Saturday morning was another early one for us. We woke up at 8 am to head down to breakfast and then left to go tour the Cathedral. Unfortunately, we hadn’t checked the times, and it turns out it was closed until 10. So we consulted our maps and looked for some other landmarks to visit. We first went back to Ponte Vecchio, which several had not yet seen and watched as the jewelers set up shop for the day. We crossed the bridge and walked by Palazzo Pitti, which had been the home of the Medici family in Florence. It was expensive to go inside, so we chose to go visit some free churches instead. We had to be back at 10:30 to meet for our tour of Galleria dell’Accademia, so we took a circuitous route back towards the hotel. First we stopped at a church called Santo Spirito. It was pretty cool, but by now they have all kind of run together. Then we went to Santa Maria del Carmine followed by San Frediano in Cestello. We crossed back over the bridge and then arrived back at our hotel with a few minutes to rest before leaving.

Next we walked over to Accademia and met up with our tour guides from the previous day. I made sure to get with Rocky again. We went inside and headed straight to the David by Michelangelo. It was even more impressive than I had imagined. We weren’t supposed to take pictures but I managed to snap a quick one. Rocky gave us a long yet interesting breakdown of the statue and its history, which probably lasted about an hour. I enjoyed every second of it. Then we went back to the beginning to look at some other statues by Michelangelo, which he hadn’t finished. They were statues of slaves that were meant to adorn the grave of one of the Popes. I love hearing about Michelangelo, since he is my favorite artist, so this was a really enjoyable tour for me. We stayed here for another 30 minutes and then left the museum. I’m not really sure what else was there besides Michelangelo, but I’m okay having not seen it. At this point we joined the other half of our group, and their tour guide gave us a walking tour of Florence. In reality, this just consisted of walking back to the Cathedral and going inside, but whatever. I actually didn’t enjoy her too much and ended up leaving with some others to go do some shopping. We found some good stuff and then headed to lunch, going back to the same place from the previous day. They didn’t have their great deal this time, though, since it was the weekend, but it was still a really good meal. Afterwards we went back to the hotel to grab our bags, and Mike, Kara, Amanda and I left for the train station. The rest of the group was headed back to Rome, but we had decided to take a trip up to Venice for the night. We found train tickets and boarded almost immediately. The train was about two and a half hours, and I spent most of it working on my ISE homework, which actually made the trip seem quite short. I also read up on my information book that Nani and Jim gave me about both Florence and Venice. It was quite helpful, and I loved the pictures from the 70’s. Not surprisingly, not much has changed, since there aren’t really any cars in Venice.

So we arrived in Venice around 6ish, and as soon as we left the train station we were again hit with a beautiful view. We walked out and saw gondolas passing by on the river and it was just so cool. We crossed the river to our hotel, which we had actually booked Friday morning online. We had thought we had a great deal at 70 euro for all four of us, but it turns out it was 70 for each of two rooms. Oh well, it was still pretty good for Venice. That night we had been hoping to visit St. Mark’s Basilica since we heard it was closed most of Sunday. However, I had found a Rick Steve’s Guide to Venice book downstairs and it said the basilica closed at 5. This was disappointing, but we decided to walk over to St. Mark’s square anyways. We borrowed Rick Steve’s book and went on our way. We quickly discovered what I think is my favorite thing about Venice. On almost every corner they actually have signs! They only really point to major landmarks, but they were lifesavers for us. I think it was the first trip we took without getting lost! So we followed the signs to Rialto Bridge, which is a large triangle shaped bridge which also has many shops on it and is quite famous. It was cool but packed with tourists. So we continued on toward St. Mark’s Square and quickly found it with the help of the glorious signs. We passed my tons of cool looking shops selling just about everything imaginable, and Amanda was about to hyperventilate at all the shopping she could be doing. But we were on a mission. Anyways, St. Mark’s square was pretty impressive, surrounded by water on one side, the Basilica on another, and the Correr Museum on the other two. Throw in the Ducal Palace, a bell tower, and a clock tower and it is just breathtaking. We wandered through here for about an hour, and then hunger took control. We consulted Rick Steve, who quickly became my new best friend, and found a cool looking seafood place not too far away. To be honest, we did get a wee bit lost on the way, but it was actually marked wrong on the map. It was only about a 5 minute detour, so I don’t count it. The restaurant was pretty quiet, and it was nice to get away from the crowds of tourists. I split a plate of cuttlefish and a plate of mixed seafood with Amanda. The food was pretty exotic and it was quite fun. There were little fish, maybe sardines, that were fried and crusty and that we ate whole. They were kinda like French fries, but with a little more flavor…yum! Then there was calamari (boring), and some other kind of fish that was complete with head and guts. I ate most of it, minus the guts and the eyes. I think I even ate a few bones by mistake. Finally, there was the cuttlefish, which is an ink fish similar to octopus. It was prepared in a sauce containing its own ink and looked about like you would expect it to. I was worried I would have a Heath Ledger moment from the Patriot with black-stained teeth. But the ink was harmless and actually tasted quite good. It was an adventure to say the least, but what doesn’t kill ya makes ya stronger I guess.

Then Rick Steve told us about a great gelato place. We took his word for it and went, and it was indeed delicious. They had some new flavor that was good, but I forget the name. They also had some delicious mint chip, which is the first I’ve had here. We walked back as we ate and called it a night at about 11. Yet again, we had another busy day ahead of us.