Venezia

Ciao ragazzi!

So I had a wonderful weekend :-) It started off Thursday night when I went to the ballet with some of the girls here. We saw Carmen, which was a modern take on the opera. It was really good; a little strange though....it was set in Spain, sung in French, and performed in Italy. Very very fun though, I love the ballet.

Early Friday morning I set out for Venice. I've really wanted to go and no one else in my group got it together in time, so I ended up going by myself. Yep, it figures, I would go alone to one of the most romantic destinations in the world, haha. It was so amazing though. I can't get over how beautiful it was.

I got off the train and immediately got a 'bus' pass, aka a pass to use the water buses. (If anyone every wants to be a bus driver, do it in Venice, it's way cooler to drive a boat) I took the boat around the outside of the island until it came to Guidecca, an island on the south side. There I checked into my hostel, that was actually very nice and set across the canal from Piazzale San Marco. I had an amazing view! The rest of the day I literally just wandered. All the guide books told me that you don't really see Venice until you get lost.....mission accomplished. I wandered down so many back streets and wound myself all around that city. I think I saw a very very vast majority of the city....and it was all beautiful. In Rome, you can walk down a small street, turn and corner and there;s the Pantheon. In Venice, you walk down a small street and find this beautiful canal with a few boats puttering along, old stone buildings covered in flowers and laundry hanging out the windows. It was a very relaxing day, I felt completely free to do whatever I wanted (whether that was eating gelato or shopping for jewelry) I wandered well into the night, checking out a bunch of churches, the Rialto Bridge, and many many piazzas. I took a late boat cruise down the Grand Canal, watching the nightlife unfold. It was so incredible, the water was lit up by a full moon and it was so serene. Very happy moment.

The next day, I woke up early and went to the Basilica di San Marco. The Basilica is Venice's big tourist attraction. The entire ceiling is one huge mosaic, mostly covered in gold. In the late afternoon(I mad sure to go back later in the day to see it), when the sun shines through the windows, the light hits the ceiling just right so that the whole place sparkles. It's definitely worth going to Venice just to see that. After the basilica, I took a boat to the island of Murano where they make their world famous glass. I was able to see several glass blowing studios and tons of beautiful sculptures, jewelry, and vases. I can't believe they can actually make this stuff out of glass. It seems like their big thing right now is horses...there are glass horses everywhere. I spent the afternoon in Murano, wandering again, then took another boat around the island and up the Grand Canal to the train station.

Late saturday afternoon I arrived in Bologna. While I thought that it was a very charming city, it just couldn't compare to how awesome Venice had been. I went to the main square of the city, where there is a very impressive fountain of Neptune. On Sunday, I spent my afternoon in the Archaeology Museum looking at several Etruscan artifacts. And, of course, I had pasta with bolognese sauce, very yummy...

This weekend really was incredible. I'm happy that I went. Now it's just another week of classes :-)