Vulnerable

March 27, 2018 (Age: 17)

Dear Diary,

Bonjourno! (That's Italian for good morning)

Once again, we are on the road. This time, we are going to Assisi.

Yesterday we went to Venice, and it really was the best day of the whole trip! I was going to write again last night but I was super tired with all the walking we did and since this morning consists of mainly driving, I thought I would save all the writing for this morning.

So! Let me tell you about my amazing day yesterday (as well as some drama that is kind of brewing!) Yesterday morning we had breakfast at the hotel again. Once we got ready, we all got on the bus. From there, we had to drive to a boat dock. On the boat dock would be a boat to where we took the water taxi to go to Venice. Before we actually went to Venice, we boated to a glass blowing factory. It wasn't bad. Fascinating, for sure. We watched the guy make a vase and a horse. Once the demonstration was done, we were able to wander the store and were able to buy anything if we wanted. Since I have been getting really low on money, I didn't get anything. At the time, I probably had 50 Euro left.

Once we finished at the glass factory, we got back on the boat and made our way to Venice. Since Venice is an island, there are no vehicles. There were only people and boats. Not having to worry about traffic was nice because then I didn't need to worry about getting hit by a bus or something! Once we arrived in Venice, we all walked to the city square. Then we met our tour guide. She was really nice too! She took us on a tour on the inside of the Doges (Dukes) Palace. She showed us how half of it was built in the Renaissance period and another part in a Gothic time period. Oh my, the freaking ceilings in that palace blew me away! We walked into this room that was HUGE! The walls had to be at least 30-40 feet tall. The walls were covered in gold and large paintings. We also visited the Bridge of Sighs. The bridge is the bridge that the prisoners would cross before they entered prison, which was down a flight of stairs after you cross the bridge. When crossing the bridge and being down in the prison/cells, it almost felt harder to breathe. It was weird. In the cells, our tour guide told us that there would be 15-20 people crammed into one cell. In each cell, were was a bunch of names engraved in the cement. It was fascinating to see all the names (and even numbers) on the walls.

After viewing the prison, we headed back out to the Palace and met Lucia (our tour guide) back in the main square. By this time, it was probably around 12:30pm, so it was still early. When we met Lucia, she said we can have free time for approximately two hours. During those two hours Samantha, me and the two other girls decided that we wanted to grab some lunch first then do a bit of shopping. We came across this cute little restaurant and we decided to eat outside. It was really cute! We got a table for four and the table had a cute red and white plaid table cloth. Once we sat down, the waiter brought us some complimentary bread and some drinks. I just got water because I wanted to ensure I stay hydrated on this trip. We checked out the menu and the tomato pasta is what caught my eye first. The other girls got lasagna and the cheese pasta. Once the food came out, I was blown away. How they presented it on the plate was so aesthetic! It made my heart happy! Once we all took pictures of our food, we dug in and it was amazing! Like amazing as in the best pasta I've had this entire trip! My noodles tasted homemade and they were thin and delicious. And the price wasn't bad either! My tomato pasta was only 9.50 Euros. Once we finished lunch, the waiter gave us a business card of where we ate and I got to keep it! When I checked the back of the card, I saw that this is a five star restaurant! And I can see why too! After lunch, us four wandered around and looked at some shops. I found a few postcards to take home. Once the free time was up, we went back to the main square to meet Lucia because we were going for a Gondola ride.
A gondola are those little cliché boats that you see everywhere in Venice. Finding out that I would get to ride one, I was excited! I've always wanted to do that, and now I can say that I did! As we were waiting for our gondola ride, there were these two immature girls who literally ran to this worker because of how attractive he is and they asked for his picture. Not going to lie, it was really annoying. Don't get me wrong, he was good looking, but I felt bad for him. He was getting swarmed with annoying girls, begging for his picture. As we were waiting for them to tell us we can go, we were already separated in our groups and with who we'd go with. Then the workers there wanted everyone who is in this one teachers group to go first. And guess whos group that was? My group. And luckily for us, we had the super attractive guy that those two girls were swooning over. Samantha told me that apparently as he was coming to our boat, he was pushing through people while respectfully saying "excuse me" (in Italian, of course). The fact that he wanted to get away from those girls so fast made me feel bad for him. Everyone was being so loud and rude when they found out our group was with him. I wanted to hit everyone when they were acting that way, to be honest. Once we got in the gondola and the guy got us moving, I was on cloud nine. (Or boat nine, if I do say so myself).

The views were stunning (of the buildings and the boat driver). The gondola driver even wore the iconic black and white striped shirt! I was taking plenty of pictures. Luckily, I was able to sneak a few pictures with him in it. We even got a couple selfies and there is a picture where we got him smiling!

The scenery I saw on the gondola was beautiful. For me, that has been the highlight of my trip. After the ride, we were given even more free time! An extra 2-3 more hours if I remember correctly. We needed to meet Lucia at the bottom of a bell tower at 5:10pm. And we finished the boat ride around 2:30. One of the teachers said that he wanted to go for a walk to this bridge (I forgot the name, but I got a postcard of it) and wondered if anyone else wanted to follow along. We got there and got some pictures then headed back to the main square. From there, Mr. Francis let us wander around. We all went to get some more Gelato. I got a small one and the flavor I got was cookies and cream. It had literal cookie chunks in it and it was amazing.

After that we wandered the boardwalk of Venice and checked out the small vendors. Then we went back to the bell tower because our free time was almost over. As we waited there for everyone else to arrive, there were a lot of attractive Italian guys everywhere! One of my friends pretended to take a picture of me just so she can actually take a picture of a guy behind me instead! I swear I even saw a couple of the guys look over at us.

Once everyone made it back to the bell tower, all at random 5 Italian guys (probably looked around 25 years old) came up to us and asked for OUR picture. The locals asked for our picture. They didn't speak speak English but we all got in a group picture with them! From there, we all got back to the water taxi. The driver of the boat was hot (as expected). But he even had a rose which he gave to one of the female teachers! God damn, everyone here is so good looking. I need to come back here in the future. And I got to make sure I'm single.

So once we all got on the boat, there was a boat that just came up beside us and the boat was filled with only guys. Apparently, they were watching us as we were getting on the boat. I wasn't paying attention so I'm not able to prove if that was true. But I'm sure it was. Once us girls got on the boat and sat down, we all began to notice that the boys that were in the boat beside us were all waving at us. Of course, I waved back. Then one guy stood and started blowing kisses at us! Immediately I got giggly, as many other girls did. And I even blew a kiss back!

So when we go back to the bus (after the boat ride), we headed back to the hotel. Just like the night before, we had supper at the hotel. For supper, we had pasta (it looked to be some sort of alfredo) then for our second course, we had potatoes and some kind of steak and sauce. For dessert, we had this chocolate jello/pudding topped with whipped cream. Don't get me wrong, I liked it.

At supper, Karisa put pepper in Katie's water and of course, she chose to drink it anyway. Then she had lots to eat and was likely dehydrated. So when supper was over, Katie chose to run up four flights of stairs (to our hotel room floor). When she got to our floor, she ran to the garbage and started dry heaving. Then when she got her room, she actually got sick. After dinner, there was a group of us who wanted to go and get gelato at a place nearby. Katie was talking about going, but even despite her throwing up she still came with. We all started walking there and I began walking with a guy and a girl that I don't really talk to. They asked me what happened to Katie. Right as I was in the middle of explaining the story, Katie comes hobbling past us, joining the group. Confused, we all ask her what the hell she is doing. Her response? She said she really wanted gelato. She is the definition of a trooper. She has military strength, that girl. We made stupid jokes, laughed and had a great time (as per usual). I ended up paying for Katie's gelato because I told her I would. I got some gelato too. Last nights flavor was chocolate chip. It was really good, as expected. Then we walked back to the hotel.

Now I have to quickly talk about the latest gossip! Long story short about this, there is a group of girls (who are partiers back at home) who plan to get super drunk on the very last day of this trip. So the day before we go on the plane for 13 hours again. Mr. Francis is aware so hopefully he'll stop that from happening. Better end this here. I have been writing for probably over three hours.
Write soon!

Sarah