This post cost me two dollars. We are staying at the Hotel Belvedere (It’s a hostel) just off of Venice on the mainland. It is about an 8 minute, 1 euro train ride to the island itself.

Our hostel room isn’t too bad, but they charge for access to the wifi, which is a little unfortunate.

My last day in Rome was both fun and a little sad. I visited the national museum of musical instruments. Which was a lot of fun. I was the only patron, and it is really a museum in progress, but almost every room that is open has english translations. I would definitely say this museum is a gem. After two days of being jostled about everywhere from the Vatican Museum to a Van Gogh exhibit, to actually be able to slow down and enjoy the displays was amazing. They had one of the first pianofortes. They also had various other interesting and unique instruments from all time periods and places. I was particularly taken with this african stringed instrument.

After that I went to the Pantheon, which is an intense building. It is almost magical to walk into it, the sense of space and scale is awe inspiring. I can see why, unlike so many pagan temples, this one was kept instead of destroyed.

Heidi and I tried to visit the old bear restaurant, a favorite of ours, but they were closed. It was a shame because Heidi had invited Matt, a guy we met at our hostel, along. We all ended up at another restaurant which was also quite delicious, I had {asta with Hare, then wandered over to a nice little wine shop, where we scored a free bottle of white wine.

Today we got on a high speed train to Venice. The trip was rather cramped, but we arrived at our Hostel with little trouble, then got over to the Venice proper and explored. It was really cool to see. Walking and exploring all the little side streets, dead ends, and canals produced a sense of wonderment. It is an impressive city, especially because it was built before modern building equipment.

We will go back tomorrow morning to do the touristy stuff, then we catch an overnight train to Salzburg. I’ll update again the next time I don’t have to pay for wifi.