Venice!!

Alas, I have decided to write about Venezia! It is the home of the Carnivale, and the only city in the entire world that has boats instead of cars. You won't see a single car in any of my pictures, because there are only streets of water. The city was incredible. The water, albeit extremely green, makes the entire city look like it's floating. We only stayed for a weekend, but we had the chance to see a lot of the city and all its marvels. When we first arrived on our bus, we had to take a boat to get into the heart of our city and our hotel.

We went out that afternoon to look around the city some and we found some typical Venice sights. There were Gondolerias every direction you looked.

Carnivale is almost like halloween, but way more intense. Everyone dresses up in masks and full body costumes that are extremely intricate. They disguise a person completely. It's been around since the 1200's and continues even now. It takes place at the end of winter/beginning of spring. I think it would be SO cool to come back one day and see everyone dressed up and walking around. We kept trying the masks on and pretending we were at Carnivale. There were masks hanging in every souvenir store we passed by. These masks are all over Italy, but the ones in Venice are so detailed and colorful compared to the rest.

On Friday, we got to tour the Accademia Gallery, which used to be an art academy, and where a ton of famous art is hosted. Again, our awesome art history professors came with us and gave us our own tour of the gallery. They had so much cool info to share and knew so much about everything. Then we got to go to the Chiesa di Frari, one of Venice's oldest churches. The inside was covered in gold like most of the churches in Europe are, but there was something more serene about it. It was beautiful and literally left me almost breathless. We lit a candle and left it to burn.

Saturday, we went to St. Marks Square. It was beautiful. There were way too many people, but the Church and the Palace were gorgeous. We toured the Doge's Palace (Palazzo Ducale) with the professor and saw amazing artifacts and really tight views out the windows. We also got to see the prison where they held all the captives inside the Palace! There was a huge grand ballroom, and it was right on the water, too. Afterwards, we just walked around the square for gelato and lunch.

That afternoon was free time, so we decided to go to the Island of Murano. This is the island where all the fabulous glass-blowing happens. It was only a 20 minute boat bus ride. PS The bus system in Venice is all boats! They have a ton of lines, too. We had fun trying to figure this out ha ha. We got lost a few times, but eventually found the right one to take to the island. Murano Glass is famous all over the world. We got to watch them make it, and the guy that was blowing the glass made a horse out of nothing in 30 seconds flat.

We walked around for most of the afternoon and found a few trinkets to buy (of course!) then went back to our island and went out for drinks. The only tricky thing about going out in Venice is that there are hardly any places to go, and they are all really spread out. Given there aren't buses or taxis on the small canals, it posed a big ordeal to get around. We found a little hole in the wall American bar and had a couple drinks with about 30 people in our program.

Sunday, we woke up early to go to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum. This is one of (out of a chain of Guggenheims all over the world) the most famous modern art museums. We saw the likes of Picasso, Dali, Jackson Pollack, and a lot of other famous modern artists. Most of the works were really cool, and it was SO awesome to see Picasso and Dali in person. Their works seem like they could be done by anyone at first glance, but when you learn about all the reason and expression behind them, you learn a new appreciation for modern art.

After the Guggenheim, we packed up and headed back to Florence! It was such a busy but amaaazing weekend. Venice is beautiful, so full of life, and so cool to see! I have so many more pictures from Venice than Florence. These are just a couple, but they sum up the trip!

More to come soon,

Ciao