VENICE!!!!!

11.2.2010

Sorry for the long delay! There was no internet in Venice until the last day and I was having so much fun with Ellie and her friends that I didn't take the time to update!!! Here we go day by day!!

Thursday night: The train ride was uneventful and I got to Venice-Mestre around 8pm and hailed a cab to the hotel. The man at the desk was SUPER nice and gave me the keys to the room so I was able to go in and take a shower and relax for the several hours until Ellie and the gang from London arrived. When they got in at 11, we were all starving and so we went to the "restaurant" downstairs. It's actually a lounge bar called Tantra!!! At ANY rate, the food was good (REALLY yummy bruschetta!!!) and then we all passed out in anticipation of a day of Venetian island hopping!!!

Friday: The weather was MISERABLE!!! All 8 of us decided that we were going to follow the advice of our lovely hotel man and go island hopping so we set off to Murano Island, home of Murano glass!! Watching these guys blow and meld liquid hot glass was AMAZING!! We went into the shops afterwards to look around and I was just BOWLED over by the beauty of everything!! Ellie and I got some figurines in Venetian costume and masks for our tables which we were both in LOVE with!! They had lots of great jewelry and it was REALLY tempting to get some ... but I really didn't want to blow all my money in one place!! After a lovely time walking around Murano (SUCH a cute little island!!!!!!) we headed off to Burano, home of the lace industry!!! I behaved and didn't go lace shopping (though I REALLY REALLY wanted to!!!). The weather was absolutely DREADFUL at this point, so the walking around was a bit protracted ... also two of the girls missed the shuttle to Burano from Murano so we were trying to figure out what to do as phones in the group weren't working! After taking SEVERAL pictures of this adorable island known for it's colorfully painted and lace industry (seriously, ever shop had someone inside MAKING the lace!!), we decided that we were going to go on to Torcello, the last island in the chain, so that we wouldn't miss the stuff there which closes early! Ellie and I made it JUST in time. The church on Torcello is the oldest Church in Venice. Originally home to 20,000 people in the Middle Ages, there are now only 16 residents of Torcello island ... and in the winter when it's cold and rainy ... there is NO ONE THERE!!! Either way, Ellie and I were just completely wowed by the church and it's gold mosaics. Very VERY beautiful, and completely different from Rome! I must say, I like the Churches in Rome! I am much more a fan of the Baroque style with the ornate paintings and sculptures ... and having STARTED in Rome ... the other churches can't impress me!!! I feel so jaded!!! After Torcello, we were all cold, wet and tired and decided that we really wanted to have coffee and go back to the hotel. 6 of the 8 of us were there, and so we all decided that taking the shuttle at 7 instead of 9 was a better idea and called to change it (people were having no trouble calling ITALIAN numbers ... but couldn't figure out how to call each other, but texting worked!!). We texted the two girls who had gotten separated and told them about the change and then ran into them when we were getting off the water taxi (the Venetian version of a bus!) back on Burano (they were trying to head out to Torcello) and told them about the change and the fact that everything on Torcello was now closed! They decided that they wanted to go to Torcello anyways and that they would meet us back at the bus. We hopped on the series of water buses and realized that by the time we got back to the bus, it would be 7 ... and that there was NO WAY that the other two would make it!! We called again to give them more time, and changed the bus to 8pm. When we got back to Piazzalle Roma (the main terminal) we had coffee to try to warm up and Sam and I had an adventure trying to find a bathroom. BTW: if anyone tells you that the Rolling Venice card covers the bathroom costs (1.50 EUR) tell them they are wrong. Because they don't. Finally it was time to go meet the bus ... but the other two girls still weren't there!! They sent us a text message saying to go on without them, that they wouldn't make the shuttle and would take the public transportation back (we found out later that they hadn't been able to change the clock on their cellphones, which kept reverting back to UK time, so they thought they had an hour when they didn't!!!). We made it back to the hotel where we found out that there was no heat and no gas ... which meant no hot water. FAIL. We went down to Tantra again ... but they didn't have heat or gas either ... which meant that the only food they could do were the stupid club sandwiches. DOUBLE FAIL! So we had our cold sandwiches and just hung out and the two girls who stayed in Venice met us there. We made friends with the waiter, despite the massive language barrier (he literally spoke 7 words in English ... and we didn't speak ANY Italian) and then went upstairs to go to bed.

Saturday: The weather was still pretty bad, but NOTHING compared to Friday. We took the No. 1 Water taxi/bus thingy all the way down the Grand Canal to St Mark's Square. After kinda walking around open eyed for a few minutes, we headed into the Basilica. I waited back for Ellie and Molly who had to deposit bags before going into the church, and had a great time walking around with them! We went into Tesoro, which is where all the booty brought back from the sacking of Constantinople is displayed, including some REALLY ancient objects from Egypt (2500 BCE). Also included in the Tesoro is a thorn thought to be from the crown of Christ! After Tesoro we walked over the High Alter of the church to see Pala D'Oro which drips with 2000 precious stones and gold. It was AMAZING. Underneath the alter is the coffin of St Mark!!!!!!! THAT was just amazing. It was great walking through the rest of the Church with Ellie and Molly who were really interested in all the religious symbolism in the art! After leaving the Church we met up with the rest of the group and decided to go get lunch. We found this GREAT place with a fixed price menu (pasta + chicken + side for 13 EUR. DEAL!) and went there. It was a LOT of fun, and it was FABULOUS seeing everyone in Venice in costume and mask! Of course, we were all wearing our masks as well!!! After lunch we headed over to the Gallerie Dell'Academia. Because the girls all had their Univ of London student union cards, we got in for next to nothing!! SCORE! We wandered through the gallery for a while, which had an impressive collection of Venetian art from the 14-18th centuries!! A few people got sick of the art and decided that they wanted to head off to explore for a while and that we would all meet up later on. After the gallery, the rest of us decided that we wanted to explore the area around where we were for a while. We had GREAT gelato and walked along the canals and just chilled. We then made our way back towards St Mark's Square, which is where the kick off show would take place, and split a bottle of wine between the five of us and then headed over to the meeting point. We had a great time wandering around the streets behind San Marco square because there were just so many different kinds of shops and food and people! We got a PRIME spot to watch the show and saw the most RANDOM "show" by several guys from a local factory (I think ... I wasn't entirely sure of what was going on ...). Another girl and I had to go in search of a restroom, so we ditched the SECOND show to go in search. After a few humorous attempts to get back to the rest of the group, we decided that we were better off just heading to the meeting point to wait out the rest of the group. Ellie joined up with us and the three of us went for pizza. BEST DECISION EVER! Ellie had fun because the people at the table next to us were French so Ellie had a BLAST talking to them and the waiter LOVED Belle, MK and I. We then met up with the rest of the group after the show ended and headed back to the hostel.

Sunday: Aptly named because there was SUNSHINE!!! After a frightening attempt to see the "Angel Flight" We ducked into a Chinese restaurant to escape the crowds (literally a CRUSHING crowd) and wait for people to disperse a bit. We had lunch (nummmmm) and then went back to San Marco to try to find the three girls that got separate off from us. Having found them, we decided that those of us who hadn't ridden a gondola yet and really wanted to were going to do that so we headed to a nice spot to catch a gondola and had an AMAZING ride. Please go check out the pictures on Facebook! They are really amazing!! After the gondola ride we went to the Church of Santa Maria Salute. It was GORGEOUS on the inside, and for 1 EUR you can go back into the Sacristy and see the Titian ceiling paintings and several other famous works! It was stunning (but no, not as stunning as churches in Rome :P). We then all wanted to head over to Rialto to see the bridge and possibly grab dinner. Rialto brdige is GORGEOUS and is covered in jewelry shops!! Both Ellie and I struggled with the temptation to get cameo jewelry (Ellie REALLY wants a ring and I have been wanting to get a cameo necklace on a ribbon for a while ...) but we decided that spending more money was just not a good option and we passed (le sigh). We met up with the rest of the group and then split up based on who wanted to go back and who wanted to stay downtown. I DEFINITELY wanted to go back to the hotel. My feet and back were KILLING me from 10 days of non-stop on your feet touring. I was ready for a break. I purchased some internet at the hotel and had a great time hanging out with Katherine and MK uploading and tagging pictures on Facebook (and talking to the desk dude who had some SERIOUSLY strange taste in music ... ) and packing before absolutely passing out in bed.

Monday: BEACH DAY!! 6 of us headed off to Lido Island to see the beach on the Adriatic sea. This was probably my favorite day in Venice because it was just completely relaxed! We played on the sand for a while (and took LOTS of really fun pictures) before walking around in search of some good (but cheap) lunch. We found a great place (unfortunately they had a bunch of hidden costs so it wasn't AS cheap as it seemed ...) and had some great pizza and pasta. We kept walking around, taking pictures and a few of the girls wanted souvenirs. When we headed back to Venice, Katherine, MK and Sam wanted to go to San Marco square and Ellie, Molly and I wanted to walk around the garden area between San Marco and the end of the Island ... so we hopped off and the other three girls kept going on the water taxi. Ellie, Molly and I found the most BIZZARE place I've ever seen. We were walking around this garden which had HAPPY FACES on the trees ... and there were these painting hanging down ... and a GIANT group of kids emerges from behind them! I really wanted to find out what was behind the magic curtains ... and it was like stepping through the looking glass! It was this all white building with a bunch of different rooms!! In the rooms there were kids doing really random art projects ... and it was like Ellie, Molly and I were invisible wandering around observing. SERIOUSLY strange!!!! After exiting this other world, we just kept walking around. It was SO much fun, and really cute to see this other part of Venice! After posing as statues, we met up with the other three girls and headed back to the hostel to wait for the shuttles to the train station and airport!! Next stop: VERONA!!!!