Our group arrived at the Venice International Airport around 9am (4am Indianapolis time). We were all very tired, and I felt totally overwhelmed immediately as we listened to our tour guide explaining our itinerary. Our guide's name is Laura, and she's from Rome. She's very nice and informative, but it was hard to focus on what she was saying in the hustle and bustle of the airport. People were everywhere and everyone was speaking Italian.
The first thing I noticed about the people was the way that they dressed. Italian men dress very well. Tailored jeans, expensive Italian leather shoes, and perfectly styled hair is the norm here. Women were wearing heals and lovely scarves.
After we all found our luggage, we loaded up on to a tour bus that was going to take us across the lagoon to our hotel, Le Petit Palais. The bus actually drove on to a ferry, which crossed the lagoon and disembarked again on another one of Venice's many islands. Again, cars aren't used in Venice. People are transported via boat and then walk everywhere.
After leaving the bus, we had the afternoon to ourselves. My mom and I went off on our own and had lunch outside at a small cafe. We shared a pizza and enjoyed coffee and cappuccino . After lunch, we shopped, looked at the beautiful buildings, and enjoyed some gelato.
Back at our hotel, which is right on the beach, we collected sea shells and admired the Adriatic Sea. There were so many dogs on the beach and it made me miss my pups back home. I noticed that no one really used leashes. Dogs were content to run or walk around free while their owners collected shells. The dogs were so well-behaved too! They adopted their owner's laid-back, friendly attitudes towards strangers.
Speaking of friendly attitudes, I was nervous about having conversations with waiters here because I do not speak Italian at all. The first time I had to talk to someone was in the cafe where we had lunch. I walked up to the counter and the hostess said, "Ciao" (Hi). I replied by saying,"I'm very sorry, but I don't speak Italian. Do you speak English?". She was so nice to me, and said "Oh yeah! English is fine" and lead me to a great seat outside. I did my best to say, "Grazie!" and got over my fear pretty quickly. Our guide told us that Italians appreciate it when you at least try to communicate in their language.
Tomorrow, we're going on a guided tour of Venice in the morning and then we'll have all day to explore on our own again.
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