Cheap Hotels of Italy
In Venice we staying in an amazing bed and breakfast. We were off of a main road on a small side street. The building was nice and the room was great. We managed to get a room with just the four of us traveling together for spring break. When we entered the room we were surprised at how nice it was. We talked about it for a good half hour before bringing ourselves to get out and see Venice. The room had very comfortable beds... real beds. We were all used to simple hostel beds but these were really nice. The bathroom was nice, bidet included of course. The best part was that we had a kitchen and it was filled with all kinds of goodies. It was a bed and breakfast so we had paid for breakfast in the price and they just stocked the room before we arrived. We had cereal, cornettos (croissants), soft bread, hard bread, butter, jelly, nutella, juice, milk, and more I'm sure I'm forgetting. The kitchen was fully equiped too! We had plenty of pans and dishes and a stove. On our second night we ate cheap and decided to go to the grocery store and then cook a meal. Nick cooked some shrimp scampi along with some butter and garlic pasta. He also made an Italian seasoned tomato salad, while the girls threw together a fruit salad and helped with the chopping along the way. It was great and we only spent about 25 euro total! We had fun making the meal and we got to eat at the small dining table in our room. It was great a great B&B and it only cost about 40 euro each for a two-nights stay. Emilie booked it so we have to give her props for this one.
Emilie also booked the two star hotel in Milan, which was... well... a two star hotel. Just joking, it's not Emilie's fault. It was actually really cheap and had a good location and she was able to find it at a busy tourist week. The room had enough beds for all four of us, so that was a plus and it was only a little more expensive than the place in Venice. The beds were not very comfortable, however. The funniest part of the room was definitely the bathroom. From the main bedroom you had to open the bathroom door, which seemed normal because it stretched to the bottom of the floor... like all doors should. But, surprise, when you open it, you have to take a large step up. The floor of the bathroom was raised above the floor of the main room. Well, that's a bit strange we thought, but didn't mind. Then we realized something else was off... something looked wrong... Sink? no, it looked normal enough. Toilet? nah it was okay the seat just shifted a bit when you sat down. Bidet? well it existed and that was all we needed to know about that. Shower? Check. Wait, Shower? Hm, that's odd the shower is really just the shower head sticking out of the bathroom wall aimed at the bidet. Only a small space was between the shower head and the bidet and apparently we would be showering with the beday. The curtain for the shower sectioned off the showerer along with the bidet... I suppose it would keep you company. Not only that but the floor seemed oddly level and no partition existed for the shower. We couldn't imagine that when you turned the shower on the whole room would just flood. The floor seemed even but it must be slanted toward the drain we assured ourselves. Well we were wrong. The first shower resulted in flood. With nothing to keep the water from running out past the vicinity of the drain, the whole room filled up. Luckily not deep enough to spill over past the long door into the bedroom. The curtain contained it a little bit, dragging on the floor, but some still escaped. After one flood we developed techniques to prevent future overflow. 1. the camp-style: quickly wet yourself by turning the water on then abrubtly off. Then soap up and then rinse again, on, off. You've got to be quick for this one and it won't keep you warm but it worked. 2. the swish: use your feet to sweep as much water toward the drain as possible while racing the clock to finish before your feet are overwhelmed by the amount. 3. the
don't-move-the-curtain: we found that if for any reason the curtain was bumped in the slightest bit, what water that was blocked by it dragging along the ground would instantly escape across the rest of the bathroom. This one is not so hard but if you're relying on it and you happen to move too much you're done for. 4. The low pressure: I'm not sure if anyone ever stuck to this for the duration of the whole shower, but this one requires patience and finger nails. Patience to keep yourself sane as you wash your body in water sprinkling down like a light rain and finger nails to scrape off the soap that just won't come off in the steady dribble of water. I'm sure everyone can empathize with this one; everyone has taken one of these showers, not by choice of course. We were not always so orthodox in our ways, though. Most of us used a combination of techniques and we managed. It was more comical than really bad. One last observation we made that we found interesting was the McDonald's paper cup collecting the dripping water from the radiator in the bathroom. It did the job as well as any paper cup could, I suppose. Most of all it made us feel classy. Nevertheless we really enjoyed our time and our travels. We just thought it would be fun to write about where we stayed too.
realized that Rick Steve’s suggestion did not look so promising. The town was basically vacant. I think we were the only four people on the train to get off at the stop. We began to walk around the town and saw a few people but the streets were basically vacant and everything was closed. I suppose it was off season because the town was small but filled with hotels and restaurants and hotel/restaurants. We had trouble finding an open restaurant though. Apparently it is a big tourist destination, but certainly not while we were there. We actually enjoyed the tranquility though, especially after being in a string of tourist-packed big cities. 
into the pizza we all realized that it had been cooked a while ago and microwaved. Ellen’s lasagna shared the same fate and was a dead ringer for a microwavable TV dinner: boiling hot on the edges and ice cold in the center! Delicious. We ate anyway and then made our way back to the train station where the ticket machine was broken and no attendant was working. We would have to buy tickets on the train (we actually were never asked to so we got a free ride!).
