Venice is freakin awesome. Not only is it one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to, but it's just really really cool. I mean it's streets are literally water, which you can't quite conceptualize until you've actually seen it in person. It was such a nice, relaxing weekend after a very crazy week and the school took us, so it was great to see people I hadnt really hung out with all week.
We left for Venice on Friday morning by bus and then took a boat over to the actual city, because they obviously don't use cars there. Our hotel rooms were obviously not ready, because that would make our lives way too easy, but we were really lucky to be staying in the actual city and not on the mainland. We got lunch and explored for a little while before starting our touring for the day. That day our teachers showed us Piazza San Marco and the cathedral of San Marco, as well as the Doge's Palace. The Piazza did not have nearly as many pigeons as everyone said (lame), although there were people who were letting the pigeons climb all over them...ew. The Cathedral was absolutely stunning, mostly because instead of being covered in frescos, its covered entirely in mosaics which is beautiful as well as completely mind blogging, because I would like to meet the people who had the patience to cover a GIGANTIC church with tiles the size of my thumb nail. They deserve a medal, or a cookie, whichever they want. The Doge's Palace, although beautiful, was pretty boring, mostly because all we wanted to do was be outside because it was BEAUTIFUL out. After the day of touring I went to dinner with a bunch of girls from my program at a cute little restaurant our professor recommended. Navigating the streets of Venice was interesting, but we somehow managed to not get lost among all the tiny little streets, bridges, and canals. Go us.
The next day, Miriam and I along with our friends Joanna, Stacey, Beth, and Lucy decided to ditch school and all the art they were going to look at because we decided that seeing the islands of Murano and Burano would be way more fun/beneficial to our travel experience then looking at yet another piece of Renaissance art (Mom, you can pretend I didn't say that, Renaissance art is great!) And it was SUCH a good decision! Not only are the two islands gorgeous, but we got to experience more Venice because we were on the water busses all day (SO FUN! and way cheaper than a gondola, where they don't even sing to you when you take one). Getting onto the busses though was quite interesting, mostly because Italians just kind of push and push instead being at all organized. This meant that all of us except Joanna, who, typical to her Southern nature, is not very good at pushing, got on the boat. We were yelling her name and encouraging her to push, and luckily she got a little burst of Northern/Italian-ness and pushed her way onto the boat.
Once we were all safely on the boat we headed to Murano, where they are famous for their blown glass. We watched some guy actually making the glass, which was SO COOL and I kind of wish I could do it, but me+hot temperatures+breakable materials+heavy objects=disaster and lots of burns and broken bones. Then we shopped our little hearts out and explored Murano, which is covered entirely in glass shops. We stopped for lunch and then headed over to the STUNNING island of Burano. Burano is the most colorful place I have ever been. Every building there is painted some beautiful, bright, happy color, and the white houses just look out of place. Burano is also famous for its homemade lace, which was beautiful. We spent our time on Burano relaxing by the dock and taking funny pictures, and mostly just admiring the stunning beauty of the island. It's definitely one of my favorite places I've visited so far. After Burano, we headed back to the main island of Venice to relax and get dinner, which was an adventure in itself. We really wanted pizza for dinner, so we went to the restaurant school recommended that supposedly had pizza...well, it didn't. So, after we finished looking at the menu we literally got up and ran out the door. Then we spent another 15 minutes looking for the right restaurant, until finally we had pizza sitting in front of us around 10 30 PM. Which was delicious, and totally worth it.
Sunday, we went with school to visit the Peggy Guggenheim museum, which is a collection of modern art. It was Peggy's personal collection, although now it is part of the Guggenheim collection. Buuuut, fun fact: because it was originally her personal collection, Peggy Guggenheim was a bit skanky and used to sleep with all the artists to get good prices on the paintings, including her daughter's husband (the daughter committed suicide when she found out). So, if you're looking to get cheap, priceless works of art, do what she did, it seemed to work out pretty well for her. Or, just get really rich and then you won't have any issues. The museum was cool and had amazing views of Canal Grande. After the museum we laid by the water and then got lunch and headed back to Firenze. Upon arriving in Firenze Miriam and I sprinted, like actually sprinted with all our stuff, back to our apartment because we thought a)our bladders we're going to burst or b)we would pee in our pants. We ended stopping at a bar to use the bathroom because we simply could not make it home. We had to buy coffees after this, but it was the best coffee ever (Actually it was gross, but whatever) because I had dry pants and an intact bladder.
Moral of the story: pee before you get on the bus and go visit Venice because it is actually incredible (I never wanted to leave!!!).
Ciao!
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