Italy Part 1: Venice, the Sinking (and flooding) City

And now we are off to Italy! So, to give you a brief summary, from March 22 to April 1, I was in Italy. Claire, Luke, and I spent 1 night in Venice, 2 nights in Florence, 3 nights in Sorrento, and then went on a WSA tour of Rome for 4 nights, where we met up with another friend, Mike. So we saw the canals of Venice, the art galleries of Florence, Amalfi Coast, Capri Pompeii, and then Rome for Easter. The trip was so much fun! We ate good food (pizza, pasta, and gelato), saw some great churches (St. Peter's Basilica among many others), saw tons of history (Rome, Pompeii), and lots of art (Uffizi and Accademia with David statue), and just had an awesome time. I'm sorry it has taken me so long to start my Italy posts, but I hoped you enjoyed reading about Munich, too! 

Venice. March 22-23
      First stop, Venice! We flew from Madrid, had a short layover in Barcelona, and then went to Venice. Flying into Venice airport was a little scary...the entire time I was thinking, we are getting closer and closer to the water, but I don't see any solid land! But we landed fine, and the view when we got off the plane was really cool, with mountains (Alps) on one side, and ocean on the other. We got our luggage, and then stood in a really long line to buy tickets to get to Venice by boat. Apparently the public transportation workers were on strike, so there was only one boat option for us to take. I was confused the entire time on the difference between the transportation, but I just knew we didn't want to take the 100 euro private speed boat! So we walked a little, and waited to get on our boat, and then we were off! On the open water around Venice, there are "roads", basically paths marked out on the water. All the little boats were zooming by, and our bus boat was just chugging along. We got to our stop, and found our hotel after a nice man working at a restaurant helped us. We stayed at a cute little hotel called Casa Boccassini, where a cat named Simba greeted us.

Simba at Casa Boccassini, just lounging on a table!

        After we checked into our hotel, we started exploring Venice! Venice is quite like a maze, and you come to a dead end when you reach water. Venice was not my favorite city in Italy, I thought it was cool, but the fact that the main plaza floods often, and that the city is built on wooden beams is a little unnerving. I love the ocean and all, but it can do big damage, especially when people are living somewhere they probably shouldn't (like in the middle of a lagoon near the ocean on a man-made sinking island with rising sea levels). It was a pretty city, but after a day I was ready to go somewhere else. Enough of my ranting...here are some pictures!

Rialto Bridge on Grand Canal

View from Rialto Bridge of Grand Canal

 

Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square). St. Mark's Campanile. Kind of looks like the SLU clock tower, but a lot bigger

Piazza San Marco. Clocktower, Torre dell'Orologio. The plaza itself was first used in the 800s.

Piazza San Marco. St. Mark's Basilica. The picture is not centered because they were doing work on the other side of the entrance, and I didn't want it in my picture! The Basilica was consecrated in 1650, but over the years it has had many exterior changes.

Piazzo San Marco. Doge's Palace, Palazzo Ducale. The residence of the Doge of Venice, who ruled over the Republic of Venice. The palace was built in the mid 1300s, but some fires broke out through the years and the building had to be repaired. Until 1923 the building was used for government purposes, but since then it has been a museum.

San Giorgio Maggiore is an island of Venice. And on it is the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore

           Over our time in Venice, I ate 3 cones of gelato! 3 cones in less than 2 days! That is probably not healthy, but it was so good! For the one dinner we had in Venice we ate at this little bar place, and I had pizza. It was ok, but they basically microwaved everything...so not really authentic Italian food. The second day for lunch I got a panini with ham and cheese, which was really good. Venice is famous for Murano glass, which is made on an island called Murano. All the stores had jewelry, figurines, and glassware of all kinds of colorful glass. It was so pretty! We spent one night in Venice, and then in the afternoon of the next day we took a train to Florence.

Things I learned in Venice:

• I don't like being on a marshy island that is sinking and/or flooding
• Murano glass is really pretty, and everywhere in Venice!
• Don't eat at weird bar places where they microwave food
• Gelato is really good, and kind of addicting. You just have to have it, like everyday!
• Venice is a maze. Get a good map. 
• So many canals! There are no streets/canals that look the same. Except after a while they do start looking the same, and then you get confused where you are. See my point above! 

Ciao!