There Are No Cars

God, my feet hurt.

In Venice, you walk everywhere. There are no cars. That's because most streets aren't big enough for cars.  So you walk, and walk, and walk. Or you can take a boat -- water bus (cheap), taxi (expensive), or gondola (really expensive and they don't really go anywhere). But sometimes it's faster to walk.

There is also very little crime. You're on an island and there are no cars. How are you supposed to get away? So it's very safe, even at night.

A very small street.

A typical large street.

 
The walk from my apartment to the school is supposed to be 25 minutes. But I usually take one or two wrong turns, so it's more like 35. Venice is a maze. Imagine a hedge maze the size of a city, but instead of hedges you have 3 or 4 story buildings. And every once in a while there is a canal in the way. That's Venice. So I am trying to take the exact same route to school and back every day, but it's amazingly easy to take a wrong turn.

I started school today. Classes last four hours. I am in the beginner class. There are two other Americans, two Germans, one Dutch, and one French lady. Since we all speak different languages, the teacher just speaks Italian to us. JUST ITALIAN. Did I mention I am in the beginner class? I know what it feels like to be old and deaf now, because she speaks very slowly and very loudly. If you're really lost, you can say "Cosa significa ___?" and she'll translate the word into English. Having said all of that, I did pretty well today. I already knew the alphabet, numbers up to 20, and a few things like colors, some animals, and some question words, so I was able to figure out a lot. The American lady that sat next to me was totally lost and kept asking me how to say stuff, and I'm thinking, why don't you ask the teacher?

After class we took a tour around the area of Campo Santa Margherita. The tour was in Italian, so I understood nothing, but he sometimes translated for me and the other newbies. At one point, we were outside a church and he was talking about how beautiful the church was. And I looked at this ugly pile of bricks and cement and thought, Is he kidding? Then we stepped inside. WOW. Sculptures everywhere. Giant murals on the walls and ceiling. Gold everywhere. He was right, it is beautiful! (Check out this link for pictures of outside vs. inside.)

After this, an older German lady on the tour wandered over and started talking to me. Her name is Adelheid, she's in her 70s, and we became fast friends. I ended up spending the rest of the day with her. She's been to Venice seven times, so she became my tour guide and showed me all this cool stuff and told great stories about the art or buildings we were looking at, or the saints they were created for. She's nearly fluent in Italian (and English, lucky me) so she's in a high-level class. I hope I run into her again. I teased her about going to the beach with me.

My new friend Adelheid. Having drinks on the Grand Canal!

After school, the tour, and hanging out with Adelheid and two other students, I didn't have time to visit any tourist attractions or even do any shopping. I have got to find a supermarket because eating out three times a day is getting expensive!

Tomorrow after school I'm going to grab a quick lunch and do some sightseeing. I don't know what. I'm just winging it every day.