PIGEONS!

Today we spent the day in Venice. Our shuttle was off at 10:30 this morning (since the earlier shuttles were booked) and we were back at 10:00 tonight. It was quite the day and we had a lot of fun seeing the sights and enjoying the food.

We started off with a goal to make it to Marco Polo square and again put away the map and just made our way through the winding streets and over the bridges. It was wonderful. We found some really cool shops and though most of the souveniors were the same at about every little stand along the street we found things that were uniquely "Venice" and "Italy" to remember our trip.

Andi put up with Curtis' need to get every beautiful shot he could with his camera which we would love to upload to the blog, but it does not seem to be working from our computer here at the hotel. Hopefully we will find a place tomorrow.

We also ran into one of Andi's sister Kelli's friends, Candle, and also some BYU Masters students who are studying in Florence. We asked them to take a picture of us and then found out we were from the same part of the world. Curtis had made the comment to Andi earlier about wondering how many people from Utah were here? Guess he got part of his answer huh?

We have met backpackers and people from all over the world along the way. From London to Argentina to Idaho and New York. One student that was traveling with his mother was literally on a "whirlwind" trip around Europe after studying for a semester in Warsaw. They had been to 7 countries in 7 days all accross Europe and were headed to Paris for a day, then to Vienna, and then back to Warsaw. We decided that our trip to 3 countries was just right for us. We have been on enough planes, trains, shuttles, cars, busses, trolleys, and trams to last us for the rest of the year and maybe into 2008.

The interesting story about today was that by the time we made it to Marco Polo Square we were quite surprised to see that it was full of not only people but pigeons! Yes, they were selling bird seed and people were feeding HUNDREDS of pigeons. If they stood still enough and held out their hands with seed in it the pigeons sould just land on them, several at a time, and eat the seed. Andi commented at how disgusting it was. Her quote went like this: "Ewwe! That's gross! Pigeons are like the rats of the bird family!" Yes, I had to admit though it could have been and experience I don't think I want diseased birds attacking me for bird seed. However there were those that did and that made for some great pictures and we even got some video of it. It was kind of fun and gross all at the same time.

We ate some authentic pizza as well as cheese and tomatoes at a nice restaurant and grabbed some, you guessed it, Gelato (icecream), and Italian Ice for desert and continued our walk. The weather was humid, but not too hot. We were still pretty sticky and are off to shower and hit the hay! We will be in Mestre, the city outside of Venice tomorrow and then it will be time to come home. We are excited and sad at the same time. Our trip has been great!

C&A