The Question is...

how much gelato can one person eat in a week?

I know my mom is cringing while reading this, but it seems that in Italy a cone of gelato is a totally acceptable replacement for lunch or breakfast. (Not dinner of course, because thats where the pizza comes in.) There are gelato shops every 12 feet, a cone is only 1 euro, and all flavors are delicious, so who are we to not embrace this culinary marvel multiple times a day? It might be my favorite part about Italy...

In other news, we spent yesterday wandering around Venice again and made a stop at the Doge's palace in the Piazza de San Marco. It was a pretty good time seeing all the ornate tapestries, gold-embellished ceilings and incredible paintings adorning the walls. We later walked around some new neighborhoods in Venice, ending up walking in almost an entire loop around the city. For dinner we found the cheapest restaurant/pizzeria in the small square near our hotel and ate pizza and spaghetti on the patio outside. Children were running around the square kicking soccer balls (I think Matt wanted to join in) and old italian men were playing the guitar and accordian - it felt very quintessential Italian!

This morning we walked back over near the Rialto bridge (a thriving section of town near the Grande Canal, full of street vendors and tourists). We got fresh fruit for breakfast and shopped for Murano glass before heading out to the train station. The train to Florence worked out as planned (except for an unexpected reservation fee). This might be our first transportation experience that was incident-free! Woohoo, we are clearly getting better at being Italian...

Now we are in Florence and are headed out for the evening to hike to the top of a hill on the outskirts of the city where there is apparantly a beautiful view of everything. Sounds great for pictures!

- Carlyn