Venezia

I write on a wonderful Tuesday, finally having a bit of time to reflect on my weekend with friends in Venice and Bologna. (By the way- I spent this afternoon journaling, writing letters, balancing my checking account, and making breakfast from scratch for tomorrow with some girls- we are making cinnamon rolls and coffee cake!).

So with friends from my program (Abby, Jess, Ryan, Josh and Jake), I left early Friday morning to travel from Orvieto to Florence to Venice. We had a wonderful fresh lunch of mozzarella, bread, salami and tomatoes on the train and arrived in Venezia at 2:00. Walking out of the train station we were struck with the sight of the canal right in front of us! We did in fact jump and squeal with excitement, embarrassingly enough (well, us girls did). We navigated through the city on foot and found our hotel after about an hour of turning down narrow alleys and crossing over footbridges. Venice is an interesting place, as you may pass through one section of the city with boards over windows, paper scattered on the ground and not a person in sight. You then travel through a tiny street (akin to an alley) and turn a corner… then WAM! The largest piazza you’ve ever seen FILLED with people, huge cathedrals, pigeons, music, restaurants and high-class shops (try, Versace, Guess, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Calvin Klein… those are just a few!). Also, there are absolutely no cars in the city as all major transportation occurs through gondola/boats. (Even the “buses” are on water, with stations in the middle of a canal!) On Friday afternoon when we first explored we stepped into a few small shops, took cappuccino in a side café and walked to San Marco’s Piazza at dusk where live music was being played, one of the street sellers forced us girls to buy roses, and we took in the sights of the buildings and water we could only hope to see in our lives. We found a really cute restaurant for a pizza dinner. Abby and I split a zucchini, eggplant and pepper one… mmm. We topped off the night with gelato as we strolled the streets of Venice (I got chocolate and creamy Nutella). It was a bit windy but mostly the whole day was just gorgeous and picturesque.

The next morning we woke up slowly and had a delicious complimentary breakfast in our hotel. Then we headed to San Marco’s Piazza again (it was really close to our hotel) and saw the inside of the famously astounding basilica there. There were gold, rich mosaics all over the walls, arches and domes, as well as tiled mosaics on the floor that I found particularly interesting. Eastern design clearly had an influence on the way things were depicted in the artwork, the windows, architecture itself and the chandeliers. In the square, tons of people feed the pigeons and our friend Jake couldn’t pass up the chance for a photo op. He poured the crumbs from his potato chip bag all over his jacket and hat (which he was wearing!) and pigeons flocked to feast off of his head and arms! It was hilarious (and he was luckily spared from their nasty “thank-yous” that one would assume would be left after a snack). After walking around for a bit outside, we had a small lunch near the canal. One of my favorite parts of the day was next: modern art museum and sculpture garden taken in at the Peggy Guggenheim museum. I fell in love with paintings by the futuristic Umberto Boccioni. I also really enjoyed a specific piece with bright strokes that stretched out onto the frame called “Sea=Dancer” (by another artist whose name I can’t recall), and instillation pieces with natural elements/emotions represented in Jason martin collection called “Vigil.” Pastries and afternoon snacks/naps followed. At which point I went off to sit in San Marco’s Piazza with my journal. I ran into a friend from my work at home named Regina! She is studying abroad in Florence and the only reason I found her was because she and her friends were making a lot of noise and trying to take crazy pictures, typical "American" behavior which caught my attention. It was really funny and we exchanged information so that if we are ever in the other’s Italian town we could try to catch each other again. I stepped into whichever shops I wanted to (mostly bookshops and stores with masks- I bought one!) and took as much time as I felt like, stopping to peer into elegantly-dressed windows of stores I’d never shop at in real life (for their expensive merchandise). I spent a lot of time before sunset just people watching and smiling because I was so content in that time. The music being played from an outdoor restaurant, the beautiful air and the sun reflecting off of San Marco’s were enough to make me feel as though all problems and worries were masked by a carelessness that lifted my soul and let me find a wonderful peace. I wrote a poem about what I saw that you can read in my next post. I met up with the rest of my friends to browse the market that lines the Rialto (the largest/oldest bridge in Venice which is over 500 years old). Finally, the pinnacle of the day: a nighttime gondola ride! It felt like a dream as we slid through the waters and learned there are over 400 bridges in Venice, saw where Mozart, Marco Polo, Goethe and Casanova lived or stayed in the city, and enjoyed each other’s company.