DAY 28: Madonna's in Venice!

Poppyseed croissants are downright contagious, especially stuffed with prosciutto and swiss. Sans sandos starts Saturday... it could possibly be the ultimate challenge to not eat "sandwiches" in Italy... pizza, wraps, calzones, kabobs, paninis- all versions of a typical sandwich, cheap and are sold on EVERY corner. Bread is starting to get old... Manu and I caught Luigi and Roo (they didn't want to leave), and met Alberto for breakfast (huge cappuccino= good start to the day). He lives in Venice and offered to drive me so I didn't have to take another cattle car. What an angel... it was a 4 hour drive, but sped by with jokes and laughter in the "silver bullet."

He dropped me at the edge of the city (or as far as cars are able to drive) to take a boat to Rialto Bridge... conceptualizing water crafts as a primary means of transportation is quite interesting... men in Parisian stripes and wide brim straw hats hold gigantic chopsticks and serenade you into riding in their gondola of love. Or you jump on a pontoon for 6 euros per trip and get yelled at by the "gatemen" for taking your sweet ass time... A trip to Ikea would be quite tricky considering a winding water receptacle is your street and sidewalks drop off into freezing aqua marine depths. Now I know where M.C. Escher got his inspiration... he simply walked the streets of Venice with stairways that run into "Easter egg" colored walls and alleys that dropped off overgrown algae foundations. Imagine waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, and picking the wrong door... that'll wake you up. Water passes act as metro tickets, otherwise you must find your way on foot, which grants commiseration for rats in a maze sniffing out the chedda'.

My hotel was fairly easy to find, thanks to (literally) step-by-step directions, courtesy of the Art Department. How nice it will be to not have to depend on Whitney to get around- now I get to blame someone else and follow people that ACTUALLY know what they're doing! Pensione Guerrato is a quaint little spot with a miniature wired-haired dachshund named Lou-Lou running the joint. It's back to hostel-style sleeping arrangements for this girl, without the hostility and with clean bathrooms. The group joined together shortly after I arrived, as I was the last (except for Devon who had every flight delayed or cancelled and showed up after dinner), and walked to a pizzeria through the crowds of masks and costumes dancing through the streets. Right when I started to understand French ingredients, I came to Italy, only to start over with menus... I found a veggie pizza with eggplant, zucchini, spinach, roasted re peppers and mushrooms... we all shared slices, red wine and our favorite art genres at a long table in back, followed by espresso. My addiction to coffee may never be beat...

After flying solo for a month, and even though I have about 5 years of seniority on the majority of the group, it will be nice to not only talk to others that speak-a-da-english, but share similar interests in ART... And our fearless leader, Harvey "Harv" Hamburgh keeps us in stitches and adores cappuccinos ALMOST as much as I do- he's our glorified babysitter... I don't think finding time to myself will be difficult (running), but I definitely need to dust off some knowledge from the ol' brain archives... its been over 4 years since I've taken art history and Baroquen-Greco-Romanesquen is not refreshing so well... I just need to remember that "Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin" stars Madonna and Jesus, with supporting roles by Marky-Mark, Peter-Piper, Pauly Shore, and... that guy with the grey beard in Tevas? I should be fine...

Fat Tuesday church cruise tomorrow... raise the roof!