This past weekend the group took a three hour bus ride and stayed in Venice for three days. The city was beautiful with all of its canals and the bridges connecting the islands it was picturesque and like nothing I had ever seen before; everywhere I looked I felt compelled to take a picture in an attempt to capture all the beauty that the city had to offer. The scorching heat of nearly one hundred degrees, however, put a damper on the weekend and prohibited to take in all the wonderful things that Venice had to offer.
On our first day in Venice we took a tour of the Palazzo Ducale, which was absolutely gorgeous and interesting. There were gorgeous frescos on the walls and ceilings, amazing statues, and we had a tour of the torture chambers and the areas that the prisoners stayed. The tour was extremely informative as well as gorgeous as we walked from room to room the interiors got more beautiful and detailed; however, our Venetian tour guide could have spared us a few details about each of the Frescos and every detail about every room. After we completed the tour of the Palazzo Ducale, we walked next door to the Basilica di San Marco. It was an absolutely gorgeous church and although we only did a quick walk through of the ground level floor the beauty and detail in the building was obvious. They were setting up for a wedding in the side chapel of the building and I have to admit I am jealous of the couple who is lucky enough to be married in such a monumental and historical building. After we completed our tour of the Basilica di San Marco, we were free until dinner and I decided to walk with some friends and explore the city, particularly the shopping, for a few minutes.
In practically every tourist shop in Venice, they are selling masks that look almost like mardi gras masks. While browsing at one of the shops I overheard two girls discussing the masks and how they didn’t understand their significance. They thought the masks were really pretty and one was considering purchasing one, but they couldn’t figure out why they were so prominent within these shops. After overhearing this conversation I felt compelled to immediately search the hidden meaning behind these popular masks and found that in the past they were used to hide the identity and social status of the person wearing the mask which I thought was interesting and was amazed I had never heard of it before.
A huge shock to me since coming to Italy is the abundance of differences in the culture that are extremely different from those in the United States. The one that affected me the most this past weekend was the lack of air conditioning, very few buildings are air conditioned-including the hotel I stayed at. I’m still adjusting to having to order bottles of water and pay for it at restaurants as opposed to being able to order an ice water without a charge at home; I also have to make sure to specify that I want acqua natural (still water) as opposed to acqua frizzante (sparkling water). The dogs in Venice were amazing to me, they were unbelievably well trained: they didn’t have leashes, yet they stayed right by their owner completely ignoring everyone walking by and not barking at all which is completely opposite of how dogs behave in the United States.
On our second day in Venice we took a walking tour of the city and passed by many important buildings but did not venture inside any of them; we remained outside in the heat and I am almost positive that our tour guide stopped in places where there was no shade available and the only option was to stand and absorb the sun. After the tour finally ended I enjoyed a wonderful siesta and then ended the night by going to Skybar on top of the Hilton Hotel which had a beautiful view of the city of Venice.
Sunday was our third and final day in Venice and consisted of a boat tour where we stopped at two islands. The first island we stopped at was Murano; we saw a murano glass blowing demonstration at Ferro & Lazzarini. The demonstration was so cool to watch and only a few minutes long which was okay with me because the room where they heat up and work on the glass exceeded the temperature outside. After the demonstration we returned to the boat and traveled to Burano which is known for its lace. We had a few hours on the island which I spent grabbing a quick lunch and browsing around in some of the shops. The first shop I stopped at
was right across from the restaurant we ate at. The air was hot and musty and smelled faintly of fresh seafood that fellow tourists were indulging in at the café next door. The sky was bright blue and the buildings all around were every color you can imagine- bright blue, pink, purple, yellow, the possibilities were endless- there didn’t seem to be a single cloud in the sky as I scanned the dresses in the boutique lacking air-conditioning. Tourists like me were all around the city looking at possible souvenirs to document their trip. With every new customer who walked into the shop the owner literally ran to them to see what they were looking for in hopes they would make a sale; and the owner became irritated with every failed attempt but continued to pursue every potential customer who walked through the door in hopes of a sale. With every shop I walked in I seemed to be more of an inconvenience than the last as I left without a purchase, except at the bakery where I splurged to buy myself a delicious strawberry kiwi tart.
After a weekend in Venice and a long weekend of traveling it was a relief to return to Florence. After a well deserved shower and small siesta I went out to celebrate the fourth of July with a few friends, where we experienced the confusing public transportation system which led to more unexpected events which added entertainment to our foreign celebration of Independence Day.
