Venice

Our travels to Italy began at 6:09 in the morning, boarding the tram to the main train station. With us we had 2 large roller suitcases, Kate's hiking backpack, and 6 backpacks with books and necessities for the journey. Our train to Milan left from Zürich's Hauptbahnhof at 7:01- on the longer train trips we usually have reserved seats so we aren't trying to search through all the cars for enough empty seats together. The trip took about 3.5 hours and wound through some incredible valleys in the Alps. One section goes through the famous Gotthard tunnel which is 15 km and was built in the late 1800s. The mountains still have snow on them, but the valleys are greening up quickly and the sheep and cows are now out in the pastures. We traveled through one picturesque village after another with classic Swiss farmhouses and barns, old churches, and even a few castles. There are also some beautiful lakes: Zugsee, Lucern, and as we crossed the border to Italy, Lakes Lugano and Como. Milan's train station was crowded, smoky, and dirty, so the kids and I stood by the bags and sent Kate and Travis to pick out lunch while we watched to see what track our train to Venice would be on. As soon as the track number went up on the electric board, a huge swarm of people headed in the same direction, and the train was nearly filled to capacity. The landscape had changed from mountains and lakes to farm fields and smaller hills as we came closer to Milan. Traveling west towards Venice we saw vineyards, fields of rapeseed or canola oil, and lots of olive trees and typical Italian villas. There was a young girls sitting next to Travis and although she spoke very little English, she was interested in the horse MRI he was looking at and told him she wanted to be a Veterinarian when she grew up.

We arrived in Venice by 2pm and after scheduling our train trip to Levanto, hopped on the water taxi to get to our B&B. Leif was immediately fascinated by all the different types of boats. Besides the famous gondolas, there is a typical Venetian style of motor boat- long and narrow. The water taxi took us to Rialto Mercato, one of the bigger markets in Venice and we walked down the narrow streets with our bags, winding our way through the many tourists. We haven't heard very much English since we've moved to Switzerland, especially American english, but in Venice there are so many visitors it seemed as if Americans were everywhere. Even the Europeans were using english to communicate with merchants if they had limited Italian. It was damp and drizzly the first afternoon and evening in Venice, but we were still able to enjoy walking to the San Marco piazza where there is an imperial palace and impressive basilica. Venice is built on 18 small islands and from the waterfront near the piazza of San Marco you look across at several of the islands that are farther away. The canals and the seaport are busy with boats of all kinds. One day we saw a huge cruise ship, a replica sailing ship, a 3 hulled catamaran, and a large personal yacht, in addition to all the gondolas, motor boats, barges, and water taxis. The second day we were in Venice was beautiful and sunny. We walked around again and then took a gondola ride in the afternoon. In order to become a gondolier you have to be born in Venice and come from a line of gondoliers (and you must be male). Some of our favorite sights were the laundry hanging out of many of the windows of the buildings, the wistaria growing on fences and garden gates, all the beautiful bridges, the narrow alley ways, and the naval museum.

We ate gelato at least once a day while we were in Italy- you'll see it recorded in the photos. The kids' favorite flavors were usually chocolate of some sort- one of the best was chocolate fondente, a very rich, dark chocolate. Kate and I counted that we had tried at least 10 different flavors (each!) by the end of the trip.