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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

July 10

(chandelier @ Rubellis)

Mamma Mia. Oh my. Venice is the heart of Italy. Today was our first full day here and everyone can’t stop talking about what a neat place this is and how they could live here forever. I wouldn’t go quite that far but I am excited to spend the next couple days exploring and seeing all that Venice has to offer.

My day started with free breakfast, probably the best one yet. The breakfast room was anything but cookie cutter and the food was exactly what I needed to start the day. Scrambled eggs, bacon, granola cereal and of course croissants with nutella adorned my breakfast plate. That’s right, it’s the most important meal of the day for more than one reason and free is one of them. The idea is to save money on food but we do so much walking that I’m constantly hungry!

On today’s docket we had two showroom tours that were on opposite sides of Venice. Thank goodness for the good old water taxi. First stop, Rubelli, located at the Palazzo Corner Spinelli. The building was once a palace to the Corners, a wealthy family built in the 16^th century. Mr. Rubelli created a company on traditional Venetian textiles but also incorporated these themes with contemporary features and extraordinary colors. Five generations later, the Rubelli family continues to bring innovative trends to the textile industry today. The fabrics are broken down into four collections with distinctive styles and elements from Venice, Rome and other parts of Italy. The palace overlooks the Grand Canal with windows that we could open and walk through to a balcony with a spectacular view. Rubelli’s employees are extremely knowledgeable and couldn’t be nicer!

(some of Rubelli's fabric)

(on the balcony at Rubellis)

We had a quick lunch break. I grabbed a fruit smoothie and some of the girls and I went to the market to get some groceries to save some euros while we are here in Venice! The weather is dry with a nice breeze and a local told us that this doesn’t happen often. We took a water taxi over to the other side of Venice to visit the Fortuny factory located just off the Giudecca canal. This place is seriously gorgeous. It used to be a convent and the grounds are nicely manicured--outdoor pool and gardens included. Instead of the woven textiles that Rubelli’s offers, the Fortuny fabrics are dyed and printed directly onto the fabric. Just in case you want some of this incredible fabric it’s 360 euro for one meter (about a yard) of fabric. Holy expensive!

Poor miss Josie got too close to the canal and fell in as she was leaning over the canal to take a picture. RIP camera. Luckily she fell on a step so she didn’t fall completely in.

Tonight I’m working on assignments and hanging out with my roomie, writing letters, sending emails, and getting ready for tomorrow!

July 9

And we are off to... Venezia!

Our hotel is so nice. It's the white one on the left.

I wish I took a picture of the shower. I'm not sure how a man would fit in it!

Josie, Brady and I hanging out of the windows having a conversation about how nice are digs are!

Venice has so many nooks and crannies filled with things like this.

After we unpacked and settled in we went to the Realto Bridge.

It's good to be in Venice!

July 7 and July 8

July 6

Today we are headed to Florence. We took our first train ride together as a group. This is us excited to get to Florence!

When we arrived our hotel moved us to another location (a sister hotel). We did some backtracking and found our hotel. It really wasn't a hotel but it was. Here's the group in the lobby waiting to get room assignments and keys. Our room keys were big old keys that you think would go to castle doors. The hotel had us leave the keys with them when we left the hotel and we would pick them up at the desk when we came back in. I've never come across a system like it.

I've mentioned before that we had airloom bedding. There it is. Don't worry as soon as this picture was taken I threw that bad boy in the armoire!

Our tour guide in Florence is pretty impressive. Here she is talking to us about something. I'm amazed that she never uses filler words. She can go on and on about something that I think would take me five seconds to cover! You go girl!

We walked around the city. Our typical first tour to get acclimated to our new surroundings.

This building's surface becomes flatter and smoother as it works its way up. You'll have to take my word for it. You can't really tell in this picture.