...and that's a lot to know about Italy

Wow, so I really thought after last weekend that life couldn’t get better, but since this is my life in Italy….apparently I have to reevaluate that statement every week, because my birthday weekend in Venice was a total blast! We arrived in Venice by train Friday and after checking into our trailer park hostel (no joke, I stayed in a trailer) my friends and I headed into the main island of Venice. Words cannot describe how beautiful it was, so take a look at the pictures and see for yourself. I have to admit, it was so perfect that it kind of felt like I was at Disney World and that it was all being staged at points. The gondola ride we took that night was one of those moments. The past few weeks in Italy have been Carnivale (Mardi Gras, euro style!) and the largest celebration is in Venice, so it was the perfect time to visit the city. There were celebrations all over the city during the day and large concerts in main piazzas at night. After a fun night out on Friday we returned to our trailors to find that our heat didn’t work but since it was so late there was no one at the front desk (more like front trailor) to solve our problem, so my friend Catie and I literally pulled our beds together and had to spoon for the night to stay warm in our many many layers of clothes that we put on. I can’t say that I’ve ever been that cold for that long before…it was pretty awful. The next morning we woke up to discover that the few blankets that we did have were also very prone to shedding, and since we slept with our coats on to stay warm we had white fuzz covering every inch of our black coats (this is common for me at home with dog hair, but not even Jake and Baker could have done this kind of damage!). So after finding out at the front desk that they had forgotten to give us the remote for the heater Catie and I walked around Venice on Saturday with fuzzy coats. On Saturday we walked around and got lost a few times, but found the Rialto Bridge, Piazza Margherita, and the island of Murano. We took a water taxi to Murano to see the local glass blowing workshops, it was really fun to get in a boat and be on the water and it was a neat way to see other parts of the city. For lunch we bought some bread and cheese and ate in Piazza Margherita. A gypsy came up to us for money and my friend Bri kept telling her no, so the gypsy touched Bri’s hair and said something that we didn’t understand (basically she cursed Bri), hehe. After Murano and lunch we continued to walk around and had dinner at a nice place with my friend Catie’s boyfriends friends, some of which I’ll be traveling to Munich with next weekend. From there on we wandered through the streets and celebrations until very late into the night to celebrate my 21st birthday….yada yada yada. We returned to Florence last night at 6PM safe and sound! It was a fantastic weekend!