Venice!

In case you all weren't aware, Venice is gorgeous. I think it's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. That being said, I hate to rush through this post, but I have so much more to tell you about and I'm so far behind! Our program director was right; the longer we're here, the faster time seems to pass. So instead of doing two or even three separate posts for Venice, there will be only one (albeit a very long one).

We lucked out once again with fabulous clear weather and comfortable temperatures. Upon emerging from the train station, our group hopped onto a private ferry that took us to the island of Murano for a glassblowing demonstration. Wow. I didn't take pictures there, but I should have. It was incredible. The glassblower literally made a six-inch tall galloping horse out of hot glass in about four minutes flat. After the demonstration, they let us loose on Murano for about an hour to take pictures and do some glass shopping if we wanted.

Which I did. New necklace, yay! (Like I needed another necklace. But it's Murano glass, so you can stop judging me.)

Then they herded us back onto the ferry, which carried us to our hotel on the main island. We got to pick our own roommates for this trip, so I shared a room with Emily, which was a fun change of pace. She's also a music major and a nerd (represent!) which means we always have lots to talk about. This was our room. It was very small and very red, but comfortable enough. And also we were IN VENICE and therefore had no right to complain. About anything. At all.

Luckily we had about an hour and a half of downtime in the hotel to recover from all the excitement and do some settling in before setting out for the Piazza San Marco. We kept stopping for pictures on the way and the professors had to continue reminding us that we would have plenty of free time tomorrow to take all the pictures we wanted, but right then we were on a schedule, so move along, please.

They were doing some sort of restoration on the front of St. Mark's Basilica, unfortunately, so there were these big unsightly screens hiding all the mosaics, but I got a shot of the spires from the courtyard of the Palazzo Ducale.

We toured the Doge's palace as a group, and I'm sad there were no photos allowed inside, because we saw some highly interesting things... such as dungeons! Many many dungeons. Apparently there were two kinds of cells that the Venetians thought quite innovative: the pozzi, or "the wells", deep under the dungeons in a place where they flooded with seawater from time to time, and the piombi, located right under the lead roof of the palace, where the temperature would fluctuate wildly from scalding hot to crippling cold. We didn't get to see the piombi, but we did get to walk through the Bridge of Sighs, where criminals being led into prison would get their last glimpse of the outside world through tiny peepholes as they crossed over. We also got to see the armory, where they had an actual falconette on display. It was huge! I never realized they were so big. So that was legit.

Later that evening, after having dinner together at the hotel (where they struggled to feed the vegetarians, as usual), we returned to the basilica for a very special private tour.

There was no one else besides us in there, and when we came in, the lights were off. We watched in awed silence as they slowly lit the place into brilliance. Literally, we all sat there without saying a word for a good fifteen minutes, just drinking in the beauty of it.

Later, we got to go down and see the vault underneath the basilica, which was pretty wicket sweet, though not as impressive as upstairs.

After we reluctantly left the church, a few of us hung out in the piazza enjoying the music from the various bands playing outside the fancy cafes. Also, some dude proposed to his girlfriend as one of the bands was playing "My Heart Will Go On" and all the girls in our group started bawling, so that was a party.

We visited another church the next morning, the name of which I don't remember.

This one was remarkably less Byzantine than San Marco, but also beautiful in its own way.

After touring that church, we visited a classical art "scuola" and craned our necks looking at a magnificent painted ceiling. Then we had about nine hours of free time in which to break off into groups of two or three or six and explore Venice on our own. My group had lunch sitting on the steps of the scuola and listened to a street violinist play Lindsay Sterling tunes on his electric violin. We wandered for a while and got totally lost on purpose, crossing every bridge we came to, not caring where they led us. I made a purchase:

I also visited a vintage costume jewelry exhibit with Emily, which was outrageous and an all around good time. We had to wait for the exhibit to open, so in the meantime we went out onto the museum balcony to enjoy the weather and take yet more canal pictures.

More from our wanderings.

I love how every building in this city is beautifully ornate. It honestly doesn't look real.

We eventually found our way back to San Marco so that Emily could attend evening Mass. I sketched the piazza and then did some shopping on my own before heading back to our hotel for dinner, and I only got a little bit lost, even though it was a fairly long and complicated walk, woo!

On our last morning, I went with a few other girls to the Point of Commerce, where the ships used to pass through customs on their way into the city. There was a period-accurate tallship inexplicably moored there. Because my life is actual Assassin's Creed apparently.

We journaled and scrapbooked and sketched there for a while as the sunlight glittered on the Grand Canal, and then it was time to get our luggage from the hotel and rendezvous with the private ferry, which took us back to the train station. Bye, Venice! Until next time!

I will absolutely be going back. I love this city.

Stay tuned for pictures from Switzerland and Prague!

- Kasha