I know that when I usually sit down to catch yall up on my semester I always start with what has been going on during my week, keeping you in suspense about my weekend travels till the end. Well not this week, I am too excited to wait till the end to tell you about my weekend in Venice!! What most of you don’t know is that for as long as I can remember I have always wanted to go to Venice! It was a city that just captured me and finally this weekend my dreams of visiting the sinking city came true! We saw everything, ate everything, and did everything Venice is famous for from St. Mark’s Square and Basilica, to seafood, Tiramisu, Bellini’s, and Gondola rides and Murano glass I could die tomorrow happy. 
The city is truly amazing. From Mestre, which is the last town on the mainland, the train takes your right over the water into the main station in Venice. When you step out of the train station its like you walked into another world. The Grand Canal is right in front of you, there are gondolier waiting to give you rides, bridges and thousands of people enjoying this fairytale place. We took a vaporetto, or water taxi down to the Rialto near where we were staying. After checking into our hotel we set off to explore the city. Our hotel was not far from St. Mark’s Square so we started there. As all the guide books warned it is not only swarming with tourists but with pigeons! New York has nothing on the thousands of pigeons here.
They are not in the least bothered or scared of all the people. They will eat right out of your hand and if you stay still will land right on you. Even though it is good luck to get pooped on by a pigeon in the square that was not on my list of things to do while in Venice so we headed off to see what else we could find. What we really did was get lost in the city, every guide book tells you to find a good map but expect to get lost. Well we did both and it was great, the streets wind around until you have no idea where you are, how you got there or how to get back. Eventually we found this little Italian restraint right off one of the smaller canals and decided to have a nice sit down dinner. I had spaghetti with clams in white wine sauce, as was recommended to me by my Foods teacher. It was probably some of the best food I have had since I’ve been here. We all still had a little room left for desert so we decided to split some Venice famous Tiramisu which also happened to be extremely delicious. With our bellies full we continued our walk of the city. After a second desert of gelato we called it a night and looked forward to the morning.
Saturday we got up early to avoid some of the lines at St. Mark’s Basilica and the Doge’s Palace.
Thankfully tourist season is winding down so the lines were not that terrible. All the churches I have visited are absolutely stunning, I’m not sure how anyone pays attention in mass…I would spend the whole time staring at the ceilings. St. Mark’s is no different; the ceiling is incrusted with golden mosaics depicting Venice history, the winged lion, the mascot, if you will, of Venice and the symbol of St. Mark’s Gospel. 
The Basilica is connected to the Doge’s Palace so we naturally headed there next. I have to say that I would LOVE to live there. Of course now days it is strictly a museum, I’m not even positive if there is still a Doge. I would think not as he was really only a figure head of the state, rather than having any real powers. Like I said, the place is beautiful; room after room is gilded with gold, decorated with incredible paintings and each is bigger than the last. I don’t know how many rooms we saw but we did spend more than two hours exploring the palace. 
By the time we finished we needed food, and some time to shop! We managed to both without any problem. We headed to the famous Rialto Bridge and Rialto Market. Even with tourist season being all but over the place was PACKED. I’m not even sure what all you could buy because there were just too many people to make me want to do any real shopping…such a shame! Don’t worry I checked another thing off my list with some Murano glass purchases from smaller little shops away from the touristy area. We had decided the day before that we were going to have a light dinner, so we could enjoy pastry and wine on a night gondola ride. Usually it is really expensive to ride in a gondola but the night before the gondoliers were willing to barter with us. We got really luck and for 70 euros a boat the group of 9 of us took an evening ride. Our gondolier clad in the traditional navy and white stripes sang to us everything from traditional Italian songs to his own renditions of the Final Count Down and Yankee Doodle. Those 30 minutes were some of my favorite! 
We were tired but we still had one last thing to check off our list. Bellini’s! I didn’t know until recently that Venice is famous for this drink. But as the saying goes… when in Rome, we figured it only made sense that when in Venice we should give them a try. Believe it or not we land up at an Irish pub near our hostel that just happened to serve the famous drink. Even the Irish owner seemed to know what he was doing because it was delicious! After the soundtrack to Mama Mia came on for the 3rd time we decided it was time to call it a night and head to our hotel.
Sunday was really just a travel day. It takes about 6 hours to get from Perugia to Venice by train. Travel days are my least favorite. I love coming back to Perugia, to my apartment, but it also always means I’m tired, and have homework to do! Each weekend goes by in a world wind, one amazing place today, another next week. Midterms are coming up soon which is unbelievable in and of itself, but every time I take a minute to think I cannot believe where I have been and what I have seen already. Last week we celebrated Sam’s half birthday.
None of the four roommates get to celebrate their birthdays while we are here so we decided half birthdays are just as good; I get my three-quarters birthday because my half has already passed. Of course this meant birthday crowns, party dresses, and a birthday dinner to round out the evening before heading to our favorite bar to hang out with friends for the night…I do love Tuesdays! Happy Half Birthday SAM!
This Tuesday we were not celebrating birthdays but I was just as excited to finally meet my Italian family. I don’t know if you remember but I had applied to be part of a project called ‘la famiglia.’ Well I found out a few weeks ago that I had been selected for this project but has still not gotten to meet my family. My anxious wait finally came to and end! I have to say our (I have a partner named Angie) first meeting with the family went great. We met Catarina at her nail salon and walked home with her. We had dinner and landed up talking about all sorts of things for hours—she speaks English! J When we realized it was already 11:00 we had to excuse ourselves and head home. I can’t wait to go back next week. Catarina’s mom will be visiting; she speaks very little English so my Italian will have to be put to use!
I’m sure that just like many of you, I’m headed into midterm’s week. Good luck to all of you, keep your fingers crossed for me!
Ciao!
The city is truly amazing. From Mestre, which is the last town on the mainland, the train takes your right over the water into the main station in Venice. When you step out of the train station its like you walked into another world. The Grand Canal is right in front of you, there are gondolier waiting to give you rides, bridges and thousands of people enjoying this fairytale place. We took a vaporetto, or water taxi down to the Rialto near where we were staying. After checking into our hotel we set off to explore the city. Our hotel was not far from St. Mark’s Square so we started there. As all the guide books warned it is not only swarming with tourists but with pigeons! New York has nothing on the thousands of pigeons here.
They are not in the least bothered or scared of all the people. They will eat right out of your hand and if you stay still will land right on you. Even though it is good luck to get pooped on by a pigeon in the square that was not on my list of things to do while in Venice so we headed off to see what else we could find. What we really did was get lost in the city, every guide book tells you to find a good map but expect to get lost. Well we did both and it was great, the streets wind around until you have no idea where you are, how you got there or how to get back. Eventually we found this little Italian restraint right off one of the smaller canals and decided to have a nice sit down dinner. I had spaghetti with clams in white wine sauce, as was recommended to me by my Foods teacher. It was probably some of the best food I have had since I’ve been here. We all still had a little room left for desert so we decided to split some Venice famous Tiramisu which also happened to be extremely delicious. With our bellies full we continued our walk of the city. After a second desert of gelato we called it a night and looked forward to the morning.Saturday we got up early to avoid some of the lines at St. Mark’s Basilica and the Doge’s Palace.
Thankfully tourist season is winding down so the lines were not that terrible. All the churches I have visited are absolutely stunning, I’m not sure how anyone pays attention in mass…I would spend the whole time staring at the ceilings. St. Mark’s is no different; the ceiling is incrusted with golden mosaics depicting Venice history, the winged lion, the mascot, if you will, of Venice and the symbol of St. Mark’s Gospel. 
The Basilica is connected to the Doge’s Palace so we naturally headed there next. I have to say that I would LOVE to live there. Of course now days it is strictly a museum, I’m not even positive if there is still a Doge. I would think not as he was really only a figure head of the state, rather than having any real powers. Like I said, the place is beautiful; room after room is gilded with gold, decorated with incredible paintings and each is bigger than the last. I don’t know how many rooms we saw but we did spend more than two hours exploring the palace. 
By the time we finished we needed food, and some time to shop! We managed to both without any problem. We headed to the famous Rialto Bridge and Rialto Market. Even with tourist season being all but over the place was PACKED. I’m not even sure what all you could buy because there were just too many people to make me want to do any real shopping…such a shame! Don’t worry I checked another thing off my list with some Murano glass purchases from smaller little shops away from the touristy area. We had decided the day before that we were going to have a light dinner, so we could enjoy pastry and wine on a night gondola ride. Usually it is really expensive to ride in a gondola but the night before the gondoliers were willing to barter with us. We got really luck and for 70 euros a boat the group of 9 of us took an evening ride. Our gondolier clad in the traditional navy and white stripes sang to us everything from traditional Italian songs to his own renditions of the Final Count Down and Yankee Doodle. Those 30 minutes were some of my favorite! We were tired but we still had one last thing to check off our list. Bellini’s! I didn’t know until recently that Venice is famous for this drink. But as the saying goes… when in Rome, we figured it only made sense that when in Venice we should give them a try. Believe it or not we land up at an Irish pub near our hostel that just happened to serve the famous drink. Even the Irish owner seemed to know what he was doing because it was delicious! After the soundtrack to Mama Mia came on for the 3rd time we decided it was time to call it a night and head to our hotel.Sunday was really just a travel day. It takes about 6 hours to get from Perugia to Venice by train. Travel days are my least favorite. I love coming back to Perugia, to my apartment, but it also always means I’m tired, and have homework to do! Each weekend goes by in a world wind, one amazing place today, another next week. Midterms are coming up soon which is unbelievable in and of itself, but every time I take a minute to think I cannot believe where I have been and what I have seen already. Last week we celebrated Sam’s half birthday.
None of the four roommates get to celebrate their birthdays while we are here so we decided half birthdays are just as good; I get my three-quarters birthday because my half has already passed. Of course this meant birthday crowns, party dresses, and a birthday dinner to round out the evening before heading to our favorite bar to hang out with friends for the night…I do love Tuesdays! Happy Half Birthday SAM!This Tuesday we were not celebrating birthdays but I was just as excited to finally meet my Italian family. I don’t know if you remember but I had applied to be part of a project called ‘la famiglia.’ Well I found out a few weeks ago that I had been selected for this project but has still not gotten to meet my family. My anxious wait finally came to and end! I have to say our (I have a partner named Angie) first meeting with the family went great. We met Catarina at her nail salon and walked home with her. We had dinner and landed up talking about all sorts of things for hours—she speaks English! J When we realized it was already 11:00 we had to excuse ourselves and head home. I can’t wait to go back next week. Catarina’s mom will be visiting; she speaks very little English so my Italian will have to be put to use!
I’m sure that just like many of you, I’m headed into midterm’s week. Good luck to all of you, keep your fingers crossed for me!
Ciao!
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