I would just like to say that mornings in Venice, Italy are never terrible. Why is that Jennifer? BECAUSE YOU'RE IN BEAUTIFUL VENICE ITALY THATS WHY! Scuuusa! That was rude. I'm sorry for yelling at you. I just got excited. Allison and I had a lot of things we wanted to do that day because this would be our only full day in Venice and time was of the essence. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and we were in VENICE! All signs lead me to believe that it was going to be a good day. We headed downstairs for a quick breakfast, some orange juice and a croissant and we were good to go. We each packed a croissant in our coat pocket with a little package of nutella for a light snack for later on in the day. Good decision. :) 
Allison and I then hopped on a water taxi to take us down the Grand Canal to get to the famous San Marco's Square. Now I have a confession, yes it would have been nice to ride on a gondala. Yes I always wanted to do that and yes it would still be very cool but honestly the main thing for me was just to be on a boat going up and down the canals of Venice. With the water taxi, Allison and I got to do that. Plus gondalas are expensive and are for lovas. I may love Allison but that miiight be a little weird. Oh well, if I come back to Italy, I'll try and cross it off my list but I've already experienced Venice. Been there done that! But then again, I doubt that I would ever pass up another opportunity to go back. Venice is easily one of the most interesting cities I have ever experienced. I would love to go back someday. . .with a lova. Ha!
Anyways, there we were just two little Gills floatin along, taking pictures of any and everything and then the next thing we know we see the open sea. Well maybe not the open sea but we were definitely not in the Grand Canal anymore. Thankfully, we were on a boat that would take us to San Marco's Square but in the midst of our excitement, we got on the wrong boat. I could tell Allison was a little upset but it was too late now so I just tried to enjoy the ride. I figured, "Well we're seeing the what people of Venice see everyday. I'm a Venician!". We did still get some cool pictures. After this trip, I think it's safe to say I've never taken so many pictures in my life. Another good decision.
We floated up to the dock in San Marco's Square and the atmosphere was so energetic that it was contagious! People were everywhere. Normally too many people in a location freak me out. I get a bit claustrophobic and hold onto my purse for dear life but this was different. I mean I still held onto my purse but maybe it was because I was in awe of my surroundings that I didn't care. Yes I noticed people all around, how could I not!?!? The only people I REALLY noticed were the ones all decked out in costumes for Carnevale. Some of the people looked as if they had just stepped out of the 1700's. If Allison and I weren't staring at the people around us, we were gawking at the amazing architecture of the buildings that seemed to reach the clouds. 
To our left we saw The Bell Tower that was very, very high and had an elevator that went to the very top so you could look out over all of Venice. The line for that was way to long so ex-nay on that. To our right was St. Mark's Basilica. The outside of this cathedral was so beautiful. Allison and I couldn't wait to go inside and see what it looked in comparison to the outside. It helped that the line was shorter too. We walk in and I literally froze. I have NEVER seen such a church as this. I tried to take as many photos as I could but they didn't do it justice. Everywhere I looked I saw some ornate scene from the Bible somewhere on the gold walls. (The gold is supposed to be symbolic of the divine and light from God.) This place was huge too. I also noticed that there was a vender/merchant selling things right there in the cathedral. Jesus would not be happy about this. :( 
If I couldn't get over what was on the walls I certainly couldn't get over what was going on beneath my feet. The floor had so many different designs in different colored marble, it was so cool. What was even more cool was I suddenly remembered so much about this building. It was like being hit by a tidal wave, the paintings, the floor designs making an overall shape of a cross, and some of the statues. I remembered learning about this and so many other cathedrals in Italy in my Humanities class in college. This day suddenly became a mini scavenger hunt in my mind to see what I could and couldn't rememeber. Oh it was on! We then felt it was time to move on to something new. Although, I probably could've stayed in there all day. My neck would've been sore the next day from looking up so much sooo it was good that we left when we did.
We stepped back outside and saw that there was kind of a party going on. A bunch of people in costumes were dancing in the street! It was like walking back in time. . . but not. After watching for a bit and playing with some confetti, we hit the trail. No we literally did. Allison's book (The Lonely Planet) informed us about this little trail/hike we should take to help us cover all the important stops in Venice, so we did. It said in the book that it would take about 5 hours to complete because duh theres no cars in Venice, ya gotta walk or float. Allison and I are very fond of walking. We also like taking a lot of pictures so our walk was quite a bit longer than 5 hours. Whoopsie! I think it's safe that we saw just about every cathedral and bridge that Venice had to offer. 
We were informed on the water taxi that morning by some English couple that we "must get lost in the streets of Venice". Get lost we did, well sorta. We had the mini map in The Lonely Planet and we glanced at it every now as well as followed signs. I still didn't know where I was so I think it counts. We definitely covered everything that was mentioned in the book while on our walk through Venice. We even stopped and got some gelato at a little restaurant that The Lonely Planet said was the best place to go. We didn't want to pay to sit down at a table so we sat by these stairs that lead down into the canal and had icky slime all over them. But ya know what? Even icky slime looks pretty in Venice. Weird how that works. ha!
As we walked the streets of Venice, we saw more and more bridges, cathedrals and people dressed up. Too many to mention. I swear after this trip, I'll never look at a regular church in America the same. They just seem so boring in comparison. The Rialto Bridge was pretty awesome too. It was one of the most beautiful bridges I had ever seen, very romantic. That area was jam packed with people though which kind of took away from it. :( Allison and I braved the crowd, got our pictures and headed to go get a snack before dinner. We walked back towards our hotel and stopped at a pizza place. Love that real italian pizza. We finished our pizza and then headed back to the room to rest our poor, little, but happy feet. 
After our rest we decided that we wanted to experience the night life in Venice, especially since it was the last night of Carnevale. We put on our masks and headed out to dinner. We found this little hole in the wall restaurant that was super cool. Allison and I ended up both ordering the same two course meal that consisted of lasagna and chicken. Both were very yummy but what I liked best was dessert. Our meal came with this dessert called chocolate salami. I know what you're thinking. I thought it too. This was nothing like what I thought. They say Italian chocolate is the best and I can honestly say that this statement is TRUE! I mostly like any kind of white chocolate, I think milk and dark chocolate taste funny but this was definitely the best chocolate I ever had! I can't even describe it other than it was down right sinful.
With full stomachs we hit the streets of Venice again. I suddenly felt like I was in another movie and not the good kind either. Since it was the last night of Carnevale all the crazies seemed to be out. Unbeknownst to us we had wandered into the college courtyard and it was insane but there were soooo many cool costumes! Some of my favs were these four guys who were dressed to the "T" like Ghostbusters. They even had the gun backpack and had a boom box playing the theme song wherever they went. Another was these two guys who had taken individual posters that were famous paintings of women (like the Birth of Venus) and had it framed with their own heads popping out of the picture rather than the ladies'. Lastly there was this group of college kids who had made a Chinese Dragon costume but it was of Falcor from The Neverending Story. Hahah! I WISH I got a picture of that! |
| The Academy Bridge |
After our "night out on the town" we decided we were exhausted and wanted to go back to the hotel to rest. We then planned on what we were going to do the next day. Our train didn't leave until around 11am so we had the morning to explore. We wanted to get as much time in Venice as possible. Like I said earlier, Venice is the most interesting place I have ever been. I loved every moment of that day. When I wasn't drooling over the food, staring at the domes and paintings in the cathedrals, admiring extravagant costumes, or appreciating every step of a bridge, I was taking a picture of it to help savor the memory. Venice is truly a wonderful place that seems to be bursting with history and I still can't believe that I got to experience it up close and personal with one of my best friends.
-Jen
PS: For some reason when Allison and I were sharing photos on our last night together every single one of her pictures messed up somehow on my computer. I didn't realize this until I had already arrived back in the states. So if some of these pics look funny esp this last one. . .SOYYE!
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