Or: Venice is to be in seventh heaven. No, not the TV show, but basically it means to be in Venice is to be on cloud nine. We may have gone over expressions in Italian class this morning. I'm also going to throw another Italian expression out there: dico pane al pane e vino al vino (I'm calling bread, bread, and the wine, wine - because that's what Italian life is all about - bread and wine), or let's call a spade a spade. Venice was indescribable.
Obviously, I'm going to try since this is a blog and that's what blogs tend to do.... but man. Here goes. We woke up on Friday and went to the train station at 7 AM and made it to Venice by about 2 PM. We had a five-minute walk from the train station to our hostel, which was in Venice Mestre, the mainland, not the actual island of Venice (where it is very expensive to stay, but if you’ve got money to blow – totally worth it). We had directions to the bus stop we needed to get to Venice, but were a little disoriented and got on the right line… headed the wrong way. We ended up at a little mall on the outskirts of town and had to ride the bus all the way back to the other end of the line; what was supposed to be only a ten minute bus ride ended up being about forty – but it’s all about learning, right? So we didn't get to Venice until about four, but the moment we crossed the big bridge, the city laid out before us, it was just heart stoppingly beautiful. We were walking so slowly and being so obnoxious because it was just so much to look at, everyone kept trying to get past us and we were simply staring agog at the buildings and the canals. There was no snow (yay!), and the reflection of the sun off the water was beautiful.
It’s hard to actually wrap your head around the fact that the way to get around in Venice is actually the waterways -- we kept getting confused about what was a street and what was a canal on the map. There is no sidewalk along the Grand Canal, and you have to sort of work your way around through backstreets and over bridges to get anywhere, or take a water taxi. It's confusing but also neat, since even when you’re lost your stumbling onto picturesque canals and churches every few minutes. And the churches are gorgeous. Like total nerds, we'd been in Venice for ten minutes before we walked into the most stunning church I'd ever seen - literally jaw dropping. Venice made us really philosophical and we spent a surprising amount of time talking about how humans don't care about details or beauty anymore, at least not enough to spend the time and money on long lasting things like churches, anyway. Nothing we could think of looks like this in America. Of course, most of these were built before America was a country, so….
Another kind of philosophical ideology was being practiced in Venice, as it was the biggest weekend of Carnevale (Carnival). Carnevale is celebrated all over the world as the time when you can satisfy "carne" (of the flesh) desires before Lent starts. Venice has the biggest Carnevale celebration in the world, and the big thing is to wear a mask - because with the masks, no one knows who you are and you are totally free to do whatever you want. The philosophy is – anything goes. Not only were people in masks, they were also dressed up in all sorts of awesome costumes; some ridiculous - like the Teletubbies, Simpsons, Ghost Busters - and some period costumes from the 1700/1800's.
We had an interesting experience
at a restaurant where the owner realized we were American and told us to watch
a youtube video about Obama secretly being Osama bin Laden -- he gave us the
title and his email address so we could email him if we had any trouble
finding it. I’m not exactly sure what that was about. Anyway, we tried to order
an “apertif” (which I understand to be drinks and a few appetizers around
six-ish, since dinner for Italians is at eight-ish). However, we ended up with
one Carnevale spritzer each (a citrus-y drink) and no snacks. We ended up
staying for one more drink – a Limoncello, also a specialty in Italy, and then
we classed it up and hit McDonald’s for dinner. What can I say? There’s no
excuse, except that being around so much English (everyone in Venice speaks
English) and so many Americans made us a little homesick and it just sounded so
good to have a hamburger! The rest of the night we just sort of wandered around
main streets and took in the activities. We found an outdoor concert. Two
Italian guys we met in the crowd painted my face. I was told it was an
“original American flag.” Let me know what you think it is.
We were tired and started to head
back to our hostel but ended up spectacularly lost, and this lovely older
British gentleman came up to us and said "Are you all lost like everyone
else?" So then as he was explaining where we were, he took us to the back
of a private club/party thing were all the rich people were eating dinner (he
told us he asked and it cost 600 euro to have a spot at this dinner) with half
dressed men and women in Carnival costumes walking around. We spied pretty
obviously for a while through the back door. Then he walked us back to where we
needed to be, so nice! But then we stumbled onto this other little (bigger)
outdoor concert, where we met a group of students from Pepperdine University in
California. It was so nice to just hang out for a bit with other Americans --
shout out to all the international students at DePauw, now I understand a bit
why it’s so important to spend time with other people from your own country and
speak in your own language… it’s exhausting to always be surrounded by
foreigners.
The next day we headed to the
island around noon and sat outside to eat pizza at a café with a gorgeous view
of a church and all the crazy costumes. Afterwards we wandered around again,
and walked all the way to the main piazza - Piazza San Marco. It was confusing, because we had forgotten our
map and were using the vague map in my Italy guidebook…. note to self, don’t
lose the map. It looked like a pretty short walk, but four hours later we
arrived. The way we took was full of small alleys and we mostly just followed
the crowd to figure out where we needed to go.... and it was actually a totally
great way to really see the city. We found all of these unexpected shops and
canals. Sadly, we didn't ride a gondola – too expensive! But we did stop for
gelato (mint chocolate) both for a sugar rush and to celebrate the warmth and
lack of snow and warmth. When we finally made it to Piazza San Marco, it was
crazy crowded. Literally, there wasn't room to move anywhere. I don't really
like crowds, so it made me a little uncomfortable, but we decided to move over
to see the view of the water and ended up chilling on the dock watching the
crowds and the sunset. One of the most amazing memories, ever, period. After it
got dark we headed back to the now less crowded piazza to watch the concert.
Finally we got hungry and it was almost Italian dinnertime, so we naturally
stopped for a pastry first. I tried the meringue pastry I’d seen all around the
city the whole weekend but it disappointingly was just like air (and very
messy). After our pre-dinner dessert, we decided to splurge and enjoy a nice
dinner, where we shared mac n' cheese (Italian style, so obviously different
but wonderful), tortellini with peas, pork with sage, and a bottle of wine.
After dinner we ran into our
Pepperdine friends again (really, the odds of that were probably a million in
one), and just walked around some more, there were lots of things happening.
Like people playing guitar, dancing, and a man on a unicycle. But about midnight,
the city started to shut down (at least the Carnevale activities did). As we
headed back to the bus station, we met another group of American students, and
talked with them for a while about our programs and where we were traveling
while abroad. One guy in the group stopped me mid-story to tell me my southern
accent reminded him of his extended family in Alabama and that it was just so nice
to hear a familiar southern accent– since I don’t particularly think my accent is that southern, he may have just been either super homesick or
trying to get me to stop my story (and since I repeat stories a lot and am bad
at telling them, it may have been the second).
We left on Sunday, and after eight hours of traveling; we were back in Civitanova, where we were supposed to pick up a bus to Macerata. Because it was Carnevale, the bus wasn't coming to the train station (like it usually does) and we had to hike a mile, ask a million people, and finally (luckily) run into a woman who was also looking for the bus to Macerata. We finally found it and made it back home! The snow had almost melted over the weekend and it felt so good to finally be back. And to shower (#studyabroadproblems, not showering because the hostel charges for towels). This weekend, in summary, was amazing. And here, I’m going to get philosophical again: every day in Italy is teaching me that you need to take chances and risks and learn to be okay looking stupid (really, why doesn’t the American education system emphasize multilingualism? It should…), to be comfortable asking questions and asking for help, to rely on the kindness of strangers, and take lots of pictures.
Sorry I used the word “beautiful” (and synonyms) so much. But really. What else could I say? You see the pictures!
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| Carnevale 2012! |
Obviously, I'm going to try since this is a blog and that's what blogs tend to do.... but man. Here goes. We woke up on Friday and went to the train station at 7 AM and made it to Venice by about 2 PM. We had a five-minute walk from the train station to our hostel, which was in Venice Mestre, the mainland, not the actual island of Venice (where it is very expensive to stay, but if you’ve got money to blow – totally worth it). We had directions to the bus stop we needed to get to Venice, but were a little disoriented and got on the right line… headed the wrong way. We ended up at a little mall on the outskirts of town and had to ride the bus all the way back to the other end of the line; what was supposed to be only a ten minute bus ride ended up being about forty – but it’s all about learning, right? So we didn't get to Venice until about four, but the moment we crossed the big bridge, the city laid out before us, it was just heart stoppingly beautiful. We were walking so slowly and being so obnoxious because it was just so much to look at, everyone kept trying to get past us and we were simply staring agog at the buildings and the canals. There was no snow (yay!), and the reflection of the sun off the water was beautiful.
It’s hard to actually wrap your head around the fact that the way to get around in Venice is actually the waterways -- we kept getting confused about what was a street and what was a canal on the map. There is no sidewalk along the Grand Canal, and you have to sort of work your way around through backstreets and over bridges to get anywhere, or take a water taxi. It's confusing but also neat, since even when you’re lost your stumbling onto picturesque canals and churches every few minutes. And the churches are gorgeous. Like total nerds, we'd been in Venice for ten minutes before we walked into the most stunning church I'd ever seen - literally jaw dropping. Venice made us really philosophical and we spent a surprising amount of time talking about how humans don't care about details or beauty anymore, at least not enough to spend the time and money on long lasting things like churches, anyway. Nothing we could think of looks like this in America. Of course, most of these were built before America was a country, so….
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| So beautiful. |
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| Venice canals during the day. |
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| So crowded! |
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| Sunset day 1! |
Another kind of philosophical ideology was being practiced in Venice, as it was the biggest weekend of Carnevale (Carnival). Carnevale is celebrated all over the world as the time when you can satisfy "carne" (of the flesh) desires before Lent starts. Venice has the biggest Carnevale celebration in the world, and the big thing is to wear a mask - because with the masks, no one knows who you are and you are totally free to do whatever you want. The philosophy is – anything goes. Not only were people in masks, they were also dressed up in all sorts of awesome costumes; some ridiculous - like the Teletubbies, Simpsons, Ghost Busters - and some period costumes from the 1700/1800's.
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| Carnevale spritzer! |
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| 600 euros a plate, no big deal. |
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| Sitting on the dock of the bay.... watching the sun set. |
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| It looks so good, but was disappointing - the only thing that didn't live up to my expectations about Carnevale. |
We left on Sunday, and after eight hours of traveling; we were back in Civitanova, where we were supposed to pick up a bus to Macerata. Because it was Carnevale, the bus wasn't coming to the train station (like it usually does) and we had to hike a mile, ask a million people, and finally (luckily) run into a woman who was also looking for the bus to Macerata. We finally found it and made it back home! The snow had almost melted over the weekend and it felt so good to finally be back. And to shower (#studyabroadproblems, not showering because the hostel charges for towels). This weekend, in summary, was amazing. And here, I’m going to get philosophical again: every day in Italy is teaching me that you need to take chances and risks and learn to be okay looking stupid (really, why doesn’t the American education system emphasize multilingualism? It should…), to be comfortable asking questions and asking for help, to rely on the kindness of strangers, and take lots of pictures.
Sorry I used the word “beautiful” (and synonyms) so much. But really. What else could I say? You see the pictures!
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