Italy Blog: Day Five
Canisius College Women’s Basketball Italian Tour 2009- Day Five
Today was another early morning; I definitely was extremely tired and could feel the after effects of our first game. Following breakfast, we departed for a four-hour bus ride to Venice. We took a small boat from the bus stop over to Venice and San Marco Square. We were then given the option to either take a guided tour at 2 p.m. of the Island or take the time to shop and venture on our own. A large group of us followed Alessia to a short glass-making session where we witnessed how the professionals heat the glass and create all kinds of different figures and vases. After the short demonstration we were led into a small room and introduced to thousands of dollars worth of glass and gold trimmed tea, glass and wine sets. Venice is known for its glass and glass sculptures and jewelry. Coach Gwin’s mom and Steph bought beautiful masks, Steph’s was amazing and designed with musical notes, and she found it at a low price of 35 Euro.
We continued to roam around and decided to take a Gondola ride. My father and I tried to bargain with the Gondola driver to lower the price but we finally settled with 80 Euro for a 35-minute tour of the streets (waterway) of Venice. Surprisingly, our Gondola driver could speak very good English and was able to answer all of the questions we had to ask him. The city is populated with 60,000 people and they all travel by water. There are no cars to be found on the Island. There are 425 Gondola drivers on the Venice waterways and 418 bridges. Steph informed us that the “Bridge of Sighs” was the famous bridge that was under construction and the neat history behind the name. The city is said to be on its way to sinking and is flooded around 50 times a year. Today was extremely hot and we were all dripping with sweat and eager to find some type of shade. The Gondola ride definitely cooled us off and even though it was a little expensive it was well worth every penny. We headed back to dry land and to the bus around 4 p.m. to take our final ride for the day to San Marino.
We were shy of an hour away from San Marino and at a stop light on the highway and felt a large bump from behind. We all stopped to look and a Jetta had rammed into the back of the bus. After about an hour of commotion, everything seemed to be all sorted out and luckily the lady, her baby and dog were not hurt; however, the lady claimed she had been hit from behind by a camper who got up and left as soon as it happened. We arrived a little behind schedule to our hotel in beautiful San Marino around 9:20 p.m. Our bags were delivered to each of our individual rooms and we were directed to the restaurant for dinner. The lasagna, pork tenderloin and vegetables were delicious, and the dessert, which was some type of soft ice cream was absolutely amazing. I cannot wait for a short tour of San Marino in the morning and then the beach for a few hours. Practice tomorrow night should feel good to loosen up our legs and get back into the swing of playing basketball!
Ciao!
Mic
