The Rain

 When I heard the sirens this afternoon, I immediately put on my rain coat, rain boots (with a hole in them), grabbed my umbrella and camera and hit the road. Something draws me to "emergencies". I am not at all an adrenaline junkie- I will have nothing to do with scary movies, haunted houses, roller coasters, or anything that involves scaring myself. I don't see the point in it. But if I hear an ambulance then I have to refrain from turning around and following it...so these sirens downtown were literally calling my name.

Directly in front of the camera is a bridge- a pretty big bridge...and the polizia wouldn't let me close enough to get pictures of the water...The water can come up to 6meters before it begins to overflow into the streets and today it got up to 5.9meters.

 People were preparing with sandbags

 These next couple pictures are of a once creek...People usually park along the far bank, underneath the trees and then climb down the bank to go fishing. I can't wait to go back and get a picture of how low the water normally is right now. 

 The one thing I was amazed at was how fast the water was moving!!

At this bridge- the same one from the first couple of pictures, they had a crane that was pulling out truck loads of debris. In the hour and half I was wandering around they probably filled up 4 of those white trucks. This was the saving grace of the city....there is no doubt in my mind that the streets would have been flooded if this crane did not pull out the branches and logs from the river

The best part was watching all of the people chip in a help fill sandbags for the river. At first, everyone was getting sandbags for themselves, but by the time I had looped back around everyone was filling sandbags and blocking up the bridge and river bank. I was dying to join in and help...but I couldn't figure out the exact instructions...and there were so many people standing around. It was so confusing... next time I need to be a little more courageous and just jump right in!

Going for a drive

Today I went for a drive- to just get out and do something. I find that I an easily hole up in my house and never leave if I let myself, so driving around is something that I enjoy from time to time. I still get alone time, to think, process, and plan- it helps that we have no radio in the car.

I brought my camera along and just started turning down random roads....got pretty narrow at some points and smelled of cow and horses. Here is where I went:

I decided from now on that I need to carry my camera with me at all times. There are such beautiful sights everywhere I turn.

I am so thankful that James got me this camera! I have really been able to explore photography and I even  love it more and more!

CioccolandoVi

aka the Chocolate Festival. I heard about this festival within my first month of being in Italy, and was pumped. The vendors travel around to different cities for a weekend and d chocolate. They are stores from all over! I found a store in Venice and I can't wait to go find him on my next trip.

I went Friday night with a couple of girl friends, and no one was there! The weather had been awful all day long, but cleared up for a couple of hours...and then started pouring again. Here are some pictures from Friday night:

I got really frustrated trying to take pictures because I didn't have a tripod...lucky for me, I live within walking distance and came back downtown Saturday morning. Saturday was a wonderful day. I wandered downtown, sat in a cafe with a friend and read Little Women while sipping on my cafe latte and pane svizzero. Then we wandered around the chocolate festival tasting all the different types of chocolate and staring in amazement at all of the chocolate designs.

The square was lined with tents with vendors displaying their chocolate masterpieces. You could get chocolate crepes, hot chocolate (or chocolate pudding basically), chocolate covered strawberries, and chocolate liquor.

Let's just say people are c.r.e.a.t.i.v.e with their chocolate.

 This is what I walked away with:

Carmel, cafe, and hazelnut chocolate squares...some of the best chocolate I have ever had!

Chocolate salami...no meat involved. It is kind of like a chocolate wafer...I'm not sure if that description even does it justice. Once again...it's so stinkin' good.

Chocolate covered espresso beans. You can never go wrong with these!