Coffee & Cathedrals

The following is a list, complete with pictures, of things you might not know about my trip, my friends, or the country of Italy itself.

The following is in no specific order.

We have cots.

You can buy flowers off trucks.

People make out in the Pantheon.

I walk up and down 3 flights of slick, marble stairs to get to and from my apartment daily.

Sydney has recently become a model.

People do this for money. People give money to people who do this. People believe this is real.

Italians are content with one color outfits and several popping accessories.

The Backstreet Boys are at the Trevi Fountain and they've added one member.

Nuns do, in fact, go out on the town. However, in groups only and for chocolate only.

Men choose to wear purses. I repeat, men CHOOSE to wear purses.

Boo got a bed back home!

This is not the real foot of Constantine.

But this is the real head of Constantine.

Sunlight isn't always the best light.

A lot of people get married in Italy on any given day.

This is printed on a onesie.

Harry took us to dinner. Then Harry found my blog. Harry's real name is Dillon. Hey Dillon.

Sydney enjoyed Florence. [This is for you, Emily.]

Anna enjoyed reading [and sleeping] in Florence.

Your dog can go shopping.

Tons of weddings.

When you pay to use the restroom, this is what it looks like.

The art store here is three, four, or five stories tall. They have Goliath as a customer.
[In case there's confusion, this is Sydney, not Goliath.]

Sydney got her head stuck in a church.

Anna enjoys reading [and sleeping] in Rome.

Joke's on you! We're actually in Germany.

Mississippi is a disaster without me.

Sydney and I are still alive!

A lot of their advertisement is in English. Can they read it or not?

iPad selfies have become popular.

We walked on the red carpet where a movie was being filmed.

The ONLY gas station we've seen in Rome.

FaceTime isn't Boo's thing.

We went to the Andy Warhol exhibit!

Where I took this illegal photograph of my favorite painting of his.

Anna gave me a pedicure. I paid her 20 euro in return.

This is our apartment, where we live on the top floor!
[Our windows are the corner one, the three on the left, and the three on the right.]

Sydney is adventurous, daring, and is breaking the law.

We've found several restaurants that are "buy your drink, then it's all you can eat" FOR FREE.
ALL YOU CAN EAT FOR FREE.

Desserts here are the best. [Tiramisu cupcake].

Girls just wanna have fun.

Ukrainian citizens had a protest against U.S. "interference" in Ukraine the other day.

There's a carnival going on all summer down by the Tiber River.

We went to a Papal Audience this past Wednesday. If only we had a baby to attract the pope over.

We got to St. Peter's Square early enough to be on the eighth row.

We found salted french fries. SALTED. FRENCH. FRIES.

We are still obsessed with Rome, even if it's rained the past four days.

Today, I reached single digits until I return home. I cannot wait to see my family and friends, but I'm not ready to leave Rome just yet.

If only I could fly you all here to enjoy this beautiful life and experience God has given me!

I moved to:

Anywhere In Venice

Venezia, Italy 30121-30176

I'm serious. Venice is the most beautiful place in the entire world. I'm convinced from just 3 days.

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Background story: Sydney and I booked our apartment in Venice in the beginning of May. When I booked, I was told that I would check-in at one location, then we would be escorted to our apartment from there. Sounds easy enough, see you in June, Venice.

On June 2nd, I received this email:

Dear Mrs/Mr Lincoln,

What time you'll arrive in Venice 13th June? And where? Airport (which airport) or train station?

I want spoken with you about our meeting for collect keys.

Thank you

Best regards

Rossella P

I respond and let Mrs/Mr know all the details: I'm a female, when I'll be arriving and when I'll be leaving. Rossella P NEVER RESPONDS. ???? So we arrive in Venice on Friday, June 13 around 1:30pm with one random address that I found online and our new bookstore map.

My first view of Venice. If we couldn't find the apartment, I'd sleep on the ground. No way I was leaving.

The random address that I found online was 100% correct and let us straight to the apartment rental office. (Go us!) Where we were greeted by name and taken across a bridge and down two streets to our apartment for the weekend. He showed us literally everything in the apartment: "this is a towel" "this is how you use a shower curtain" "this is where the garbage is" "here in the couch".

Basically I freaked out for absolutely no reason because check-in and our apartment were awesome!

[Those who know me well, wipe the smirk off your face.]

Within 2 seconds, we had this house feeling like a home.

He then left us to live wide open in this beautiful city for about 52 hours.

Only 52 hours.

The main street our apartment was located on.

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Friday afternoon, we went to this cute restaurant where we each had a bellini (Did anyone know they originated here?) and then had the Venice spritz (which is apparently like the drink that everyone has to try when they visit Venice - not our favorite.) Then we walked around a few hours seeing everything we could see. Finally, we had dinner at this little hole in the wall down the street where we paid fifty cents to sit on the water and enjoy a 7 euro meal each.

The famous Venice bellini.

Venice being Venice.

This city is a huge maze full of dead ends leading into the rivers.

View at dinner Friday night.

Venice, you keep winning me over with your beauty and cheapness.

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On Saturday morning, Anna came over and we took a water taxi to Murano Island where they make all the Venetian glass. The island was so pretty, the food was incredible, and all of the glass creations were to die for. Venice: 245, Kaitlyn: 0.

In the front section of the water taxi.

They do, in fact, kick you off the water taxi if you try to hop on and ride for leisure.

How perfect is this street on Murano?

Lunch on the water - again! Salami, mushroom, and mozzarella pizza.

Would've jumped in if I had planned better. [As in, anything else but white fabric]

Saturday afternoon, Sydney, Anna, and I met up with John and Florian, two guys we had met the night before. John, marine biologist in New York, teaches study abroad classes in Venice for the summer. Oh. Oh. Okay. They invited us to go for a little boat ride tour of the city for the afternoon.

Don't ask me twice.

John originally came to talk to us because we spoke English and looked like students. Dangit.

Things we learned from John Saturday afternoon:

A good gondola ride cost roughly 100 euro for less than an hour.
Venice was actually built with all of the canals and rivers as "roads" - they aren't roads that have sunk (which was what I thought).
The city is built on top of over 140 islands.
Only about 10% of the natives own a personal boat (75 year wait list for a spot to store a boat).
You can only be laid to rest on Cimitero San Michele, the cemetery island, for 75 years. After that, they dig you up and move you to the main land. This is because it's become so popular to be buried there and they have run out of spots.
Venice is built on top of trees (several together make an island) that were hammered into the ground and became petrified. They became stone like, therefore people were able to build on top of them.
Venice floods more than 100 times per year.
There isn't a sewage system in Venice. So when you flush, you can guess where it goes.
You can tell who is a tourist because they will dangle their feet in the Grand Canal. [Me.]
Cruise ships are having a negative effect on the island with their strong wakes when arriving and leaving. He, along with a few others, are working on some big study about it. Most of the cruise ships are three times taller than the main island, with only half the island in length. If something goes wrong with the boat, it would take out the entire city of Venice if it was unable to stop.
Most of the palaces in Venice have become museums because the families can no longer afford to live in them.
Gondolas have the right away, even in front of ambulances.
Also, gondola drivers own their own boats and work for themselves, not for a company. Since there's no gas, all they pay for is their boat (one time payment) and their spot to store their boat. They take home over 100k without taxes because it's only cash.

Such a different view of the city by boat.

Anna and Florian, one of John's past students [now friends] from Germany.

Gondolas waiting for passengers, with a gondola driver in the red stripes smiling for the picture.

Police [not] hard at work.

The Venice Casino. We learned that men can only enter in suits and ladies in dresses.

Sydney, myself, and Anna on our boat ride with John and Florian.

After our over 3 hour tour around the city, he took us three and his friend, Florian, to a private island that only locals to Venice go to. Basically because you obviously need a boat to get there and none of the taxis or public transportation have routes there. The island is farmland only with one restaurant that serves only food from the island itself. It was overwhelming with so many options but so delicious! John knew everyone there so we got special treatment and literally got to try everything on the menu.

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Sunday morning, Sydney and I had to be out of our apartment by 10am. We enjoyed blow drying our hair for the last time in Europe! Next time we get the luxury, we'll be back in the States! We checked our bags at the train station and set out for the last few hours we had in paradise. While roaming around the city, we found a nice restaurant where we ate some great tortellini (I can't stop eating that here), went to tons of cool shops where we got great souvenirs, and grabbed some last minute snacks before boarding our train back to Rome that afternoon.