December 9, 2011. Venice and Beyond

It has been an entire week since Vince, Jeremy, and I went to Venice for the weekend. So much has happened in the course of the week, not even including the fantastic weekend we had. A couple of updates:

1. School is over! Well, for the most part. We had our last day of classes on Wednesday which ended a very busy week of a Comm paper and an Italian test, oral exam, and presentation. I'm actually quite pleased with my work and am (somehow) sitting on pretty good grades as I head into finals week. I still need to study a lot but at least I'm not worried. Either way, come next Wednesday I will be done completely!!

2. We have been busy in our last free days this weekend! It's only Friday and we've spent the last two days out most of the time. Yesterday, Neil Vince, Jeremy and I got up and saw two of the four major Parish churches in Rome. We saw the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore which was quite impressive along with the Basilica of St. John Lateran, a massive cathedral near the Coliseum. Today was even busier as Vince, Jeremy, and I rented bikes and went on a crazy ride throughout the southern part of Rome. We biked nearly 12 miles and went through the Coliseum, Circo Massimo, the Pyramid of Cestius, the Sabian Hill, and into the E.U.R. where we saw a bunch of Mussolini's building projects. It was a great afternoon and evening but it definitely wiped us out.

On to the stories of Venice. We left Rome really early Friday morning for a 7 AM flight. When we landed we could see that Venice was going to be a very cold, foggy and wet place but we at least were prepared for less-than-good weather. It ended up being a lot better than expected and only rained for a little bit of the time.

From the airport we took two buses (the first took us to a town outside Venice), and we made it to Piazzale Roma, a main bus/train station outside the main canal network. After a short walk, we made it to our hostel, "A Venice Fish," an odd name for an even weirder hostel. It turned out to be a pretty awesome and very social place and we met a lot of interesting people from the States, England, and Australia.

After checking in we went over to St. Mark's Square, the focal point of the city and easily the most famous. I was blown away by how big and beautiful it was.

So much open space. We walked around and then went into the Basilica, which was absolutely gorgeous. St. Mark's was easily one of my favorite Italian churches- the mosaics on the facade and throughout the interiors were amazing.

Couldn't take pictures inside but this postcard does a pretty good job at showing how luxurious this cathedral is! It was easy to see why the Republic of Venice was considered the most wealthy state before Italy's unification.

We saw even more wealth when we went to the Palazzo Ducale, or Doge's Palace, the residence of the Doge of Venice who was top dog at the time of the Republic. Again I was impressed with the vast amounts of wealth the state had accrued through its important trading partners in the East. After wandering through this massive palace, seeing art collections, huge bedrooms, a senatorial meeting place, an armory, and even a prison, we were quite intimidated and exhausted. When we left the weather was so good that I convinced Jeremy and Vince to climb the campanile with me because I figured it was our best shot of seeing a 360 degree view of the city. It was completely worth it. After a quick elevator ride we were at the top and could see EVERYTHING. Pictures definitely couldn't capture the views but they make a nice memory of our time up there:

After coming down from the bell tower we left St. Mark's and made our way back to the hostel, stopping at Ponte Rialto. This was the biggest bridge in Venice and it stretched over the Grand Canal so naturally

we got some great pictures.

From the bridge we stopped at Billa, a familiar Roman grocery store where we spent a lot of time there that weekend buying snacks to save money. We got back to the hostel and snacked before dinner, which was included with our reservation and was a nice touch. We met some cool Australians and girls studying abroad from Florence who were a lot of fun to hang out with. After dinner we all headed to an Irish pub near St. Mark's and it was a fun, pretty low-key night. We got to bed early which was nice so we could have another full day on Saturday.

The next day was busy, fun-filled, and easily the best of our three days in Venice. We spent most of the day with our new friends, going to a few sites around the city. After getting a quick breakfast at Billa, we headed towards the Jewish Ghetto, one of the first instances of Jewish segregation. Here, we learned that the word ghetto was derived from the Venezian word ghèto. The district was lively, relatively upscale, and had a strong sense of Jewish pride.

After walking around for a bit we headed to the water's edge to board the WATERBUS, Venice's public transportation boats that connects it to the surrounding islands. We were headed to Murano, a small island known for its beautiful glasswork.

I loved Murano and had a blast perusing through the many shops that sold many locally-produced glass products that were works of art. I of course bought some great gifts for some loved ones that I know they will appreciate.

amazing glass, endless window shopping.

After leaving Murano we sat down to a relaxing lunch with the group. We had delicious pizzas and got to talk for a while. It was nice chatting with the Australians because I don't think I've ever met a real Australian in person so I learned a lot about their country (and continent!) in general. After lunch we wandered back to the hostel for a nap before dinner and going out.

Saturday night was another fun night out in Venice with our new acquaintances. This time we went out with the hostel innkeeper himself, an odd, huge, English guy who got us a discount at his friend's nearby bar. Here we got good deals on delicious mixed drinks that needless to say, had a lot more alcohol in them than we had expected. After a variety of shenanigans, we ended up back at our hostel and still managed to get to bed at a reasonable hour.

Our last day in Venice was nice and relaxing and once again spent the day with Australians. We grouped up with these two Aussie girls on our way to St. Mark's to get a group gondola ride to save money. This may have been our highlight because it was a really quiet Sunday and there were very few boats and other gondolas in the canals. We got a great tour of the Grand Canal, going under the Ponte Rialto and seeing one of the oldest Italian markets and the sites of where the Tourist and a recent Bond movie were filmed.

After the hour-long ride we went into a museum along St. Mark's to warm up. The Museo Correr was pretty interesting, filled with ancient art, Renaissance paintings, and various artifacts from the Medieval Era. It was pretty overwhelming and we were tired so we left after only a little while. On our way home we took a few more pictures in St. Mark's, saying goodbye to what was probably my favorite piazza in Italy.

After leaving St. Mark's we went back to the hostel, checked out, and made our way to the airport. We ended up getting there way too early (3+ hours), but we didn't care. We landed in Rome near midnight which was exhausting, especially right before a busy week of school.

Our weekend in Venice was amazing and one of my favorite's of the semester. Venice was such a beautiful place but I was also surprised at how much we enjoyed the nightlife. Being the last trip of the semester, I think we were all a bit burned out and underestimated the trip but clearly we were wrong! I couldn't think of a better way to end my travels in Italy.