This weekend we
traveled to Venice for an art history trip with the program. Unfortunately, it was extremely wet all
weekend, but that seems to be the consistent weather report for Venice: damp. The
first day was filled with many activities. I feel like every corner we turned
we encountered yet another stand for tourists. I was also constantly freaking
out over the canals. After we arrived we went to our hotel that was extremely
close to Santa Maria Novella. I was furious to find that my beautiful camera
decided to stop working (it could turn on/off and take video but would not take
a picture – I was convinced the lens was cracked or something) and had to
settle on using my iPhone to document the entire weekend, but more on that
later. We had some lunch, and then headed to the Chiesa dei Santa Maria dei
Frari. The church holds Tiziano’s Assuzione
della Vergine and Pesaro Madonna, many
tombs, and a sacristy.
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| Chiesa di S. Maria |
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| Assuzione delle vergine |
Next was the big
stop: the famous Piazza di San Marco! It war ridiculously crowded, and it
wasn’t any better inside the Basilica. I couldn’t get a great picture inside,
but the mosaic title EVERYWHERE was magnificent and so unique to the rest of
the churches I’ve seen in Italy so far. We were also wondering if we could go
up the Campanile di San Marco, the bell tower, but figured it was probably
impossible. After Bologna, I’m going to avoid towers for a long, long time. Our
teacher told us that foreigners were never actually allowed up the tower in the
past because Venice’s main advantage (pre-Napoleon, anyway) was how difficult
the city was to navigate. If a foreign trader, for example, was able to get up
the tower, they could have drawn a map and Venice would have lost its main
military advantage.
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| Ponte di Rialto! |
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| The Tower (aka massive library inside) |
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| Zodiac clock in Piazza S. Marco |
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| TILES INSIDE |
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| From the second floor of the Basilica :) |
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| Ahhhh gondolas but at 30 euro way too much ahah |
We were all
surprised to learn that these two stops were the only two we had to make for
our class trip! From here on, we had a day and half to do whatever we liked in
Venice. Additionally, we had Monday off from our classes, so I made travel
plans with a friend to hit up as much of Veneto as we physically could.
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| Just about died (via Instagram) |
A while before
dinner I decided to get something to eat because I was staring, and I found an
amazing calzone somewhere in the heart of Venice. We dined at a restaurant near
our hotel, and afterwards, gelato, of course! Peach and mango, to be specific. AMAZING.
For day 2 of Venice, most of us decided that Palazzo Ducale had to be our main
destination. It had dungeons that did not disappoint. Neither did the museum!
So many weapons and a few other interesting things…ie. A medieval chastity
belt. Ouch.
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| A scarier version from Men in Tights |
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| dundundundundundungeons |
Palazzo Ducale
took up most of the day, but after that we all parted ways, and the real
adventure began. Rach and I went to San Marco and purchased 24-hour tickets to
use the water taxi in and around Venice. Our first stop: Murano, an island
which is famous for its hand-crafted colored glass. We ended up splitting a
miniscule lunch at a small restaurant here, much to the chagrin of the owner.
#sorrynotsorry
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| Insane glass! |
Murano was tiny,
and unlike Venice, virtually empty of tourists. It still had the feel of
Venice, but the lack of crowds was fantastic. We walked around the island for a
while, and I got some great souvenirs for my friends in the form of small,
glass animals. There were many large glass sculptures around the island too!
It didn’t take
long for us to great through Murano before hopping on a water taxi and headed
to the night’s destination: Lido di Veneto, a larger island on the south side
of Venice. The taxi seemed to take FOREVER, and we had to change at Piazza San
Marco. While this was a great, wholly unique experiences, I do not wish to
repeat it. Tooooo breezy. We had some trouble finding our hotel when arriving
in Lido, but after some bad directions on my part (I blame Google Maps and my
inherent lack of direction) we arrived! We were shocked to find how nice our
hotel was for how little we paid for the night. The receptionist was also
lovely, and she spoke 3 languages! She told us that practicing with clients help, and I can completely understand her decision to immerse herself - the same method is helping my Italian! I can call the ProntoBus pretty well now, but I’m a bit upset that I
only have my literature class at the University to look forward too. I loved my
grammar classes with Francesca and definitely want to continue studying Italian
grammar on my own when I get back to the States.
Once we settled
into the hotel we checked in with our families with our limited internet
access. Rach and I basically sat in silence for our few precious minutes of
paid internet, haha. My parents also recently got iPhones, and oh man. I feel
bad for not being at tome right now to help them with the transition. Soon
enough our internet ran out, and the receptionist gave us a recommendation for
a restaurant. Lido, like Venice, was wet, but like Murano, virtually
unpopulated with tourists. We couldn’t find the recommended restaurant but
found somewhere else. This restaurant was super crowded, but the food was
fantastic, and the service was awful, so there was a strange balance. We walked
around Murano for a little bit before heading back to our hotel, taking
showers, and watching Honey Boo Boo in Italian before falling asleep.
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| In the mornin' |
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| :) |
Our water taxi
and train the next morning were fairly early, so we got up, had the BEST free
breakfast ever before heading out to the coast of Lido and experiencing the
Mediterranean. I don’t even go to the beach very often when I’m home, and yet,
I’ve missed it since seeing it in Viareggio. Lido seems like it would be a
beautiful place to spend a summer vacation, and I’m definitely making a mental
note of this for the future. Thankfully, our water taxi took us all the way
back to Santa Maria Novella, and we got some great canal shots of the inside of
Venice!
Our train was
relatively on time, and after 20 years I was back in the place where I was
born: Padova :)
Again, it took us
some time to find our hotel, and when we passed a pretty church we saw a man
with a broken nose inside and proceeded to walk away very quickly. We also saw
a homeless man that was on our train and were marginally concerned. We stayed
at the Best Western Birri Hotel, where my dad worked when I was a baby. I met
some of his old friends, who were all surprised to see me, haha. Two of my dad’s other old friends also agreed
to show us around Padova, which was extremely handy because after two full days
of walking we were exhausted.
Downtown Padova
was precious, and had few cars! We saw the Piazza dei Signori, Palazzo della
Ragione, Prato della Valle, and the Basilicia di Sant’Antonio, which was my
favorite. Like most (if not all) churches in Italy, it was beautiful. It’s also
one of the most popular places for pilgrimage by devout Catholics. Sant’Antonio
(or Saint Anthony) was well-known for his powers of healing. His tomb still
erests inside the Basilica, and it’s said if you touch the tomb and are ill,
you will be healed. Obviously, no photos were allowed inside, but we got to
touch the tomb! We also saw a short film about the Basilica in a different part
of the Church, and after seeing the gift shop I remembered how so many churches
were also great businesses. By the end of the day, we were even more exhausted,
and my dad’s friend was kind enough to get us dinner, and we ate in the hotel
bar before turning in early. (For some reason I never uploaded my Padova pictures....but w/e this is the best one anyway!)
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| Basilica di Sant'Antonio! via my Instagram |
The next morning,
more of my dad’s friends came to see us, or rather my dad’s friend’s sons,
Niccolo and Mattia. They visited us in Maryland back in 2007, and I almost
didn’t recognize them when they came to pick us up. I was super nervous about
having to use my Italian around them, despite my many improvements. The drive
from Padova to Vicenza didn’t take very long, mostly because the boys were
speeding, but shh. It was strange to be reintroduced to their mom and aunt,
whom I met before, but it was great to see everyone again. Unfortunately, my
dad’s friend was out of the country at the moment, so I made (unspecified)
plans to return and visit them before the end of my semester.
Remember my
broken camera? Yeah. Not so much broken as filled with cheap batteries. I’m a
genius, clearly.
We had a
delicious home-cooked meal before exploring the town of Vicenza. The family
gave us a book of Vicenza (in English!) to decide what things to go see. The
boys and some of their friends showed us around Vicenza, but of course it was
Monday, which is the equivalent of a Sunday in the States, therefore many
places were closed for the day. Even so, it was still beautiful! We went to a
beautiful church first, and I definitely felt like we were getting many stares
for being some of the only tourists around.
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| All of Vicenza! |
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| The villa that was closed :( |
After we got a
nice tour of Vicenza, we went to Verona for the last leg of our 4-day weekend.
Verona was really cute. We saw the Colesso, the third oldest colosseum in the
world, and met some Romans, La Casa di Giulietta (take a guess), and explored the
nearby Piazzas. Our hosts were nice enough to put us a Freccia back to Parma,
so we could make it back in time for our classes. I felt bad that we had to cut
the weekend so short, and I couldn’t say goodbye to everyone, but I’m sure I’ll
see them again.
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| Guess whoooo? |
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| Romeo's POV, probs |
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| Arena di Verona! |
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| Inside the Arena! |
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| Chillin' with some Romans |
To come: EASTER
BREAK!
