For my free day, I decided to go to the wonderful city of Venezia. After arrival we got off to a rough start. The weather was cold and rainy, the streets were filled with puddles, and of course we couldn’t find our hotel. All of this was being done without an umbrella (which I coincidentally left in Firenze) , so as you can imagine, we were soaked. Later Becca and I broke off from the group to go exploring or what I like to call “getting lost on purpose.” We somehow made it to San Marco, and took in all of its beauty. We then navigated the backstreets back to our hotel to take a quick break. We eventually got hungry and asked the concierge at the front desk his favorite restaurant. He told us the name of the establishment and even mapped out all the turns to take on our map. But that would prove to not be enough of a navigation tool because we, yet again, got lost. After wandering for about 30 minutes, we stopped in a tie shop to ask for directions. Turns out, the restaurant was right down the street behind us. We made our way over, and it ended up being a delicious meal. 
At this time it was around ten, so we decided to leave in order to find our way back to the hotel. Fun fact: streets look way different at night. We ended up wandering around for about an hour and stopped to ask three different groups of people for directions. Thankfully we got back to the hotel around eleven, safe and sound. At this point I accepted the fact that I did not quite enjoy Venezia, and was all to ready to head back to Firenze. But, the next morning we hopped in a gondola for a ride. This experience helped sway Venezia back to the good side, but what really did the trick was reading Inferno on a set of steps facing the river. This improvement is due to my love of bodies of water and reading. Just sitting there admiring the landscape while reading over the complexities of Dante’s work seemed to anchor me. In that moment I felt my first connection to the Italian landscape and lifestyle, and I truly came to appreciate the opportunity I had been given to be in such a wonderful culture and country.