Giorno 89, 5 April: Lost in Venice

Hotel Alloggi Agli Artisti, Venice, Italy, Giorno 89. Lost in Venice

       For two and a half hours in the evening, the five of us (minus Vinnie who had retreated to the hotel early) wandered around in search of San Marco Square in Venice. After a day of traveling, getting up late and leaving the Milanese zebra hostel by noon, we arrived by train in Venice in the early afternoon and wandered all day through the meandering alleyways of the labyrintheza di Veneza (okay, I made that one up, but Venice is a labyrinth of pedestrian side-streets).

      At the train station, we all had to say bye to Mo, since he had to head back to Norwich for a week-long class trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. We were sad to see him go. Vito missed playing Mo’s smartphone game called ‘Temple Run’, while Joe kept saying ‘Mo-isms’ like ‘chilling so hard’ and phrases starting with ‘swag’. 

      On the train I studied my 3-euro Italian translation book, as Vito did as well, and I picked up a little more of the language, at least enough to ask ‘what is the next train station?’ I need not have asked, though. One can tell Venice is next once the water becomes the only thing outside the windows. 

      The hotel being close by, we dropped down our stuff and headed off to a pasta dinner in a faraway square. The noodles were a little dry, to be honest, but it felt like Italy with the olive oil and vinegar on the table for the bread. Then came the glorious taste of gelato—almost all of us got three flavours, stacked high out of the cone. I relished this so much.

Despite how much I like food, I had two highlights of this day that didn’t include food:

San Marco Square

1.     Being in San Marco Square in the light of a dark blue, evening sky. We walked to the edge of the pavement near the docks and enjoyed the breeze. 

1.5. Since this occurred between the two highlights, this point is appropriately one and a half: On our way back from the Square, we just relied on instinct rather than a map, dooming us to a longer journey. But it was appropriate to take a scenic route in our one night in Venice. We were lost in Venice—and enjoyed it. We crossed over bridge after bridge and saw and photographed gondolas, canals, and white marble buildings. At one point, Devon’s feet hurt so Caitlin generously offered her her shoes. The shoes unfortunately weren’t a good fit, so the heroic Joe gave her a piggyback ride for a bit. Team effort right there.

The collapse of Vito's bed

2.     Once back at the hotel, we called it an early night (relatively). We all were in the same room, the girls in the double bed and each guy with his own single. It really felt like a slumber party—and it became one basically. As has happened to me a lot, the real memorable parts occur in a slumber party when the lights are about to go off. The first burst of laughter occurred once half of Vito’s bed literally fell to the floor. After five minutes of shifting his bed back into place, Vito balanced himself back onto the bed, but now his toes were literally in Joe’s face. Joe made a fuss and moved his bed toward the centre of the room. Then he played footsies with Caitlin, whose toes were now close to his. I got up to get something and then jumped onto my bed, making a loud sound of wood cracking. Another bed astray. Luckily, the boards had just slipped, so Joe helped me put them back into place. Next, there was the flickering light that wouldn’t go off until we found the right switch. The room started getting too hot too, so I stripped down, announcing to everyone that I was going to sleep in the nude. I didn’t really, but all the guys slept shirtless like me. Ghost stories concluded the evening and sleep arose soon after.