Six Hundred Steps and Scary Scampi by a Secondary Seaside

Oh my, I'm almost back in my own country!

         Believe it or not folks, I'm already one week away from being back at my own house in C.A.  Part of me will be happy to get my little angel back and see my friends, but the other part of me is DEVASTATED!  I feel like I did hardly anything at all, wonder why I ate so much gelato, think that I should have been more inquisitive, the regrets of any traveler nearing the journey's end.  I am also a bit guilty that me and my Dad did not get as many videos out as we should.  Hope that you enjoyed the ones we did make :)

   
  However, At least this week did not go to waste.  It was actually rather busy.  Early this week I went to Il Duomo and climbed all the way to the top.   I was too busy wheezing to count every step, but I think some book said there were about 600 stairs all the way to the pinnacle of Brunelleschi's masterpiece dome.   Up inside the dome, me and Dad took pictures of the fresco on the dome's ceiling.   On the lowest place on the dome ,where we stood awestruck, "Hell" was depicted.  It was horrid and terrible place, with people being skinned alive and women eating themselves!  Higher, in the middle, was earth and heaven.  Saints looked down on the human race from clouds, apparently judging their capability to ascend.  On the uppermost layer, sat the Gods, or the many ways that God was thought to be seen. Now here is the coolest part (at least for me).  The very tippy top of the dome could be only seen from where the priest would stand.  Whatever was up there, presumably the "One God", could only be seen by him, saying that only the priest could converse with the divine, and translate his/her words to the people.  Cool right?  Next time you have a message, say it with architecture!  At the end of the walk there was a beautiful but crowded vantage point.  On the way back down, we got to see the painting a bit closer before heading back down to earth (Phew)!

  That's not all I did however. Just the day before yesterday, me and my parental units ventured off for a night in the Ever Sinking City.  That's right folks,Venice!  The land of canals and people who eat every part of the shrimp.  The shrimp variation there is called "scampi", and they sell the entire things boiled, still with the eyes in them.  They have pinching claws and they scared the bleep out of me!
In Venice there are no cars, as most of you know.   Everyone travels by canals.   For people who are into the cliché, I didn't take a gondola because they cost about 100 euros per person.  Yipes!  I did however, take a water bus.  It went along the Grand Canal and was very crowded.  I sat in the back with my parents so we could see the water up close.   We went just after Carnival'e ended and there were costumes being sold and  every other store sold masks, and I'm not kidding!  EVERYWHERE!  It was crazy and I wondered how the place makes any money when Carnival'e season is gone!?

This week I am going to London, and then (sniff) going home.

See ya later Alligators,
Liv

P.S. This weeks winner of the Fortune Cookie of the Post Post Contest is my OTHER aunt, Aunt Debbie, who said I had a long climb ahead of me. Auntie, this week you are a delicious Chinese Pastry that I eat at panda Express or Chinatown in San Francisco!  To everyone else, if you want to be next weeks winner,  predict what I will do in London, my favorite place in the WORLD!