Blogspot is being beyond frustrating right now. It isn't letting me upload pictures, so I'll try again tomorrow and just have a post of Venice pictures. So this post is going to be all text, my apologies. This weekend we had a program-wide trip to Venice, which was something I was looking forward to ever since arriving in Italy. And I definitely was not disappointed. Venice was probably the most unique and overall best city I have ever been to. I'm very glad that I'll get the chance to go back there with my parents when they come to visit in November. We departed the Villa at about 7:30 Sunday morning, and headed off on a bus to Venice. And about 3 hours later we arrived.
The very first thing we got to do was to take a private boat tour through the main "canal" of Venice. Venice is actually just bunch islands with a whole mess of canals running through it, and one main canal that is shaped like an S that weaves through the main island of Venice. Somewhat confusing, but it was really cool to see canals and boats roaming around everywhere as opposed to cars, buses, mopeds, etc. I didn't see a single car the entire time that I was there, which was really weird. There's a lot of these little narrow side streets and alleyways all over the place, and everything was really jammed together, which was pretty cool as well. But the first stop on our private boat tour was the island of Murano. Murano is extremely famous for producing the highest quality glass in the world, and the island was basically nothing but glass factories and glass shops. Some of the stuff in these stores were absolutely ridiculous. We got to see a demonstration of glass blowing / the whole process as well so that was pretty neat. I guess it's basically a family tradition type deal, which made it even neater. So that was Murano, a whole lot of glass.
After Murano, the boat tour continued. It was really nice to get to see Venice from that perspective, and just seeing all the buildings built right alongside the water and canals. After driving around, the boat docked right by our hotel, where we stayed Friday night. The hotel was pretty nice. Kind of small rooms, but it had a courtyard a lot of us chilled in late Friday night which was nice. From the hotel, we walked over to the main piazza of Venice, St. Mark's Square. I'll have a picture of this that I'll put up once this site gets it's act together. But it was a huge square, lined with shops, these really cool buildings that used to be used for administrative purposes, and of course the church of San Marco. And Pigeons. There were so many pigeons all over Venice, it was pretty ridiculous.
We had some time to chill in the square for a bit, but then we got to go on a tour of the Ducal Palace, where all the politicians, governors, and politics in general took place in Venice. It was a really cool building, built right by San Marco. A ton of political frescos, and a bunch of different rooms. Almost all of the ceilings were made out of / had some type of gold in them, so that was really cool to see. There was also this gigantic room, probably larger than a football field, that held the entire Venetian Parliament, which I believe was made up of a couple thousand men, so that was pretty neat to get to see. After the tour of this palace, we had some free time. Some buddies and myself just wandered around the streets of Venice, and tried to get away from all the tourists. BTW, way more tourists in Venice than any other city I've been in. But anyway, we walked along some streets, stopped in some shops, nothing too exciting. Just really cool to get a chance to experience some parts of Venice I feel like I normally wouldn't have.
One quick note, the food in Venice was nothing special. All the meals we had weren't that great. We were all very anxious to get back to the Villa and enjoy a meal prepared for us by Bruno on Saturday night. Pretty funny how spoiled we all are with food now.
Also, another side note, gondolas are great. I didn't actually go on a gondola ride because they're hella spendy, but they are everywhere and look really cool. I have a picture of them as well that I'll put up. Super stereotypical as well. The drivers all wore striped shirts and those hats, pretty much exactly what you imagine / see in movies or whatever.
The best part of the entire trip was easily a private visit to San Marco Basilica at night. It was honestly just our program in this tour. The brought us into the Basilica in the dark, then slowly turned the lights on the reveal this place. It was unbelievable. There are very few times in my life where I've been speachless but this was definitely one of them. The Venetians were heavily influenced by the Byzantines, and absorbed a lot of Byzantine culture. So the entire ceiling of this place is gold mosaics of various biblical scenes and figures. It was probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I'll have pictures of this as well, because I can't even begin to describe it. We also got to go up on the altar / behind the altar which was neat. There was this altar piece made out of gold that had thousands of precious stones in it, which was really cool. AND, we saw the tomb of St. Mark himself, and got the chance to go into the Basilica's catacombs. It was far and away the best part of the trip.
Saturday morning the weather was finally nice, and some of the group including myself went to Venice's main art museum. It was pretty neat, a lot of Titian's and Bellini's and such. Venetian painters were a lot different than Florentine painters, just in the way that they use colors and such, so it was nice to get a chance to see different styles than what we've seen in Florence thus far. The rest of Saturday was basically devoted to wandering around Venice. And again, we didn't do a whole lot. We got some food, walked around the heart of the city, and took the time to walk down some side streets and such. It was nice to have all that free time just to be able to get out and walk around Venice and see things that I normally wouldn't get the chance to. Then around 4 in the afternoon we hopped back on a boat that took us to our bus, and headed back to Sesto. That about sums up the Venice trip. It was a great time and I'm very anxious to get back there. One of the most interesting and unique places I have ever been. I'll try to get these pictures up as soon as possible.
Also, another side note, gondolas are great. I didn't actually go on a gondola ride because they're hella spendy, but they are everywhere and look really cool. I have a picture of them as well that I'll put up. Super stereotypical as well. The drivers all wore striped shirts and those hats, pretty much exactly what you imagine / see in movies or whatever.
The best part of the entire trip was easily a private visit to San Marco Basilica at night. It was honestly just our program in this tour. The brought us into the Basilica in the dark, then slowly turned the lights on the reveal this place. It was unbelievable. There are very few times in my life where I've been speachless but this was definitely one of them. The Venetians were heavily influenced by the Byzantines, and absorbed a lot of Byzantine culture. So the entire ceiling of this place is gold mosaics of various biblical scenes and figures. It was probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I'll have pictures of this as well, because I can't even begin to describe it. We also got to go up on the altar / behind the altar which was neat. There was this altar piece made out of gold that had thousands of precious stones in it, which was really cool. AND, we saw the tomb of St. Mark himself, and got the chance to go into the Basilica's catacombs. It was far and away the best part of the trip.
Saturday morning the weather was finally nice, and some of the group including myself went to Venice's main art museum. It was pretty neat, a lot of Titian's and Bellini's and such. Venetian painters were a lot different than Florentine painters, just in the way that they use colors and such, so it was nice to get a chance to see different styles than what we've seen in Florence thus far. The rest of Saturday was basically devoted to wandering around Venice. And again, we didn't do a whole lot. We got some food, walked around the heart of the city, and took the time to walk down some side streets and such. It was nice to have all that free time just to be able to get out and walk around Venice and see things that I normally wouldn't get the chance to. Then around 4 in the afternoon we hopped back on a boat that took us to our bus, and headed back to Sesto. That about sums up the Venice trip. It was a great time and I'm very anxious to get back there. One of the most interesting and unique places I have ever been. I'll try to get these pictures up as soon as possible.
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