Venezia, Verona and Milano

I had my first tour day today (13 June). The multidistrict organised a tour seeing Venice, Verona, Milan, Florence, Siena, Pisa, Rome, Naples and Bologna, and though we're a fairly small group of just 12 students, I already feel like we've been friends for ages. The students came from Sardinia, Rome, Bari and Sicily, and we represent several countries: Canada, Sweden, Germany, Japan, USA and Argentina. Minus the student from Argentina, we all speak English, but we speak Italian most of the time, because we value including everyone. 
Kaley and I flew from Sicily, landing the evening of the 12, and we stayed at our team leader's house (where his wife essentially force fed us fresh fruit and gelato when we got there. I suffered.). This morning we met up with the other students and took of for our of Venice. 
We wandered the streets, crossing on the small bridges. I noticed just how silent it was - without cars (and their horns, alarms, etc), the city is very quiet. We met our guide at Piazza San Marco, seeing the cathedral (wow - that's all I can say about the cathedral... Just... Wow.), various buildings, such as the leaning tower, the fallen (and rebuilt) bell tower, and many other places. Unfortunately we did not have the time to go on a gondola ride (and it was raining), and we were a little disappointed to miss out on that experience. 
Then back to the hotel for dinner, and to go to bed. This morning we took off early for Verona! I'll try to update again as soon as I can. 
Ok so I didn't find wifi, so I'm stuffing Verona and Milano on this one as well. 
At Verona we saw the old city walls, the arena and Juliet's house. The arena is the second biggest after the colosseum, and we had a great time climbing the seats. They still hold operas and plays there, and the cheapest seats, those highest, are actually the best, and the acoustics are so that the sound rises. The house of Juliet (from Shakespeare) was packed with people, and you can tell as you approach because you see the signatures and messages of love on the walls. Inside the courtyard we got pictures with the bronze stature of Juliet, then we went to piazza delle Erbe. We had the afternoon free so we wandered around. 
In the evening we rode to Milano. We had a great evening out, then up early for our tour of Milan. We saw the castle, the galleria, then the cathedral. Again, we had the afternoon off, so we did a little shopping, getting gelato at a chocolate shop, and saw a church with a room of bones. Our guide in the afternoon was a South African student living outside of Lecco on exchange. We even managed to meet up with the other Milanese students  just to quickly chat and exchange information. I felt that had we lived in the same city, we would have instantly been friends, and I didn't want to say goodbye to our guide in the afternoon, promising to send letters, and keep up to date with each other through facebook and email. 
Then onto the fast train, heading to Florence! We have three nights in Florence, seeing Pisa and Siena during that time as well. 
I'll update as soon as I can!