You Can Stand Under My Ummmmbrella, ella, ella.

So you've heard. Venice is the "City of Water". Well you have never seen it quite like this before (or maybe you have, and I'm wildly underestimating you).
Well here is my Venice experience...raining, pouring at some points even. But even with all the rain, and terribly cold wind just threatening to blow my skirt up at any moment, the city was beautiful. I loved it! I think I took like 180 pictures, if that tells you anything.

So we had to wake up and be on the train by 8:15 which really wasn't that bad. Maybe I was just super excited so I was wide awake. I don't really understand the Italian train system...this small yellow box has to stamp something on my ticket and eat a little square hole out of it, for them to know that it is valid? But it has the train number, date, time, destination and even seat number already printed on the ticket so I don't think I could very well use it for any other train. Hmm. More on the train system later...
We were all spread out a little throughout the train because we hadn't bought our tickets together, and we had bought them quite close to the day we wanted to leave. But it was alright we were close enough on the way there that Kathryn and Jessica were able to talk (they happened to end up right across from each other) and Nora was sitting right behind me. I was sitting next to this American guy named Adriano. He was neat, we talked for a while and ended up having a lot in common. The train ride was almost three hours long I think, but it really didn't seem as long as I thought it would. Most of the ride was quite pretty. Although as we kept getting closer and closer to Venice the weather got worse and worse. First just dark and dreary...and then rainy, and by the time we got to Venice I swear a full on monsoon had broken out. No not really. I exaggerate. Hehe.
So we get off the train and the six of us reunite! And then trek through the rain and slippery ground to find a cute little restaurant to have some lunch at (and shelter from the cold). The 'waiter" was really rude, but that seems to be a trend among how some people treat us Americans. We discussed this at lunch and I was enlightened on Italians views of our government, president and there for us individuals. Lovely. When we were done with lunch the rain had seemed to die down a little but the cold wind was definitely still there...too bad. But we walked around the city to take pictures. Because like I've said before Venice was still SO beautiful even when raining and somewhat dreary, any other city wouldn't have been this wonderful given the conditions. We stopped into little shops, glass is a huge thing here, they make jewelry, vases, clocks and really just about anything out of. And it's all so gorgeous. So that was fun to look at. Especially the small shops were they were working on the glass right in the front room and you could watch as you walked around and looked at everything. It's like art!
Went went to Piazza San Marco which is the famous square in Venice, and it's huge. It has a TON...and I mean like a MILLION pigeons. I've found from this trip...that well I really do not like pigeons. And these birds are so not afraid of people at all. They come flying right over your head nearly flapping you with their wings (actually one did flap me in the face, haha). They just aren't scared of getting that close to people. Also in the square is this huge amazing church that visitors are able to walk into and view. The ceiling is made out of small gold tiles and is pretty spectacular. I have a couple pictures I will post, but for the most part you aren't allowed to bring cameras in.
It did finally clear up about two hours before we had to leave, which was nice. I was able to get some good pictures of the sun shinning off the water and all that jazz. But then we did have to leave, and I really didn't want to because man if I thought Venice was beautiful while it was raining, it was nothing compared to when the sun was shinning.