Spring break 2014, ITALY!! Part 1

Spring break 2014 in Italy! So far Italy is the best place I've ever been, in the same day I was in 60 degree sunny weather in the Island City of Venice and then about 7,000 feet high surrounded by 5 feet of snow in the alps...thankfully the sun and warm wearer followed us to the mountains as it's very sunny and about 30-40 degrees at the base of the ski resort and beautiful skiing weather! Everyone here has been really friendly also.. I read Psalm 91 for devotions yesterday and that's exactly how I've felt the past few days... We've met so many helpful people.
 In Venice, the apartment owner, Claude, picked us up from the train station and had wine for that night and breakfast food for the morning waiting for us in his adorable apartment. He provided us with a map, free bus and boat taxi passes, and several recommendations of restaurants and sights to see in Venice! Venice was absolutely beautiful!! There really are canals everywhere, you either ride by boat or walk because there are no cars on the island. On Sunday, it was the start of their annual festival so everyone was dressed up like medieval people with hug hoop skirts, ruffled tops, wigs, and masks.

The city was packed with tourists and vendors. We were able to watch the angel drop across a zip line in the city square which was a celebrated tradition for the kickoff of the festival.

The rest of the day, we walked along the central canal and tried yummy Italian pizza, Italian gelato, and warm sangria. We explored several tourist shops with paintings and festive masks. The best part of the day was sitting by the canal in the warm sun! There literally wasn't a cloud in the sky!

Another highlight was riding through the small canals in the gondole surrounded by historic and beautiful scenery and buildings!

We ended the day with some warm sangria (yum!) watching the sunset along the grand canal!

When we were ready to leave, we went back to the train station. We had found throughout the day that not many Italians knew English, making it difficult to ask directions or for help. While staring at the bus schedule, looking quite confused, someone asked "can we help you" two Mormon missionaries were leaving Venice and traveling almost the same route that we needed to take back to our apartment so they offered to show us the way...another blessing! The next morning we all were up and ready to set off to our next destination, Cam and I were headed to the Italian alps for skiing! We spent about an hour sipping Italian coffee and sitting by the central canal before we took the three hour train trip to Belluno. Belluno is an adorable town! We had a couple hours to kill before our bus took off so we walked around the city and stopped in a cafe for lunch. The city had a beautiful central park and several cafés along the center. It was obviously quite old but was clean and very well taken care of. We wished we had more time there! Once we found the bus, we realized how difficult it would be to get to our hotel because of the several bus changes. Cam and I were discussing this and trying to ask for clarification from the driver, but yet again we couldn't communicate quite well enough. A man who knew more English must've overheard us and helped lay out all the bus changes. throughout the journey he reminded us of every bus change, it was such a blessing to have met him! Once we reached the ski village, we had another problem of finding our hotel, the bus driver didn't recognize the address so he dropped us off at the stop. We went across the street to a hotel to ask directions, the receptionist smiled and dialed a number..minutes later the hotel owner showed up and brought us to our hotel! We've definitely had some stereotypical American tourist troubles...but thankfully we've met some very helpful people along the way! Currently I'm nestled in the Italian alps in an adorable family owned and run hotel right next to a ski lift! The accommodations are great and the skiing even better...that blog update will be coming soon!! Spring break 2014 off to a great start!!!!!