And somehow I’ve already found myself back on the 12 hour flight from Munich to Chicago. The lovely German stewardess hasn’t been by to refill my plastic wine cup in nearly 35 minutes and I’m starting to get a bit angsty. My new Italian wine diet has me with the shakes if I’m not constantly fueling my blood stream with a nice fruity red wine every 20 minutes. I’m so parched I’m about to ask for water. That’s so American of me. Eww.
Here’s a little recap of what we we’re up to with the last few days in our Italian paradise.
Monday:
We ventured off to Venice with a brief stop in Florence.
Lessons learned in Florence:
It rains there.
Umbrellas purchased from gypsies on the street don’t protect one from the rain.
The Zach Potter fan club has a world wide membership. Go Jags #88!
We were only able to spend a few hours in Florence before hopping on a train to Venice.
Venice was... pretty amazing. Almost as cool as the Venetian in Las Vegas according to Chris.
It truly reminded me of a fairy tale- a fairy tale with a lot of Italian cigarettes and dirty looks directed at Americans. But a fairy tale, none the less.
We arrived on Monday evening just in time for cocktails. Although, on this vacation somebody was always saying “I’m ready for a cocktail” at any hour of the day, usually my dad or Tyeler.
We sipped a few pre-dinner drinks in our quaint little hotel bar. I was in love with this bar, it felt like we were in Venice in the 1950s. Or as Zach put it, “feels like we’re in the old market right now.” Omaha, Nebraska... Venice, Italy... Pretty much the same thing.
Determined not to look like tourists, we stepped off the beaten path in hopes of finding a great local spot. The restaurant we found seemed like just the place. The hard liquor bottles were covered in dust, as were a few of the patrons, one particular man who Chris couldn’t stop staring at and desperately wanted to invite to join our table. Our Italian waiter served us so graciously as if were the first Americans he’d seen in five years.
Best part of all was that they had calamari and french fries!!! I was in heaven. Perhaps this place wasn’t so authentic? I swear it was though.
After dinner we were in search of a bar. A good “old fashioned Irish bar” to be exact. Which as it turns out, Venice doesn’t seem to have too many. We walked down small curvy street after small curvy street looking for this elusive bar. The streets got so small that eventually Zach had to walk sideways scaling the old walls just to fit down them.
We ended up back at our hotel bar. Which seemed to be a-okay with everybody involved.
By far though, my favorite part of Venice was our gondola ride. I knew Venice didn’t allow cars, and it’s surrounded by water, and blah blah blah, but I really couldn’t grasp it until I actually experienced it. And even thinking back, it still blows me out of the water... har har.
But strolling through the canals in a gondola, going under some of the 500 bridges, seeing the homes of people like Casanova and Marco Polo, made it about as real for me as it gets. I’m already wanting to go back.
We had one final night in the villa in Tuscany before heading off to Rome. Given it was our last night with the GodPots, we felt it would probably be for the best if we didn’t play our regular nightly game of “the name game.”
We wanted to leave still speaking to each other. I might recap the name game incident in another post, it takes a lot to explain and I just don’t have the energy right now. Let’s just say when playing this game, don’t ever use the name Clint Glasscock. Or Rikki Tikki Tavvi. Because you might get called “fart breath.” Chris and I almost broke up. Jk. But...
Wednesday morning we left the comforts of the villa for the hustle bustle of Rome. We were sad to leave John, Beth, Tye and Zach, but it was for the best since they were all planning on participating in Zach’s NFL workouts on this day. Tyeler was just chomping at the bit to push a tractor wheel up the insanely steep hill into Montepulciano.
Rome may not have been built in day, but we saw most of it in under 24 hours. So much to say, so little time. Will have to talk about this later.
I need to attempt to sleep. Departing for Las Vegas at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow will come very soon...
