Venezia

We travelled to Venice via the train on day four. It was a lovely trip through Tuscany where we saw seas of sunflowers on the rolling mountains. Upon arriving in Venice, we took the water bus to our hotel which was all the way down the Canal Grande. So, at a very minimal cost, we got a Grand Canal cruise without paying an arm and a leg. We arrived at out hotel, which was stunning, and set off to St. Mark’s Square. We went to the Museo Civico Correr for some more sculptures, tons of Madonna col Bambino painting, and meet an interesting couple who were from Lebanon and the Philippines. We chatted and ate gelato while listening to one of the orchestras of St.Mark’s Piazza. Then we climbed the Campanile di San Marco (the bell tower). When we arrived at the top, the bells were ringing which made a glorious sound for all of Venice to hear. We snapped some pictures and then went back down. That evening, we ate the most wonderful dinner since arriving in Italy. I actually ate shrimp that were prepared in a delicious risotto.

Day five was very interesting. I had planned an entire schedule for us of six events that we did three of. First, we went to the Ducal Place and the Bridge of Sighs. The Ducal Palace is better known as the Palace of Doges and that is where the doge of Venice once lived. We investigated its rooms and found it to be very beautiful. The part that I found the most interesting was the Bridge of Sighs which connected the palace to the prisons. We wandered around the prisons for a bit and found carvings back to 1329 of a prisoner in his room. It is absolutely amazing how much influence the Catholic Church had over the daily lives of people. Of course you learn that in history class, but until you go to a palace and see room after room of the same paintings does it occur to you that these painters really were not allowed to create anything else. If someone did manage to fashion something semi-scandalous, there was immediately a moral message attached to the painting or sculpture. Michael and I became slightly bored with all of the same subject paintings being shown over and over again. Nonetheless, we went to a church called San Rocco which amazed us by being so different and exquisite from anything we had previously seen. All of the paintings, which were oil, were of some completely different scene. The artist was Tintoretto who painted a magnificent depiction of the holy family and their flight into Egypt. In addition, one of the rooms contained fantastic scenes from the Old Testament. If you really know your bible stories, then it would be fun to walk around to figure out which was being portrayed. After the church, we ate a fantastic lunch of pizza and fed some of the local sparrows. Then we set off to find this famous Carnevale Mask shop; however, it was closed until July 15^th because the owner decided to go out of town. During this adventure to find the shop, the sky darkened with rain clouds. We bought the most expensive, yet cheapest, umbrellas so that our journey would not be compromised by the rain. Michael was the picture of miserable even though the rain was not that bad. He had the backpack in front of him with his hands resting on top looking pathetic. Then his shoes kept getting wet but that was because he kept stepping directly into the largest puddles possible. During the rainstorm, we ducked into a few shops and bought some masks and Murano glass. In addition, we got to see a Murano craftsman at work which was really cool. That evening we ate another delicious dinner.

Finally, on our last day in Venice, day six, we made it into St. Marks. The basilica was gorgeous since it was mainly decorated in gold mosaic tiles. The view from up top of the square was really pretty. We simply loved Venice and cannot wait to go back. Two days was certainly not enough! That afternoon we travelled to Milan. So stay tuned!