Our hotel manager was ironically on the same train with us that we took into Venice. he guided us through the city to our hotel. We spent an evening with a wine bar where a couple gentlemen pulled out a guitar and began singing Italian love songs; the other customers and bartender joined in, it was really fun (the guys later invited us to see them perform at another bar that night; we expected a real show of sorts but it ended up being a karaoke bar- absolutely hilarious and something terribly lost in translation). around midnight we got super lost and this Chinese college student walked with us for 20 minutes to make sure we made it back to our hotel okay; she was really nice and we thanked her profusely.
Our hotel was less than a minute from this plaza. We had coffee here every morning.
Grand Canal- really sparkly when the sun is out (which it was for the three days we stayed)
St. Mark's Basilica- the building is enormous and well maintained- it really shows how incredibly wealthy Venice was around 1000 AD. the interior was gilded in mosaics and goldleaf. and the exterior was just as fancy and ornate. one of the most beautiful buildings i've seen in my life!
The water... so blue. I took a short nap on the edge of the island, using my jacket as a pillow. all i heard was the lapping of the water and muted Italian in the background
Pizza! i ate so many slices during my stay, for 2.50 euro a slice, why not? this is eggplant and zucchini, they also had hotdog pizza which was pretty good. french fry pizza? not so tasty...
another well maintained church on the island. I spoke with the keeper/ guardian of a cathedral in Treviso (we took a couple hour detour there): he knew limited English and i knew no Italian so I spoke to him in Spanish, and he replied in Italian. we communicated well enough for him to understand that the three of us (later five students total when we met up in Venice) were from NYU studying in London. He was thrilled and curious to learn a Chinese-American, Indian-Singaporean, and Ukrainian-Australian were traveling and studying together. Ah, the wonders of globalization
I was yelled at for feeding the pigeons. However, this was not my fault! i didnt leave the coffee and crumbs on the table next to us...
gelato! the most magical dessert in the world. my record was nine scoops in one day. The picture above is 5 scoops (my friends bet i couldnt finish it, i proved them wrong), two of which are hidden inside the cone. I had so much gelato over the three days- coconut, melon, mint, pistachio, chocolate, vanilla, yogurt, berry, caramel swirl, nutella, strawberry. It was great, and inexpensive as well!
Relaxing- we took two or three "chill and relax" breaks during the day, though every minute was pretty much about chilling and relaxing. A glass of tonic water, tea, maybe wine, and chocolate. The atmosphere was wonderful and really laid back, you couldnt help but sit down in the sun and enjoy the moment.
Carnival masks everywhere! all of them say made in italy but most of them arent from the country at all. I didnt buy any but tried a few one, and i had glitter all over my face for the rest of the day!
Sunset on Venice
The basilica- looks so different during sunset, like gold! now i know why its called Chiesa D'oro- church of gold.so yes, favorite trip by far! it had the perfect mix of everything- sun, architecture, culture, PIZZA, GELATO, art, friendly locals, just perfect.
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