Contiki: Venezia: Pigeon Poop & Gondolas

Venice is almost the end of our tour and all of us have become quite comfortable with one another. I had been to Venice with Julia and Nicole, but was looking forward to returning. The day in Venice would be a long one, and honestly what I was looking forward to most was watching one of the women in our group (Crystal from Canada) freak out in St. Mark’s Square. See…she has a phobia of pigeons…and St. Marks Square in Venice is the LAST place one should go if they are scared of birds because they are everywhere (visualize the movie “The Birds”). Ya…I know…this is not so nice of me, but I couldn’t help visualize how this scenario could play out. Of course I made it worse by saying, “Oh, you’re afraid of pigeons? Oh gosh…wait until you see St. Mark’s Square!” In this situation, I can hear my mom saying, “Melissa June…you are such a stinker!” When we arrived at St. Mark’s, I had my camera out and ready to roll some hilarious video, but…Crystal just clinched onto Marco’s (our tour guide) arm and walked through the Square covering her head (which we all were for fear of getting pooped on). Damn…I was hoping for some screaming, swatting of birds or even fainting, but nothing happened…and nobody got pooped on either…

Away from the pigeons, we took a gondola ride…I loved it and wished I could have lounged all day in the gondola by myself…it’s very relaxing drifting along the streets of Venice and listening to the sounds of busy bodies on the nearby bridges. Our gondolier refused to sing (mutha f@#cka…), but I did get video of another gondolier singing…I had singing gondola envy. Venice is also know for it’s Venetian lace and glass blowing, so the group visited a lace shop and glass blowing shop and both were fascinating. The process of creating the lace is amazing and so tedious; the presenter told us that the women who made the lace had to have a “love of concentration” and that many went blind after years of making things…can you imagine going blind from years of lacing table clothes or pillow cases? I bought some lace napkins for my mom that I think she will really love. The glass blowing demonstration was crazy awesome, but the glass, like the lace, is very expensive to purchase. Other highlights included meeting the most adorable, cutest guy in a wine shop…Cossette and I dreamed about him all day…he was married though…lucky wife. Then, there was a group of Italian soldiers, who were on duty, but felt it necessary to flirt with Cossette and I a bit…I got a little bit of it on video...it was funny and we didn’t know whether we should solute, waive or wink…we opted for a simple, sweet “Ciao.” One of my favorite things of the day was listening to a street musician just outside a church…he actually reminded me of a “Jimmy Buffet” type before Jimmy got famous. I have this on video too and also could have sat in the Venice sun, outside the church and listened to this beach-bum looking fellow sing old American songs with an Italian accent for a good while.