Verona and Venice

Oh Verona....Verona was a little over 2 hour drive from Aquileia...but I really wanted to go there... Mainly to see Juliet's house from Romeo and Juliet! This is the actual Capulet's house in Verona which Shakespere wrote about! You can see her balcony! It was so crouded there.

I actually went in the house and got to stand on Juliet's balcony :) No one else went in because there wasn't really any place to park, so they took turns watching the car while I ran in. I would have liked to spend more time in Verona because it looked like a very pretty and interesting city, but we were on a schedule and wanted to go to...

Venice!! (I still can't believe we went there!)

It was really hot and sunny out there...my map had a duel purpose of getting us around and sheilding me from the sun :)

Here is Stefan standing in front of one of the water taxis...they looked really nice, but I think it was something rediculous like 60 Euros to go around in one....the more traditional Gondolas would be around 70 Euros for all of us to get a ride.

There were LOTS of bridges in Venice...we spent a lot of the day just wondering aroundthe little allyways and over bridges, hopefully we would end up in San Marco Piazza....it would be really easy to get lost in Venice, and it was a lot bigger than I thought it would be.

Mom and Dad posing in front of one of the numerous churches there were.

Devon and Dad trying to figure out on the map where we were in front of one of hte bigger canals.

Yay...another bridge! There are SO many old buildings around!

A Cool little side canal.

Here I am checking out some artwork next to another really big old church...there were so many, it was hard to keep track of them!

We finally made it to San Marco Piazza...it was huge! AND Andrea Bocelli is performing there on July 1st and tickets are only 21 euros!!! (hence all the fences and chairs and stuff....and i really want to go!!)

Part of San Marco Piazza...can you see me in this pic??

Here we are in front of the main church....the line to get in was so long...we decided not to wait in it.

Here are Devon and Stefan in the middle of the piazza...you can kinda get an idea of how big it is!

OMG, there are so many things to look at!!

Stefan with yet another bridge!

Devon and I found a deserted allyway!

I believe this is the Grand Canal....but it's very picturesque!

Abother bridge with another really old building in the background :) Venice was really cool...there were just so many little allies and canals you could go exploring...and it's really old...I had so many questions about it when we left....like how did they build it...it was started in the 10th century i thing so it must have been hard? how deep is the water...how to people even get their groceries or other necessities? what happens if there is a fire? or someone needs an ambulence?? And how do they get clean, not salty water? and how did they get fresh water back in the day? I'm sure they didn't have like underground pipes pumping it in? I'm sure I have a million more questions but I just forget them all.

Oh yea...you could also tell that Venice really is sinking! There are stairs and walkways that are beginning to get flooded, and you could see puddles from rain forming around the large buildings where they are beginning to sink from all the weight....I wonder what they are going to do to try to prevent that?

We had dinner in Venice, and got some yummy Italien pasteries for dessert...then drove home and were all so exausted, we could't even finish our bottle of wine and just went t bed. The next day, we drove back to Germany...it was about a 5 hour drive. We did pass this cool castle somewhere in Austria I think.

Today (Monday the 29th), we walked around Munich some more and went through the English Gardens which was nice (and it's finally sunny out!). Tonight we are going out to the hofbrauhaus for drinks and to celebrate mom's birthday (which is tomorrow) so that will be fun :) Then, me, Mom, and Dad are driving back to Frankfurt tomorrow where we will mee up with Liz (yay!). On the first, M & D are flying back home, and Liz and I will begin our journey to the Kingdom of Cambodia! I'll try to get up some more pics as soon as I can!