If you didn’t know, this one is about Venice!!!! The buildings were built on piles of wood! Wood does not decay under water and without oxygen, so it becomes petrified!! As soon as we were pulling up to dock the boat on the first night, I felt like I was in a movie. We arrived just as the sun was setting, which created an amazing atmosphere. We drove to Chiasso, which is an Italian part of Switzerland, and then took the train into Italy. We planned to stay there for 3 days and 2 nights, at a hostel, Camp Fusina, which was on the mainland. The four of us decided to get two rooms, one with a bathroom and one without. They ended up being on opposite sides of the camp. haha. Not having a bathroom worked out fine, it was actually just like a normal campground, with tents in places and RVs in others. There were a bunch of shared showers, sinks and toilets. They were only a 5 minute walk from our little bungalow. We thought there was going to be wifi…. but it was not working any of the days we were there.
The first boat to Venice left at 9am and the last boat from Venice left at 1030pm. St. Mark’s plaza was unbelievable!!!!! It was our first stop the first night we got there, right after sunset. All four of us kind of just stood in awe for awhile, taking some pictures. The square was much bigger than I had imagined. It is much less crowded at night, which makes it pretty peaceful to just stand around and listen to all the performanes. There are at least three groups ready to perform at all times. The crowd just travels, all together, from each performance to the next. There were a lot of old couples dancing. It was very cute. The old men seemed to never tire but to liven up every time one of their dancing songs would come on. Long stem roses are being sold constantly all around. There were a lot of couples in general. The atmosphere was quite a romantic one. I did not ride in a gondola in hopes of one day returning and making it truly a romantic experience, the way I thought it should be.
Just the city of Vencie in general was an amazing experience in itself, however, I think my favorite place we visited was Saint Mark’s Basilica. I was absolutely blown away. The museum inside the Basilica was gorgeous. There were sculptures, paintings and tons of mosaics!! We spent at least a good 2 hours in there. I could have definitely spent more, but I think the other girls wanted to move on. There was a mass going on while we were inside. I wonder how you get the privilege to attend mass there?! You could only see the people inside thru the cracks in the portable walls there to provide privacy for the mass. There were so many different mosaics of animals and different scriptures in the domes. There were also so many different types of marble used to build the whole building. It was most definitely an enchanting place. It was well worth the line to get in and the crowdedness.
The city of Venice was not extremely dirty like I had heard and read about. I was actually impressed by the cleanliness of all the water passageways. It rained the last day we were there, which was unfortunate. I had planned out which souvenirs I was going to buy and from where. However, because of the rain, all the outside booths were closed. 
Throughout this day, we saw sooooo many people wearing green. A lot of them just had these green hankerchiefs. To me, it looked like there was a picture of a marijuana leaf on them. Old people, young kids, babies, everyone seemed to be participating in this festivity. We finally discovered it was some type of political event. It was described to us as a protest against the government, and that was it. Some people even had their faces painted and held huge green flags with the “leaf” desgin on it. Strange……. wish I had figured that one out.
We ended up taking the train back to Chiasso right out of Venice……. but when we bought our ticket the ticket lady decided it wasnt important to tell us we had to make a 5 min station transfer via the subway!!! We barely made our transfer on the way home. The last of our adventure was when we got lost driving home. Well, we didn’t exactly get lost, one of the tunnels we take to get home that goes under the mountains was closed! So we took the detour which sent us driving OVER the alps. 
When we got to the top it was snowing!!!!! It was our first experience of driving stick in the snow and on hills!!!
Tags: bungalow, Camp Fusina, camping, crowds in sync, driving over the Alps, enchantments, gondolas suck, marijuana festival, no bathroom, petrified wood, secret subway transfers for Americans, St. Mark's Basilica, St. Mark's Plaza, venice
