at the end of our street and in 5 minutes found ourselves in the middle of miles of sandy warm beach. The peaceful Adriatic Sea lay in front of us, and it only took mild coercing on Chelsea and Jo’s part to get us all out and swimming (all except Jord, who preferred the warm sand and a good book to the chilly ocean). Afterwards we lied in the sun for only an hour, but are all pink to show for it. Then we bustled back to our little home where we made a scrumptious lunch before we headed into the big city for the afternoon.
We got nicely lost on our first excursion into the maze of Venice, and marveled at how many people there were, at how narrow the streets were, at how beautiful the buildings were, and at how many ice-cream and t-shirt stands we passed. There must have been 20 of each. We made good use of the former though, and tested out several more flavors of wonderfully homemade Italian ice cream.
We finally returned to our Island with sore feet and some even pinker cheeks☺. My hair is still sticky with salt water and my skin smells like sunscreen, but I don’t care. I’m deliciously tired and am excited to see what our second day in Venice will bring.
We miss you all ~ God Bless
-Kait

PS. I’m planning to upload this blog tomorrow morning (Oct. 4th) from a small interent café just down the street. Afterwards, Im not sure how long it will be until we have access again. We’re headed to the Cinquo Terre from the 5th until the 9th, and then we’re either going up to Bologna, or down and into some of the small hill-towns north of Rome. We will keep you posted when possible, and until then know that we are thinking of you, and muchly appreciate your prayers and emails. Ciao;)