This weekend I went to Venice!! Twas' quite incredible and I loved every second. I think that the best way to tell my story will be interspersed with pictures. More fun for you anyways.
To get to Venice from the airport you have to take either a water bus or a land bus, and then cross over a bridge. Being poor backpacking students, we chose the cheaper land bus. I have no regrets about this decision, because walking over the bridge was absolutely magical. I was in awe of how stunning Venice is from the moment that I peaked over the bridge. We are so lucky that our first day there was sunny.
These are the two girls that I traveled with. Hillary and Phoebe. Winners for sure.
If you have ever been to Venice you are probably aware of how incredibly confusing the roads are. You have to wind through all these back roads to get to anything and even maps are confusing because there are so many small alleyways and you often end up dead-ending at the water. It's a little like a giant maze. We stopped and asked a lady in a museum at one point, and when we asked how to get to San Marco's she just told us, "you walk out of here, you turn left, and then you ask someone else because it is too difficult for me to explain it all." It took us a good hour to find San Marco's Basilica, but luckily some kind soul spray painted directions on the wall, so we didn't have to ask too many more times. We joked that following this graffiti was probably leading us to some drug lord S. Marco instead of to the Basilica, but what do you know? We made it there eventually.
And here it is. San Marco's Basilica. It was beautiful inside and out, covered in Byzantine mosaics. I wish I knew a little more about it, but I did have a guide book that provided me with some handy facts.
After hunting down some lunch, we moved on to the Doge's Palace. Once again quite beautiful and a treat to be inside for a little while and warm up.
Next...I WENT FOR A GONDOLA RIDE. Not a romantic one with an attractive Italian man...but a gondola ride all the same. So there is another thing crossed off my life list :) Always a joy when I get to do something that I have longed to do!
Over on the right is our gondola rower. Despite the fact that he assured me that he was the best gondola guy ever, his English was rather questionable. But, we did a get a good laugh that every time he wanted to point something out to us he would start shouting (and I am going to need you to read this with your best Italian accent, I'll imitate at request if you are having trouble here) "look at me. look at me. hello? look at me." And then he would tell us something about Marco Polo or Casanova that we didn't quite understand.
Yup that is the look of a girl who just crossed something off her life list. Happiness.
Naturally I ate gelato every chance I got. Five gelato's in a 48 hour time period. That's just impressive.
Here is the view from one of the water buses that we used to get around on Friday when we discovered how much easier that was than to follow graffiti signs. We loved the water buses so much! You got to warm up and you got a little tour of the city from your view out the window. We might of actually just sat on one for an hour at one point so we could rest and warm up. haha.
In the square in front of San Marco's there is a tower that you can go up. We heard the view was incredible so we had to do it. We also saw the sign that said "caution windy and cold at top." We chose to ignore this and discovered that the warning sign was not kidding. It was miserable, but at the same time we were having so much fun running around and shrieking every time we literally almost got blown over. When you were walking with the wind up there you just automatically started running, because it was so strong that either you were going to move quickly with the wind, or your were going to face plant.
And of course, who goes to Italy without enjoying some incredible pasta and Fanta (It tastes better there. Don't know why, but it does.) We decided to treat ourselves to dinner at a nice restaurant for our last night there, and it was well worth it. So good.
pace. amour. e gelato
No comments:
Post a Comment