Wonderful Venice

This passed weekend the study abroad group traveled to Venice. Venice is a beautiful and romantic city. We drove the bus from Carpi to the outskirts of Venice and then proceeded to take the tram across the water a short way. It seemed it may be bad weather with a drop here and some clouds as well but as we walked over our first bridge in Venice the clouds parted the sun brightened the sky. It was perfect, just like my entire trip!

I traveled around Venice with my roommates for this weekend trip– Taylor, Randi, Kendall, Logan, and Hannah. We had a WONDERFUL time! We checked into our residence and then headed straight to lunch. We ate at a lovely little restaurant and had gelato on the way to San Marco’s square. The square just takes your breath away. It and all the buildings in Venice just do not seem real to your eyes. Unfortunately, not but 5 minutes into our visit at the square I got lost…woops. Well, you see I thought I was doing the nice thing by  waiting up for Taylor while the other girls headed forward. I thought Taylor was throwing away the rest of her gelato and so I waited so that we could then catch up. I looked forward again and the group was gone and I looked back and I couldn’t see Taylor. So, I stood in the middle of the square, apart from people, waiting for rescue. After about ten minutes or so I convinced myself that “everything was fine, I could be all by myself for the day in a city that I do not know but that I do know is known for thievery.” Just as I was coming to terms with my lonesome fate my roommates found me and I found out that I wasn’t being kind and waiting for Taylor but I was waiting on some randoooo lady who also happened to have blond hair. Just wonderful – next trip, a leash please. Also, Logan looked at her watch wrong and thought that we had missed our tour so they were frantically trying to find me as well as try to get to our tour of the Doge’s Palace – even though it was thought we were an hour late!

After our minor heart attacks we walked around San Marco’s square, looked out on the water and all the beautiful churches and other buildings surrounding it. It was all so beautiful! After looking around for a bit we went to Doge’s Palace. It was beautiful building with an incredibile amount of history. The guided tour also lead us on Ponte dei Sospiri (the Bridge of Sighs). For those of you that do not know Ponte dei Sospiri is a bridge built between the Doge’s Palace (the building of the former courts, government, and the Doge (a figure head political, government leader)) and the jail. Prisioners would have to walk from said freedom in the government building to their cells – so the prisioners would sigh. I actually ended up purchasing a hand painted canvas drawing of the Ponte dei Sospiri (a small one of course). At the end of our tour we traveled to the gift shop and much to my suprise my Economics 104 professor from this semester, Brian Staihr, tapped me on the shoulder to say hello. Since I was leaving early and had to take his final in Italy he knew I was going to be in Venice. He mentioned he would be in Venice during that time as well and we both though “how crazy would it bei f we bumper into each other” and sure enough we certaintly did. Seriously, small world.

After our tour we walked around some more, stopped for a sit, water, and wine, did some shopping, more seeing the sites like the Riolto Bridge and then we returned to our residence to freshen up and go to dinner. I had spaghetti for the first time since I have been in Italy and it was very good! We all had a great time at the restaurant – lots of laughing and taking pictures. Actually, lots of laughing and lots of pictures really sums up our weekend! After dinner, of course, can you guess? We had more gelato. It was necessary – trust me. Okay, not really but it is so good!

The next day we woke up early so as to see all that we could! We walked around the square some more and then  decided to take the boat taxi to Lido Beach across from San Marco’s, a 10 minute ride. Lido and the beach were very nice! Lido is a cute little town and we had an amazing time walking through it and the beach. We took some really great pictures at the beach and we experienced our first topless beach. This is how it went - walking along the beach, picutres, walk, picutres, walk and then “oh let’s climb these few rocks and walk out onto this little peer…where all the old ladies are laying out…with their tatas out.” Ah,  a new cultural experience! You know, whatever floats your boat is fine by me. After the beach we had one of the best lunches I have had so far in Italy at a little restaurant in Lido. It was a bugliese pizza – simply a pizza with onions but it was so good! We headed back to the mainland of Venice to walk around more (discovering along the way some more beautiful spots in Venice), shop, and of course eat dessert (do you see a pattern here with the food?).

Venice was an amazing trip and I spent my time with some really great girls! I was happy though to come back and see my host family! I can’t wait for Florence next weekend – but I can at the same time because this trip is going entirely too fast - I want more time with my students, host family, and Italy!

Please make it slow down. Okay, thanks!

Peace