After the noise level of Rome, the silence of the Venetian canals was welcome. Just as before, though, the two inexperienced travelers hadn't booked a hostel in advance. They headed straight for a tourism office that phoned a couple of cheap hotels for them to check availability. "You're lucky you're here in the off-season," the woman said without a smile in a thick Italian accent. "There is a room, for eighty euros. But it is on the Lido."

The what?" Toby asked.

Isn't there anything cheaper?" asked Dylan, who suddenly shed his usual shyness after hearing the price of a single room.

The tourism office worker rolled her eyes and found no humor in the ignorant American boys. She instead drew out a map of Venice without saying a word and with a highlighter marked where they were a few footsteps from Santa Lucia train station and then on the other side of the large sheet of paper circled the Lido too. The island might as well have been Crete for all Dylan knew. The map was a maze of brown and blue, Venice's waterways standing out as the salient feature of the region's aqueous terrain. The long, thin strip of land that was the Lido reminded the two teens of Long Island. They went there last summer with their parents. Lido would remind them nothing of New York except for the food: the brothers feasted on typical tourist-friendly Italian grub in a pizzeria next door to their hotel. Never...

With the throngs of tourists from all over the world as well as a flock of a hundred pigeons, Toby and Dylan shared Venice's Piazza San Marco and gawked at the city's timeless splendor.
After three days and half their budget already spent, Toby and Dylan boarded another train. This one was headed south past Rome to the city of Napoli. Naples, as the city is known in English, is not necessarily a tourist destination but Dylan and Toby both chose it over Florence for a number of reasons. Neither of them cared too much about art, Naples was supposed to have good, cheap food, and Toby knew a girl from school that was studying there for the summer. When they got off the train they knew this was going to be an interesting stay. Naples was loud, a little dirty, and full of energy. They could feel the pulse of nightlife even before they got off the platform and were greeted by Tanya. The three of them partied hard for three days, barely getting any sightseeing done but managing to fit in a few must-sees recommended by the Lonely Planet. Toby and Dylan spent two more days recovering in Rome before boarding a plane back home to Seattle, two boys changed into men.