Is not quite as much fun when it's crowded and cold. But still very, very pretty.

I can't even begin to explain all the things we did today. We started at 9am and had breakfast, which was our first real culture shock. We got tiny cups we could put juice in, yogurt, and bread. There was also proccitto (i have no idea how to spell it, but it's like raw bacon that looks like salami) and slices of cheese. Then came the croissants! They weren't as good as I was expecting, but maybe that's my fault.

We went to ducal palace, which was just huge, and ill show pictures of later. We crossed the bridge of sighs to get into the prison, which was freezing and creepy but really interesting. I'm curious what kind of crime a person would commit to get there. This all took about 2 hours, so we were pretty hungry. We had some free time to sit on the dock, and a bunch of the group ended up joining us to sit in the sun. We walked to the arsenal, which was pretty complicated. Everywhere in Venice is either waterways or back alleys, and it takes some getting used to to feel comfortable Just wandering through dark corners in foreign countries. More on that later.

Megan and I wandered around trying to find food, and while I'm getting more comfortable just exploring, ordering food is still pretty scary to me. Especially because we try to find
Places with less touristy areas, but then we end up with people that don't speak Italian. The man we ordered from was not happy about all these English speaking people in his store. I need to start bringing more snacks around with me, If I want to save money.

We got to l'academia, which is a big art gallery that used to be a school for artists. We got to see feast in the house of Levi, which was HUGE. I won't give a history lesson, but I was excited to find it. I have a picture of my favorite painting from the gallery that I'll post someday when I learn how to do that- one step at a time.

We went to the school of San roco (I'm totally not spelling that right, but it's 1am and my roommates are sleeping and I don't have any way to check) which we referred to as "Tintoretto-ville" since it was just a huge room of his frescoes. They actually give you mirrors so that you can look at all the paintings on the ceiling without craining your neck. We also saw his crucifixion painting, which was pretty moving.

The scheduled events of the day ended with the Church of friari, which was an incredibly spiritual place. It's one huge church, with what seems like hundreds of altars and sculptures and tombs. A lot of us ended up praying, which i think is important. This art was designed to help aid ones spiritual journey, and I think people like seeing it still bring used that way.

We were Freezing at this point, so before Megan Marietta Erin and I went anywhere else we went back to the room to change. Then Jackie came over and we decided to try and find some shops. This was around 7, so it was starting to get dark, and we were going to keep our eyes open for food, as well. That's when some antics started that I'll have to finish up with tomorrow!