Venezia and Sicilia!

My last 2 weekends in Italy were spent in my, now, 2 favorite parts of Italy.  Venice is beautiful and almost magical, with its narrow, winding streets, pretty canals, and laughing gondoleers.  We spent our first and last day just walking around and getting lost in the city.  Though it was a bit drizzly, we had a lot of fun!  We had quite the musical experience here as well!  On our second night, we sat in St. Mark's square, drank wine and were serenaded by a musical quartet!  It was very romantic; very relaxing.  I also caught a local production of La Traviata, which I was really excited about!  I've been wanting to go to an opera while in Italy, and I finally managed it.  Though I didn't like the soprano very well, the tenor was amazing and it was a great way to spend a Venetian evening!

On our second day, the sun came out and we hopped on a boat to see the islands of Burano and Murano.  First off, I've always wanted to go on a boat like that and I was really excited!  Robin thought it was cute :)  We first went to Burano, which has to be one of my favorite little towns!  It's so COLORFUL! It was very quaint and quiet, and we spent our time looking at the lace it's famous for and taking pictures of the colorful houses.

 

Our next stop was Murano, where all the famous Venetian glass comes from.  We went to see a glass-blowing session where the artist made us a horse and a vase.  It was very quick, but very precise.  However the most impressive part of the demonstration was the woman who described the process to us.  She was able to describe the process and answer questions in Italian, English, French, German, and Spanish!  It was incredible!  

I decided to do a lot of my gift shopping in Venice, which was probably stupid as Venice is ridiculously expensive, but it was difficult not to!  The glass, lace, masks, etc.. are beautiful and I found some great gifts!  After my weekend there, Venice is now my favorite city, followed closely by Florence, and I can't wait to go back and explore more!

However, my favorite region of Italy has got to be Sicily.  I was completely blown away by Sicilia!  The island is BREATHTAKING!  I had no idea it would be so beautiful!  The views of the sea were incredible, the flowers were colorful, the people were extremely friendly, and the cous-cous was yummy.  Sicily is part of Italy, but it's culture is so mixed, you end up finding all sorts of things!  We rented a car and drove everywhere around the island.  We saw ruins, incredible natural beauties, like the Turkish Steps, and so many incredible views of the sea!  The towns are small and clean, and in one of them (we drove to so many towns, I never really knew where we were), a very friendly old lady invited us into our home to see the view of the bay from her balcony.

Though we spent most of our time driving around and looking at seaviews, we did end up going to see some ancient sites, including this extremely well-preserved ancient temple:

Our first night in Sicily, we spent at a beautiful hotel that offered all of its guests to eat dinner together.  We had a fun time meeting these Italians and after dinner, went to a wine party with 3 of them.  I spent my time drinking some excellent local wine, flirting with an Italian named Massimo, and giggling sillily with Robin.  The next day, we stayed at the B&B owned by a friend of Robin's host mother and he took all his guests out for a traditional, multi-course, Sicilian-style dinner.  It was delicious but SOOOO big... You couldv'e rolled me home!  Without a doubt, the best part of Sicily besides it's stunning views are its people.  Friendly, warm, loud, and full of life, I can't wait to return!