Lucerne and Venice

Hello from Venezia! I've been from France to Switzerland to Italy since I've written last, so I'll try to rehash breifly.

The 10 hour bus ride to Lucerne was quite frankly awful. Once we got there though, Lucerne was absolutely picturesque. Swiss Alps, Lake Lucerne, adorable little town. I was all excited because the Swiss Frank is actually weaker than the dollar, so I thought I would be able to save some money and relax a bit in our two-night stay... wrong. While it was a brilliant stopover, it was absurdly expensive and I was more than willing to leave after a day. Our second day in Lucerne it was cold and rainy, so we couldn't pontoon on the lake as originally planned. We had a walking tour of the city and I ended up going back and putting a snuggle suit on a reading by the lake.. sounds lame, but I needed the time off. And it was pretty. :)

We arrived two days ago (on Tuesday) in Venice, after taking a bus and series of three different trains. It was quite the day, but we were greeted with sun and 85 degree weather, so it was entirely worth it. We're staying in a lovely little area between Rialto and Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square).. and are about a two minute walk from a great running path along the Grand Canal. The first night in we grabbed dinner and liters of house wine at a cute little family owned pizzeria right around San Marcos and finished up with gelato. It's dangerous how many gelato shops there are. They're more prominent than a Starbucks in NYC, to put it into perspective. Yesterday we went into Doge's Palace and St. Marks Basilica in the square (where I met some random kid who goes to IU - he was wearing an Indiana shirt), and proceeded on a walking tour through the city. Afterwards we shopped a little and went to a glass blowing demonstration before lecture. The glass blowing was unreal... this guy made a glass horse in front of us in the matter of less than two minutes. It was crazy. I'm officially obsessed with blown glass and when I become rich and old I will have a blown glass chandelier in my house. It's so beautiful.

For dinner last night we ventured out to San Margherita Square (across the grand canal) for cheap food and the grocery. We've packed lunches for today and are going to head to the beach for the afternoon (if the weather holds up) after we visit Accademia in a few hours. (I actually have permission to be skipping lecture right now because I've gotten sick again and lost my voice. Shocker. I actually am exhausted though and am going to take a quick nap before The Academy. A lot of people have gotten sick recently though.. it could just be the numerous rapid changes in altitude and temperature... hopefully.)

Tomorrow we have a morning visit to the Guggenheim then are off to Florence!

Ciao!