Why David, What Big Feet You Have!

After Vicenza, Bridget and I headed to Venice. We woke up early and hopped an 8:30 train. We got into the city around 9:00 and made our way across the Rialto Bridge towards San Marco Square. Half of the roads in Venice dead end, so even though we were trying to take the route not marked by signs, it was pretty hard. We ended up on the street below, which was incredibly thin.


We made it to San Marco and did a quick sketch. There were a bunch of tourists standing among the hoards of pidgeons and taking pictures of the pidgeons landing on their arms and heads. It was gross. And at some point during the day I got pooped on, luckily it was on the leg, and I figured chances are it was sometime when we were around the birds. We then walked a little behind the square and went to a museum which was partially designed by Carlo Scarpa. He designed the exhibit rooms so that if the canals flooded you could still walk in the spaces. We weren't technically allowed to take photos, but Bridget and I snuck our cameras in and were able to take a few shots.


After about 2 hours of sketching (we had to make the 6 euro entry fee worth it) we headed to find a mask, Bridget wanted to get one for her godmother. We looked in several incredible mask stores, I couldn't believe how intricate some of the masks were. My favorite ones were scroll cut metal, but they were over 100 euro which was not worth it to me.


After Bridget found a mask, we went and looked for Cannoli. A few days ago I realized I hadn't had one since I had been in Italy. The ones we found in Venice were delicious. After the dessert, we wandered town a bit more, somewhat successfully getting lost, and then we hopped a train to Florence.


Oh and for all you 24 fans, Venice has a Hotel Bauer.


We got into Florence around 9:30 at night and settled into our Hostel around 10. The next morning we got up early, got some cappuccino and made our way to the David (which for some reason I kept calling micheal). We waited in line for about 20 minutes but then didn't end up going in the museum because it was too expensive and there was no student discount. He is right in the beginning of the museum though, so we could see him through the lobby. And man is he huge. We walked over to the Duomo and there was surprisingly no line to get in, so we began our ascent right away.


It was remarkable to be inside the Duomo and once we got to the top Bridget and I hung out for about an hour and a half sketching. And then we ate some potato chips and they were delicious.


On the way down Bridget noticed this beauty of a mural on the inside of the Dome, which yes is a church.


We wandered around Florence for the rest of the afternoon and sketched a bit on a bridge. In the main Piazza they have a replica of David which stands were the original used to be.

We walked a bit more and then headed back to Rome. The only tickets on the next train were first class and so we went back in style. We even got free coffee and peanuts and very nice cushy seats.


Once we were back in Rome we ended up going to get sushi which was delicious. We were both so tired we just lazed around all night.

nuns:223 priests:111