Venice

After spending 5 wonderful days in Rome, I continued by stay in Italy by heading off to Venice. While the Rome trip started and ended smoothly, the Venice trip didn't start smoothly. Our flight to Venice was supposed to depart at 8:30pm. As my friend and I reached the gate, we were informed that our flight was delayed 2 hours, which caused a small problem. Since we were staying at a guest house, we were told to try and be there by 11pm. Obviously getting there at 11pm wasn't going to happen. Next step was to call the guest house. When we called, I was greeted by an Asian man who didn't understand English very well. Luckily everything worked out. Around 10:30pm, we were off to Venice. After walking the empty streets of Venice, my friend and I made it to our hostel around 1am.

April 17th

St. Mark's Basilica

After the start we had to our trip, I was ready for what our first full day in Venice had to bring. That morning we met the 2 other people staying in our room, which gave me another reason to think how small the world is. Turns out one of the boys was from Purdue University and his roommate went to my high school. After Eric and I were ready, we started our long day. The first thing we visited was the Rialto Bridge since we were a 10 minute walk from it. After we headed over to St. Mark's Square.

At the square, we tried to go into St. Mark's Bailica, but it was closed. Instead, we walked around the square, looked at Campanile, and looked at the gondolas along the water. After, we continued our day of walking. Since we didn't have a map, we walked along the main tourist path. Our walk led us through many of the main shops, which we stopped in to look at Murano glass items and masks.

 

Once we found a map, we were able to find the other major sights we wanted to see for the day. Our walk provided us with views of many picturesque canals and old homes. We continued along our original path since it lead us to several sights. Some of the sights we saw included the church of Santa Maria of Giglio, The Museum of Music: Artemino Versari Collection, Campo S. Stefano (square), the church of San Vidal, and a garden near the church of San Vidal. Eventually, we reached a bridge that over looked the Grand Canal so we stopped for a few minutes to take pictures, enjoy the sun, and enjoy the view. We then continued on our adventure through the streets of Venice. As we continued walking through the beautiful streets we continuously stopped into shops and took pictures of the endless canals. Another sight we saw was the  Bucintoro Rowing Club Museum. Inside the museum we saw several items, such as the Duchess of Genoa's Cup (the first major award won by the Bucintoro Rowing Club), photographs, trophies and the social banner. After spending a few minutes in the museum we continued on our tourist path. Our path led us to the church of Saint Maria of Salute. We walked around the area near the church, which had a statue of a naked boy holding a frog and enjoyed being surrounded by water. We had hoped to go into the church, but it didn't open for a few more hours. To pass time, we headed back to St. Mark's Square to go in Doge's Palace. 

Doge's Palace

Doge's Palace was awesome. Of course, there were signs saying not to take pictures. Did I pay attention to those rules? No. Guess I've learned to be extra sneaky. During our tour, we saw the golden stairway, the Grand Council Chamber, Senate Hall, Hall of the Council of Ten, Hall of the Compass, Voting Hall, and the Chamber of the Great Council. My two favorite rooms in the palace were the Chamber of Great Council and the Council Chamber. Both rooms had ceilings adorned with gold molding and large paintings. The Chamber of Great Council is the largest room in Doge's Palace and one of the largest rooms in Europe. This room also holds the largest canvas painting. Our tour also led us through the old prisons. Near the end of our tour, we walked through the Bridge of Sighs. Looking through to the other side was awesome. At the end, our tour led us to the courtyard near the Giant's Stairway.

Council Chamber

Inside the Bridge of Sighs

Once we were done at the Doge's Palace we headed back to Saint Maria della Salute to view the inside of the church. Inside was very pretty. Once we were done walking through the church we took a gondola ride across the Grand Canal. As we continued our day of walking in the wonderful weather, Eric and I saw the church of Saint Moise, the Museum of St. Marko Square, the boardwalk, the Sighs Bridge, and the Arsenal. 

Bridge of Sighs

After spending about 9 hours of walking, we headed off to dinner at a restaurant suggested to us by a museum helper. On our way to dinner, we walked through the lesser known streets of Venice. The less toursity streets helped me enjoy Venice even more. I had the chance to really see how the people of Venice lived. Plus, we saw many more picturesque canals. Once we arrived at dinner, the atmosphere at the restaurant was exactly what I needed after a day of walking. We received a complementary dinner drink and sat along a canal, which provided us with an enjoyable view. 

Canal we saw on our way to dinner

When we finished dinner we ventured back to St. Mark's Square to see the view of the square and water at night. Like the rest of the views we had seen during the day, our evening view was just as picture perfect. After spending some time in the square enjoying the live music being performed by restuarants, we went back to our place. Of course, stopping at the Rialto Bridge to take a night photo. I can say that after 12 hours of walking around, the first day in Venice was a success and very enjoyable.

Rialto Bridge

April 18th

Murano Island

Our morning started off with taking a tour of St. Mark's Basilica. The basilica was stunning. Adorning the ceiling was gold and mosaics. After we finished walking around the basilica, we began our day trip to Murano Island. Since the island is know for its glass, we spent most of the time on the island looking at the shops along the main canals. After spending several hours looking in shops, we left for the main island in the early evening.

Man working in his shop

Once we were back on the main island, we tried to go see if the Arsenal was open. Sadly, it was closed again. On our way to dinner we decided to walk through more side streets. The rest of the night was dinner and walking around Venice.

April 18th
Our last day in Venice. Originally, the hostel said we weren't allowed to keep our bags there once we checked out. Luckily, Eric's Chinese came in handy. He asked the woman in charge of the hostel if we could keep our bags there. Once she found out he understood Chinese she said we could keep our bags there. Thank goodness. Carrying around a 20 pound backpack through the narrow streets of Venice wouldn't have been fun. Since we had seen most of Venice, we only had a few places to stop. Our day consisted of going to the church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, the church of San Rocco, a public garden and walking along the streets near the Rialto Bridge. Around 4pm, we left Venice to continue our spring break in Barcelona. While Venice is one of the smaller cities I have been too, I enjoyed my time there. Of course, I had to end my trip the Italian way by eating gelato.

Pictures from my trip can be found here