Italy, Day 1

 

Goodbye, Minneapolis

Layover in Amsterdam

Hello, Alps. I missed you.

In April, my brother and I went to Italy for ten wonderful days. It feels like a dream to say it. Who am I to get to go back to Europe, shirking all my responsibilities? Probably the luckiest woman alive. 

Our first day was spent flying from MSP to Amsterdam and from Amsterdam to a tiny little airport in Verona. So tiny, in fact, that we never even went through customs on the way out, and got off the plane directly onto the ground, reminding me of our arrival in Rome 11 years ago. From there, we figured out a bus ride to the train station and a train to Venice, arriving in Venice that evening. Of course we were tired out by this time, and still had to figure out buying Vaporetto passes and navigating the world of canals and gondolas with no access to cellphone data, but we were awake enough to sit on the grand canal a while and enjoy some gelato. 

Riding the vaporetto as the sun set

Our apartment was in Lido, an island nearby, so we road the vaporetto all the way to the end of the line, about 45 minutes. Then we walked the short walk to our apartment, having a minor miscalculation of which building we were looking for, and desperately hoping we would find the key in the dark.

The apartment garden

Bending down to get in

Looking back towards the front door

When we had successfully found and entered our apartment, and dropped off our things, we then walked back towards the water and stopped at a restaurant for supper. I had pesto pasta. Then it was finally time to sleep before our first big day abroad.