I like the geometric shapes on this building. Staring at it too long makes me think that the picture has suddenly become pixelated.

Another church, but if you look at the water line and the steps, you can see how far up the water goes during high tide.

The courtyard of Doge Palace. In the center on top of the points were all these different statues.

Another lion but just the head. It’s just an interesting jumble of armor, weapons, etc.

Need to send any secret mail? The mail is put through the mouth. I think this was used to anonymously report on people.

The entrance into Doge’s Palace. Piazza San Macro was already pretty crowded to me. I can’t imagine what’s it like when it’s even more crowded and hectic.

The clock tower in Piazza San Marco. It’s got the zodiac on the inner ring of the clock. The winged lion is actually Venice’s emblem? Not sure what word to use but everywhere we went there were flags, statues, etc of the winged lion and most of the time holding a book. My friend was tempted to get a flag but it was pretty expensive even for a small one.

St. Mark’s Basilica. My friend tutored me on pronouncing ‘basilica’ but I’m not sure if I can say it right still. Maybe if I say it slowly. ^^;;; The line to get in was confusing and somewhat scattered. I still wonder what it looks like when it’s even more crowded and cringe. The inside was gigantic but beautiful.

Lunch was lasagna and squid ink spaghetti. The squid ink one wasn’t bad but the lasagna was overcooked. But it’s eating by Piazza San Marco – really tourist spot. I think if there is a next time, either go to a recommended place or walk further out.

Just a random pic. Upon finding out that chocolate-covered altoids existed… I cringed. I probably should have just tried one but they scare me. ^^;;;

Our train ticket to Firenze (Florence) on the EuroStar! =D

Inside the Eurostar. Definitely recommend traveling by Eurostar rather than the regular intercity train when it’s a long trip since it’s a lot nicer and cleaner. The first regular train was to Bologna which was fine, but the train back was really crowded and smelled.

Next time – Florence!

To the pictures!

This was the first main place we visited in Venice, Ca’ Rezzonico. It had a pretty courtyard and garden in the back. I liked the back door to canal.

Statues in the garden at the same place.

I just liked this alley with the stairs and the passage over.

Here is a water bus stop. When we were heading out to Murano, a poor woman in back got splashed as the boat went over a rough splash. We closed the window by our seat after that. Well, opened it for pictures. =)

This statue was by the train station. It was too pretty with all the flowers around it.

One of the churches that let us take pictures inside. On Murano island. This is just one side of the church. A lot of places didn’t allow pictures, though it was really hard to tell in some places because they didn’t have signage and it was up to the watchers letting people know.

I really like the outside of Santa Maria e San Donato Church on Murano island.

Obligatory food picture. This was one of the better restaurants we went while in Venice. It was on Murano by the clock tower. Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling too well, so I went simple. My friend went for a sea bass that was delicious. The server was nice but funny, because he was about to give her the fish, stopped and looked at her, and then offered to remove the bones for her. So that’s how it looked after being deboned.

And continuing with more lion statues, here’s another one.

I think this right in front of the Navy museum?

I wanted to make friends with the skinny lion statue.

There were a lot of places called Arcobaleno something.  Acrobaleno means rainbow in Italian.

And a final picture – ending the day with a beautiful walk.

On our first day in Venice, we walked around a little to see what was in the area. There was this interestingly named art exhibit, Giraffe-Bottle-Gun. I didn’t realize it till later but there was an international art festival going on all around Venice. We didn’t get to see this exhibit as it was late but I would have liked to. We did stop at some of the other ones, partially because a lot of them were in churches or interesting buildings.

These little guys just caught my eye that I had to take a picture of them, chocolate goldfishes.

McDonalds in Italy. The inside was really nice and had a modern classic feel to it. Also there were flat screen TVs (about 3?) showing different McDonalds commercials.

Yes, that means the first dinner in Italy was McDonalds. It was late and I had a feeling that we’d take a while to decide otherwise. ^^;;; It was yummy though the caffeine was not a good idea especially for caffeine-sensitive friend.

The first full day we did a lot of walking around. I’m sure that we got lost a lot but it wasn’t too bad since there were signs pointing to major sites and it was really pretty. Here’s a view of the Rialto Bridge with all the tourists looking out over the Grand Canal. Very crowded on the bridge plus all the shops on there too, but the views are pretty.

A pretty building. There were so many building that had beautiful plants/flowers.

We did finally make it to our destination.  I think the church is called Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. We didn’t actually go inside as we were starving.

More pretty flowers but underneath is a pretty cool mask shop. Unforunately the reflections off the windows make it hard to see.

In that same are, there was a church with this interesting statue. The little creature at the feet seems hungry, which is making me hungry. ^^;;;

And finally lunch! I forget what I had but it had some lobster and speck (the greens). Not sure what my friend had but it was good. =D

Yesterday my aunt took me to Insa-dong which is the touristy shopping area. There are some temples and palaces in the area but I just wanted to shop. Later we went to a different area to a traditional village museum (I’m terrible with names). The traditional buildings are very relieving since it’s cool to sit it, though yesterday wasn’t too hot or humid. We watched a bit of a funeral with the female shaman performing the rituals. I got dressed up in some traditional outfits – queen and other one that I need to ask about. The queen has really really elaborate and heavy hair!!! I thought I’d tip over because of the hair. I have pics to post later.

Then we went up to Namsan Tower (South Mountain Tower). The cityscape at night is pretty though I was worried since it was really cloudy during the day. Still it was pretty. There was some light show too but it wasn’t that interesting. I would have wanted to see the martial arts demo but that was earlier in the day.

My brother and relatives are stuffing me full of food. It’s a carnvious country. We keep having barbace. It’s good but I want to eat some other things too. I didn’t remember to take pics of all the food but got a few. Otherwise been visiting Lotte department store, which is an expensive mall area.

Okay, I’m off to get something done to my hair.

Now for some pictures that I promised. Just a few to start. There were a lot of pretty view in Venice but here are 2 that came a bit nicer than the others.

Inside the vaporetto. I think this is the one we took to the outer islands.

A reflection picture of my friend and me at the glass museum on Murano. Most places didn’t allow us to take pictures inside. Surprisingly Vatican City was one of the places we could except for the Sistine Chapel of course.

Inside the Doge Palace. This was one of the staircases.

There were a lot of lion statues that I couldn’t help bothering them. =)

More to come later.

Rome was definitely a big city. Florence was a city too but Rome was just sooo much bigger. I should have expected it but… ^^;;; Vatican City Museums were big! We spent more time than expected and the Sistine Chapel was beautiful though my neck started hurting from staring up. There was a post office too but unfortunately I didn’t bring any addresses with me. =( Still sent out a bunch of postcards from Italy to people.

My friend was obsessed with the Colosseum, so we went the first day to see the outside and then passed by later that night. Then a day later we finally went into it and wandered through its halls. The stairs were steep and made my knees hurt, but probably have add in all the walking we were doing. I don’t think there were many days when our feet didn’t hurt.

My camera ran out of space but my friend took a lot more pictures and had a better camera. Later I’ll have to get and post some of her pictures. All computers I’ve been on are public, so waiting till I can borrow my brother’s or a relative’s computer to post pictures. Sorry!

Hmm… Catacombs were nice and cold compared to the outside. We went to the largest one… Callisto, I believe. It was interesting to see the graves and hear about the volcano soil and how it would harden when exposed to humidity. Nearby was a really good restaurant, though it was closer to a different catacombs that I don’t remember the name of…

Now I’m visiting in the Paris airport waiting for my flight. The airport is really new. But this one point, I was walking down this long corridor by myself… I was switching between terminals but I expected more people to be around. There’s just spots where is no one around and it was weird. I like the automated escalators and walkways. Anyways I should probably run. It’s getting close and my time is about up. Next I’ll be in Korea in about 12 hours.

Afterwards we went to make ravoli and some flat noodle that I can’t spell or prounce. ^^; It was a lot of fun and fairly easy at least if you have the machine to press and cut the pasta. I have the recipe so hoping to maybe give it another try if I find the flour. Lunch afterwards was delicious. First course was grilled tomatoes, pizza, eggplant garlic bruschetta. Second course was the spinach riacotto ravoli we made with a sage butter sauce. Third course was the flat noodle with pepper basil olive oil sauce. Dessert was a kinda of cheesecake topped with honey(?) sauce peach slices. Needless to say got very stuffed and am still stuffed from it.

Tomorrow heading to Rome but trying to pack everything and get some last minute food shopping.

Florence. Saw the opera The Travia (sp?) in St. Mark’s. It was beautiful but the church was a little small to hold the sound. Yesterday we went to the Uffizi and got the audio tour. We took most of the day to gaze at the artwork.

We’re having gelato almost every day. Keeping a gelato diary of the different flavors. I tried this blue color one called Azzura but not sure what to call the flavor except creamy and a bit nutty. I’ll have to find time to write up more about the food later. There was a really good steak with the house wine. I’m hoping to try out the tripe today.

Postcards! If you’d like a postcard from me, please email me your address at   tunanity at yahoo dot com. Taking out the spaces and replacing the punctuation of course. =)