Story of Venice

Okay so Venice was absolutely amazing. It's hard to describe in words how cool it was to walk around. I loved that city so much. I really want to go back some day. It's such a romantic city and everything is so unique.

The first night we got in we are all so tired. We went to Sirmione to see Catullus' supposed estate and then after that we saw Verona. It had already been a pretty jam packed day, so when we arrived in Venice at 5:30pm (oh and we left the villa in Switz at 6am) I was completely wiped and starving. It was already dark when we arrived and the city was so pretty even at night. We got off near St. Mark's Square, so that was an amazing sight to see at night. Breathtaking. Our hotel was off a street from the square, so we walked on and through the narrow streets of Venice. It was quiet because there are no cars, buses, mopeds, or bicycles but people were still milling about and shopping in the tiny shops along the streets. Chocolate and candy shops and shops filled with masks for the upcoming celebration of Carnevale. Then of course there was high fashion like Gucci, Valentino, and Chanel but even that was so neat to see mixed in. The narrow streets open up in open areas and squares that usually have the higher brand names and bigger stores but also have these amazing old churches and beautiful apartment buildings.

Anyway we arrived at our hotel not long after leaving the square. Once getting unpacked and settling in, we headed out into the streets to see the shops and look around. I was immediately in love with the city the moment we arrived. I loved every store and the people were so kind and everything was just so different from anything I have ever seen. I loved it.

We had dinner as a group and then some people headed out to the bars, but Amber and I decided to go to bed. It was a very wise decision since we were so exhausted. We ended up passing out around 10:30pm. We had to be up early the next morning to go see some sites with the group and do some other things before lunch. After our morning agenda of presentations and learning about the city and monuments, we were free to do our own things. I saw so much. I went to the Accademia, which is this really neat art museum that had a ton of Venetian art work from Bellini to Titian to Tintoretto.  Unfortunately for us, the  Vitruvian Man was not on display due to construction but everything else we saw was pretty amazing. We got lunch at pizzeria on our way back to the square, and then we continued on to go inside St. Mark's basilica. That church was beyond beautiful. It was filled with gold mosaics across the ceiling and there was so much going on in the church that you could sit there all day and keep finding new and interesting things. I saw the Pala D'Oro, which costs 2 euros, but it was totally worth it. This is an altar piece that was crafted during the Byzantine Empire and has nearly 2,000 jewels on it. It is a golden piece so when you look at it just shines and has tons of images of all the Doges and important figures. Honestly, it was so worth seeing. After that we went up and paid to go out on the balcony of St. Mark's that has a view of the Grand Canal and the square. Upstairs also has an entire museum with so many artifacts and amazing pieces. there are 4 horses that decorate the upper part of the basilica but the ones outside are not the original ones. The original ones are preserved on the inside in the museum portion. These horses were looted from the Hippodrome of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade and sent to Venice. Seeing the actual horses on the inside was another breathtaking moment. It's such a cool thing to be able to see. Honestly, the basilica was so amazing.

After that I recouped at the hotel for a bit and then went out with my friend Marty to do some site seeing. We tried to find a church but ended up getting lost in the winding and extremely complicated streets of Venice. We crossed over the Ponte di Rialto, which crosses over the Grand Canal, and we ended up getting some Carnevale masks and soccer jerseys for AC Milan. It was a lot of fun walking around and actually doing some shopping. After that we headed back to meet up with Amber, Kate, Matt, Andrew, and Clay to go out and get some dinner. After dinner we split up because some of us had bought tickets to see a music concert.

I bought a ticket for the music concert earlier that morning with some of the group. It was a string orchestra performing in this old church Vivaldi's Four Seasons. It was such an awesome concert. So beautiful and to be able to see it in a church was epic. It was the perfect setting and the musicians performed spectacularly. I absolutely loved getting the opportunity to actually see a concerto in this old church in the middle of Venice. Awesome. It completely renewed my appreciation for classical music. It was the perfect night.

After that was bed and the next morning we headed back home. We went to Vicenza to see the Teatro Olimpico, but I'll have to do another post for those pictures.

Oh and coming up soon I'm posting pictures of the many travels of Stuart the goat finger puppet. Scott gave me a finger puppet of his so that I can take pictures of it in all these different places across Europe. So if you don't get it, don't worry those posts are specifically for Scotty.

Alright until next time!
Arrivaderci!