That's amore!

Well, folks, not much to say about today. We woke up this morning and grabbed a breakfast of croissants (Katie's with chocolate inside and Rachael's with vanilla creamy deliciousness) and each had a cafe latte. It took us awhile but we've learned that you have to ask for a cafe latte because if you just say "cafe" they bring you a teeny weeny cup of espresso. Same amount of caffeine, but doesn't taste good at all! Apparently normal drip coffee doesn't exist in Europe.

After our nutritious breakfast, we went to check out the Rialto Bridge by day. It's really cool! It is lined with neat shops and there are different vendors and customers all over the place. It's a really fun atmosphere. We basically walked around and window shopped all day. We had lunch around 1:30 and then went back to the store where we bought the wine stoppers yesterday and took advantage of the amazing sale they were having. We bought some more souvenirs and gifts for family and then headed back to the hotel to drop off our goodies.

When we set back out, we walked around for awhile and bumped into a group of three women that we'd spoken to on the train in yesterday. We chatted for a little while about where they were staying and what they've been up to. We learned that they were from Alaska and have basically been traveling all over Italy for a month. The Woodmere Gang was on a mission to find out about going on a gondola ride so we parted ways with our new friends. Turns out, gondola rides are stinkin' expensive!

We guess they charge it because they can, but they were asking for 80 Euro. A. RIDE. There was no way we were going to pay 40 Euro apiece so we started to walk away when the gondolier told us he'd give us a special price of 70 Euro. Ummm, NOT a deal, dude. We both decided we'd be okay with ditching our dream of going on a gondola ride. We walked off and then passed back by that bridge a little while later when the gondolier chased us down and told us he had talked to his boss and that his last offer was 60 Euro. That's 80 American dollars, folks, and equal four nights in a hostel. No way.

But then, Katie had a brilliant idea! Alaska could make our dreams come true! We knew which direction our three new Alaksan friends were heading and we thought that maybe, just maybe, we'd be able to find them again and talk them into splitting the gondola with us. We searched every corner of St. Mark's Square (joker's big, btw) and up and down the maze of streets and canals, high and low. We were both on the verge of giving up, when lo and behold, in the distance, at an ATM, shining like the Holy Grail, we spot them! "ALASKA!" we yell, over and over! "ALASKA!" And we run to them in slow mo, epic movie-style. Okay, a lot of that sounds like an exaggeration but we did yell "ALASKA!" a few times upon spotting them and it was basically a miracle that we found them at all. We presented them with our idea and it turns out they'd been wanting to do a gondola ride, too. It was perfect! So they followed us back to the bridge where we'd first talked to the gondolier and he wasn't there. But another gondolier was. And he was cute.

We were only able to talk this guy down to 75 Euro but we liked the idea of splitting that five ways a lot better than splitting it two ways! So we all piled in. The Alaska trio was sweet enough to yield the romantic seat for two to the Woodmere Gang, so the two of us cuddled up real sweet. We went through some of the small canals and then entered the Grand Canal and passed under the Rialto Bridge. We got to see Marco Polo's house and also where Giacomo Casanova used to live.

We were sad when our gondola ride ended, but felt it was definitely worth the 15 Euro we each paid. We probably wouldn't pay much more than that, though. We chatted with the Alaska trio a little more before going our separate ways. We headed back to the hotel to drop some more things off and then set out in search of postcards and dinner.

We ended up going on a walkabout of epic proportions. We basically walked without stopping for nearly three and a half hours. It started off slow. We were just trying to find somewhere to eat that didn't cost an arm and a leg. Venice is expensive, by the way. Then, we somehow found the residential section of Venice. We didn't know it existed, but basically there was nothing. For a long time, we only saw houses and not a single souvenir shop or overpriced restaurant. Finally, when Katie could go no longer without food (she gets mean when she ain't fed, btw) we found a place that sold kebabs and pizza. Those are two offerings that are guaranteed to be cheap. So, we perched on stools for about 10 minutes to scarf down some food and then set out again. We were still pretty far from anything touristy or recognizable so we kept on walking. Finally, we found some kiosks selling junk so we figured we were headed the right direction. When we still didn't recognize anything, Rachael finally pulled out her iPhone and figured out that St. Mark's Square was a nice stretch back in the direction we'd just come. Brilliant. So, we did an about-face and finally made our way back to St. Mark's Square. At this point, we were both in dire need of wine, so we shelled out the eight and half Euro they were charging and enjoyed resting our feet after our ridiculous walkabout. One cool thing we noticed was that there were a couple of small puddles in the square that kept growing!

When we inspected them, we saw that there were holes between the cobblestones so that water can come through when the tide comes in. There are postcards that show gondolas on the square when the water gets really high! After enjoying our wine, we came back to the hotel and uploaded our photos and then hit the hay. Our plan for tomorrow: go to Florence! See ya there!

XOXO K&R