Our First 3 Days In Italy

Our first THREE days in Italy

Love hit HARD for both of us when we arrived in the city of Venice (7 hours late, due to a cancelled flight). This is a place that pictures, paintings nor movies do justice. Very close mind you, they taunt you with its beauty, romance and sheer history and mystery, but until you actually step onto the narrow crooked brick 'streets' and cross the hundreds of bridges you will never feel what we felt.

The first night, we arrived at 7:30 local time which was then 28 hours from when we initially left Victoria. We checked into our cute B&B and I promptly got in my first workout out front in the courtyard of the nearby cafe's and bakeries. A few people walked by, a few locals opened their second and third story windows to chat with those walking by, but nobody seemed to look twice at the crazy Canadians filming a workout.

*This WOD will soon be posted to www.bodyripped.net*

From here we headed out to find some dinner. We took about ten steps from our front door, rounded a corner and found a quaint canal front restaurant where we shared a bread, Kevin a cold beer and I a glass of the house white.

This was what we were waiting for..... ITALY, we love you

We spent the next few hours wandering the beautiful ess curves and L shaped alley ways through Venice, stopping at random cafe's for the odd espresso on the go.

Shoppers have late night access to some stores, but there doesn't seem to be a steady 'close' time amongst the city. And so we shopped....

When we finally made our way back to the room, Kevin was asleep before his head even hit the pillow, and I for some reason stayed awake for what felt like all night.

I must have been over tired?

I nodded off once in a while, to then re awake and I couldn't stop myself from fantasizing of what USED to be.
What was our little B&B hundreds of years ago when the city was young? Was there ghosts sleeping with us??

Likely thought..... Thus... Kyla couldn't sleep ~

We had all the best intentions of waking up on our 'first day' to another workout at 8 am, and head out for a traditional breakfast... Or if I could help it, Oatmeal and fruit..... I'll let you assume the answer to that!

We slept WAY in and awoke at ten to eleven, in a sort of panic. Jumped out of bed, brushed our teeth, washed faces, threw clothes on and headed out ......in the rain. Thankfully I had brought my LULU LEMON rain coat and Kev had an umbrella:)

We found a sweet little spot for breakfast while the rain slowed down and of course both enjoyed another espresso.

We continued where we left off the night before with just wandering the streets hand in hand with nothing but joy and no time to fight with. No cell phones, no plans, no stress.

We popped into a shop and within 2 minutes the light rain had turned to HAIL!

Yes HAIL!! lol.... We joined with the crowd outside who promptly huddled under an onning of a nearby store for the few moments that the hail lasted and we were on our way again.....

We found our way to San Marco Square, by complete accident, but celebrated with a high five and a completely acceptable PDA smooch, THIS was our original goal... San Marco Square.

We stood in the centre of the GIANT square and looked up... way up... to the tip of the famous Tower... ( You'd think I'd know the name hahahah. We're driving... at 150 km/hr I'll have you know....I'll find it later)

We jumped in line for the elevator, hoping it was stairs actually... THAT would have been the WOD, but no such luck, and onto the elevator.

60 meters up to the top and to a view that took your breath away.

We hopped a water bus and cruised around the canal, finding little nooks and crannies that would likely go unseen if you remained on land.

After what seemed like a full day of walking and sightseeing, we headed home, where I snuck in a workout ( un filmed) and Kev read up on the Lonely Planet Italy. Quick shower/ bath and we were heading back out to be romanced by the city over dinner.

When I say 'shower/bath I am referring to the bizarre set up we had in our B&B. Now Im sure they are very common in Europe, but for us North Americans, we are used to a shower OR a bath.... there is a tub here, with a removable shower head, sitting next to the taps, so to shower, you must SIT in the tub and shower yourself with the shower head.

Anyway, back to dinner....We have officially fallen into European time, and its nearing 6 pm so we stop for a glass of wine and snack, dinner can wait... we have all night.

The Lonely Planet had marked a restaurant near the Rialto district as THEIR pick, “I Rusteghi”. This was reason enough for us to begin a mad hunt for the EXTREMELY WELL HIDDEN hidden gem, where the owner and Somalia Giovanni will look you up and down and hand pick your wine while you nibble on the tapas, some of the best of the city so says the book.

Well we found it, with NO help from local businesses, hahah it was like the address didn’t exist. I Rusteghi was down some dark back alley ways and around a corner and through a weird low ceiling hallway type alley. All of a sudden the room opened up to a roofless open courtyard type area with a tiny bar that sat perhaps 8 people tightly.

Well Giovanni offered his choice in wine, and YES it was delicious, but there were no tapas or food to be seen, and so we enjoyed our wine and headed back out looking for our dinner.

While we were on out water bus trip today we had passed this incredibly quaint on the water under the Rialto bridge restaurant that looked so perfect I could squeeze it.

Well we somehow walked right to it and promptly were seated within a foot of the water with what was our best meal yet.

We shared the Seafood Risotto and the house wine... Ok ok and Tirimasu for our first treat!

We left dinner about an hour and a half later, glowing and happy, again with no place to go, no time restraint, and madly in love with the city of Venice.

We awoke the next day at a decent hour of 8:45 and promptly headed out for a run. Clearly Monday mornings are busier than Sundays, which allowed us to master our weaving manoeuvres. Forty minutes later we arrive back home and I challenged Kev to a Push up Tabata workout. I was dying, He claims he was fine...whatever! Tabata kicks anyones ass, He must have been cheating;)

From here we got ready for the day and did what we've learned to do best.....Stroll and enjoy doing not much.

We hopped the water bus again and made out way around all the islands, stopping only at Murano, where we had been told is fabulous. Glass blowing and cafe's to keep you busy all day. Well we took a left when we hopped off the boat and the excitement was do our dismay to the right. Oops.

We managed to get lost in the industrial island before getting bummed and jumping on the bus back. It was then that we say the island how it SHOULD be seen, but we were already on our way home...... Next time.

We finished the day with a quiet dinner at a Ma and Pa type place, where I managed to find a delicious vegetable soup and Kevin an equally tasty chicken over roasted potato. In bed by 10 for a long day ahead.....

Today we are driving.

We have had a slightly less romantic start to the day.....

POURING with rain, my Toms shoes are puddles, literally puddles and Kevin’s new Pumas are much the same.

The umbrella has been wind blown and broken in half, the car rental needs a printed off voucher.

This was news to us.

Our pick up time for the rental was 10 am, it is now 9:30, we're early, it's safe this way!!

No printer at the rental office, and barely any english and so we head back out into the rain in the direction we THINK He's sent us in in search for a printer or internet cafe of sort.

We pound through the downpour, with no umbrella and pools in our shoes to the train station down the canal, NO PRINTER and NO HELP.

I sit my bitter but down in the station while kevin braves the rain in search of a printer in a city where technology is the last thing on anyones mind.

No luck here, and our only thought now is to try our B&B front desk for their printer.

CLOSED until 11:00, its now 10:15 and we are half an hour into the search and late for our pick up.

We find a BestWestern and miraculously they have a free computer and printer (which Im sure was for those staying at the hotel, but nobody asked)

When we got there there was a young couple sitting on the stool taking what at that moment seemed like FOR EVERRRRRRRRR ughhhhhhhhh and 2 couples later and a WHOLE lot of deep breathing from me, it was our turn.

It took all of 45 seconds and we were printed off and on our way, back to the rental office.

We got squared away and into our adorable FiAT an hour late but alas we were DRY. It's 6 hours later and my Toms are still wet!

Anyone who knows me well, and I am thinking of a small handful of you, KNOW how miserable I was during this event and how poor Kevin was obviously taking the brunt of it... OF COURSE it was his fault...lol

You'd think that once we were in a dry safe vehicle all would be well, WELLLLL have any of you tried driving in ITALY?

I'll leave it at that... it's taken me a few hours to cool down and that leaves us to now.

We just left Verona....on our way to Moneterosso in the Cinque terre.. WOW, talk about historic beauty Verona is. There are so many stories to go with this city but our hour visit just left us wanting more.....

I'm ok with that.