Venice, Italy

This past weekend I flew to Milan, Italy to meet up with my good friend from Richmond, Laura. She is studying abroad there and lives with two of our other friends from Richmond. Unfortunately I had class on Friday so wasn't able to get to Milan until Friday night and didn't get to see much of the city, but it was good to see my friends. Saturday morning Laura and I took the 3 hour train from Milan to Venice deciding that we both thought that the 6 hours total train for less than 24 hours in Venice would be worth it. We had purchased our train tickets ahead of time and when we boarded the train a few minutes before we were supposed to leave we started to walk throughout the 2nd class cabins, surprised by how full they were. Not seeing a single seat open, we had to keep walking and soon saw that people were just sitting on the floor on their suitcases- a clear sign that in fact there were not enough seats for everyone. We were shocked that the train could just oversell the tickets and expect people to sit on the floor for 3 hours. We decided that an upgrade to first class would be worth it because we couldn't even find room to sit on the floor! It definitely was worth it and we were able to sleep for most of the 3 hours.

I had seen pictures of Venice before and knew that it was all on the water and had lots of canals, but I was shocked by how many little canals and bridges there were! It was so cool and really amazing that all of the buildings are still standing because they are literally in the water. First, we decided to find some lunch and after looking at a few menus it was clear that most places were typical Italian food, advertising either pizza or pasta so we chose a place that had seats right on the water. The pizza actually turned out to be some of the best I have ever had with huge roasted vegetables on top! While eating, we were on the main canal and watched all of the different boats pass. We saw many water taxis go by, carrying everything from babies in strollers to luggage- it was pretty funny to watch! And of course, there were lots of gondolas giving rides to tourists, the drivers all dressed in the stereotypical white and black striped shirt. We also saw that there was a big ferry type boat that served as Venice's public transportation. 

 The Main Canal 

Italian Pizza! 

After lunch, we started to explore the streets in the hopes to make our way towards San Marco square. I have walked through many narrow European streets before but these streets were way more narrow than any that I have ever seen. Like one person could barely fit through! It was crazy. And also very easy to get lost, but we were happy to be able to just wander around and see all the intertwined canals and bridges and the many gondola boats. In the streets were apartments, restaurants and lots of shops. All of the shops were of 3 different types- leather, masks, or colorful glass. The first is pretty explanatory- Italian leather. The second, masks, was a little bit of a shock to Laura and I. All of these stores were literally filled with all of these different types of masks from ones decorated in feathers to some resembling different types of animals. We later learned that this is the traditional wear for the Venice Carnival every year. The last, colorful glass, were filled with beads, dishes, jewelry and sculptures, all made of really colorful glass. I had read before about the island, Murano, which is right next to Venice and is world famous for making this colorful glass. If we had more time, we could have taken a boat over to Murano and seen the glass blowing... but guess that means that I will just have to go back! 

Exploring the small canals 

After winding through many narrow streets and trying our best to follow the signs, we began to see many more tourists and knew we were getting close to the square. We turned a corner and found ourselves in the middle of Saint Marks square facing the Basilica. The Basilica had really cool architecture and seemed to be more Arab than Italian and was surprisingly huge for being tucked away into such tiny buildings. Unfortunately they were doing renovations on most of the church so we couldn't go inside but instead went up to the top of the bell tower right next to the Basilica and were able to get a view of the whole city which was awesome. 

The Basilica 

View from the Bell Tower

We explored the area by the main river and it was starting to get dark so it was really cool to see everything all lit up. We went to find dinner and had some more awesome pizza and salad and then of course finished it off with some gelato! (although I do have to say that the gelato I've had in Spain is way better). For the rest of the night we just walked through the narrow streets more and saw all of the boats and water taxis lit up and went into some of the shops. 

The next morning we had an early train back to Milan and then I had a flight back to Spain. Although it was a lot of traveling for only a short time in Venice I am still really glad I went and was able to see such a unique and beautiful city!