Tomorrow two of my friends, Maria and Bridget, and I are going to Venice. Also, starting tomorrow there is a 24-hour train strike. Things are complicated! Strikes, it seems, are pretty common in Italy, so none of our teachers were surprised to hear about it. However, they told us last week when we first heard about the strike that the "other side," those who are being protested, would probably give in and there wouldn't be a strike after all. That looks improbable now. So we have been trying to figure out the best way to get to Venice tomorrow to make the most of our three day weekend.

The strike begins at 9 pm Thursday night and ends Friday at 9 pm. Venice is about 6 hours away by train. If we are on any train in Italy at 9 pm Thursday night, we will most likely be stuck at that location for the next 24 hours. I mean the train will literally come to a halt when the clock strikes 9. We really want to avoid that. So we have to skip our second class tomorrow and get on a train to Florence and then take the Eurostar (the fast, direct bullet train) to be able to be off of a train by 9. The whole thing is just messy. It should all work out, though.

We are planning on spending two nights in Venice. We have a 3-star hotel on Lido, a resortish island in Venice. Then, Saturday morning, we want to leave early from Venice and go to Umbertide, where our friend John has a house. We heard that Umbertide is probably about as Italian countryside as we are going to get. The people who went last weekend went to some fishing festival in the little town and did local dances with local people. I'm pretty excited about it. It will be nice to see un-touristy parts of Italy. For all you Californians, John's parents actually have a vineyard in Sonoma and they make (I think) Castle Wine. They just got a contract with Whole Foods California, so keep an eye out.

Neither Maria nor Bridget has ever been to Venice. Maria's dad (who was the first Italian to orbit the earth!) has traveled all over Italy but he has never been to Venice, so she's excited to beat her dad to it. Actually, both Bridget and Maria are half Italian and both have dark hair and olive skin, so I will probably (as usual) stick out like a sore thumb. But I am proud to say that I was mistaken for a German at the Vatican when we were there. Yippee!

Ci vediamo, Ellie