Trip to Italy 2005

Set off Monday night in a rental car with GPS - which was very handy and made the trip a bit easier! Drove south from Ramstein toward the Austrian and German boarder - ended up staying the night in Garmisch (a German village nestled amongst the German and Austrian Alps). Tuesday morning hit the road again this time traveling through Austria via back roads to avoid the exorbitant autobahn tolls. The autobahn makes for a faster trip but you miss all the cool villages and winding back roads. This length of the trip was filled with breath taking views of snow caped mountain peaks and rust colored valleys. October is a good time to travel through because the weather hasn't become bitter cold and snowy yet and the change of seasons is overly apparent with red and gold leaves decorating the forests.

The Alps

Castle on the side of the road in Austria

The Italian Dolomites

After a long day of driving we arrived in Venice Italy about 3 pm in the afternoon. The hunt was on for a cheap place to stay... Venice is broke up into two sections one is the mainland which is modern with a mix of industry, apartment buildings, and agriculture - nothing unique or out of the ordinary, in-fact with out the sign that says your entering "VENICE" I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference from every other northern Italian town. Once you get into the mainland you can cross a very long bridge to Venice Island - which is the Venice we all know and recognize from movies and travel shows. If you drive across the bridge you must park your car (a small fee of about $25 a day!) and carry on by foot or boat. As you can imagine staying on the "island" as I have come to call it- is quite expensive and you have to either pay to have a water taxi take you to a hotel or drag your luggage through the labyrinth of foot path and alleys until you find one. If you choose to stay on the mainland you can take the public bus to the "island" - it ended up only being about a 15 min ride at the very affordable price of $1.50 - round trip.

What is really surprising about this area of Italy is the number of "camp grounds" they have, you can park in a field and sleep in your car for a mere 20 dollars a night, I was of the mind to sleep in a bed so we found a reasonably priced and clean hotel on the mainland- "Hotel Lucky."

"Hotel Lucky"

After getting situated in the hotel and figuring out the bus schedule (the Italian hotel manager spoke about as much English as I speak Italian so he wasn't much help.) We finally made our way to the famous and beautiful Venice!! During the day the weather was foggy but once night had fallen the city glowed and its lights reflecting off the water filled canals. - Very beautiful, enough to take your breath away.

Yep that's a seagull...

One thing about Venice that struck me as odd – at first- was how clean it was, no trash really to be found on the foot paths, now one might conclude that they are just “clean” -but a lack of trash cans led me to the conclusion that they just throw everything into the canals- don’t let the water’s beautiful milky blue-green color fool you I am sure it’s loaded with whatever was laying in the streets…

Watch Your Step!

Tuesday night I wanted to see St. Marco's Square and it ended up taking awhile to find - but worth the long and windy trek- It wasn't overly crowed and the air was filled with violin and piano music from the fancy cafes. The journey back to the bus pickup point ended up being very very long - I think we took the most circuitous path possible- and not on purpose!

On Wednesday morning we made it back to the "island" and had Italian Espresso and croissants at a small cafe- I would like to say "with the locals" but unforetunely even in the "off season" Americans and Brits out number Italians. So amongst the other numerous tourists we enjoyed our strong coffee and then set out to explore the wonders of more winding alleys, beautiful cathedrals, and numerous canal bridges!

During the day St. Marcos was much less romantic and filled to the gills with tourists, pigeons, and vendors. Don't get me wrong it was still a beautiful sight to behold but a little overwhelming. I spent a good deal of time looking out for what seemed to be the inevitable “bird poo on the head.” No worries -I survived and even got the courage up to feed the little buggers. After a stint in line at the famous and gold plated St. Marco's cathedral- I was lucky enough to see Italian "war booty" from the crusades and bones of various saints and bishops long dead (Oh, how exciting) as well as many gold panels and precious stones-Now that was cool;)

St. Marco's Cathedral In the Backgound...I'm not too sure about this...

The day commenced with another winding journey through a vast number of foot paths lined with mask shops, Italian leather, jewelry, shoe, and purse stores.
Even there... and ... Burger King! Peace be with you :-)

In the end I can say I have now eaten my share of Italian Pizza and Ice cream and it was good :)

Love you guys- Sarah

P.S. I have many more photos but man does it take forever to load them....