The City of 118 Islands... Venice, Italy!

Day 1:

Just what we did not need... yet another train delay! After the train delay last weekend, starting off with another was frustrating. Our first train was delayed enough that by the time we arrived in the Milan station it was the exact time our next train was supposed to depart! I have never run so fast in a train station, skidding in and out of people. Only to arrive at the platform and see the train already departed from the station and on its way. It was so sad... we just stood there for a while unsure what to think. We could literally see it leaving.

But we picked ourselves back up and looked at the boards to see if there was an alternative route to get to Venice. We saw a train departing in about 20 minutes headed toward Venice. We asked that train conductor if we needed a reservation for that train and we did not! We were so fortunate. Although this train had us arriving an hour and a half later than we originally planned, at least we would get there! It was annoying that we paid for a reservation for the previous train and would not be getting refunded :( But there was no point stressing about it... we were on our way to Venice!! For this trip, I went with Linda, Debbie, Angela, Amanda, and Amanda's friend Kristin who was studying abroad in Perugia, Italy.

When we arrived in Venice, we took just a couple steps outside of the train station and immediately there was water!! And I thought to myself, Yes, I am actually in Venice. We had to catch the public transportation, which was a water taxi, in order to get to where our hostel was. I stood on the deck of the boat, feeling so excited to be there. That in itself was a peaceful half hour boat ride right as it was turning to dusk :)

Where we were staying was just off the main islands of Venice. When we went up to our room, we could look out our window to a view of the main islands of Venice. By the time we were all settled in, we just wanted to relax and have a big dinner. We went to a local restaurant on the island. All of us ordered pizza and wine to make for a wonderful Italian dinner experience!

After getting our fill, we took a stroll along the water front. The lights from the islands across the way reflected on the water and the stars shinned brilliant overhead. It was like a movie.

That night we went to bed early, tired from schoolwork during the week but very excited for the next day.

Day 2:

Waking myself up with a nice morning shower, I got ready for the day. We all headed downstairs and paid for breakfast at our hostel. It was a good buffet with an awesome coffee maker. I'm pretty sure both days we were there I had two cappuccinos in the mornings haha (More than I needed since it makes me hyper!) By the way, this was the view from my hostel window!

We took the water taxi across to the main island because we had a tour planned for the day! It was a sightseeing tour that took us to three other well-known islands of Venice! Again to get to these islands we had to travel by boat and during the rides the guide would give us background information on Venice and the islands we were going to.

Our first stop: Murano! It may or may not sound familiar, but if it does that would be because the island is famous for its glass blowing!! And I got the amazing opportunity to be able to observe glass blowing!

Our group was taken into a back room that had a huge furnace with big tools all around. The skilled artisan puts a ball of glass into this large furnace and once it’s to his desired temperature he takes it out. At this point, he can either put on shards of glass (which he then puts into the furnace again to melt onto the existing glass and give it color) or shape the glass with special tools. He made a vase and demonstrated to us blowing into the tube to give the vase its shape. Also he made an elaborate rearing horse by shaping and bending the glass like it was taffy. Both items took only a short time for him to complete, as we gathered around and stood amazed by it. The craziest thing is the artisan did not even have any sort of gloves on this hands or protective face gear… I suppose he must have been very confident with his abilities.  

After the demonstrations, we entered into the gift shop! I enjoyed looking at all the extensive and exquisite glass pieces here. Stunning chandeliers, beautiful figurines, and one-of-a-kind pieces of jewelry. All of it was amazing, but unfortunately too expensive and too challenging to transport back to the US... but I did get a couple of little things though :)

We headed back on the boat to our next island stop: Burano! This island is known for its lace making and designs. When we got on the island, I was immediately enchanted by it! It was simply adorable. The houses and buildings were so bright and all different colors! And there were canals with little boats throughout the island... just so cute.

We got to go inside one of the lace shops and see a woman hand stitching a design. The shop was so quaint, with hundreds of portraits all made of lace. There were also delicate clothes and beautiful scarfs... I got myself a dainty, feminine light pink lace scarf.

We got time to explore around this island for a little bit. Walk along the market streets and over the bridges. I was sad we had to leave this charming little island, I wish we could have had more time to spend here.

We got back on the boat for our final island stop: Torcello! Now this island was a lot different from the previous two. Although the other two were traditional, they were also commercialized. This island though was pretty much vacant and looked abandoned. That's because Torcello was established between the 5th and 6th centuries and it was the earliest center of civilization in the Venetian Lagoon. At one time it held the largest population of the Republic of Venice, but that time has come and gone. When we were there we got to see the remains of the baptistery and Cathedral founded in the 7th century.

We checked out the island for a little bit and then went back on the boat to head back to the main islands. This boat ride was about half an hour and I almost fell asleep sitting up I was so tired from the days events... man it was such a good day though! I got to see so much of Venice! But it was not over yet!

When we got back on the main islands, we got to explore this area since we did not have time to before the tour! We walked through some of the smaller side streets, going in and out of the shops. Almost all of the shops sold glass or the famous Venetian masks. We eventually made our way into Piazza San Marco! The amount of people in this square was incredible! Some were just relaxing, but most were bustling about. I saw a small boy chasing pigeons around. 

Unfortunately we did not get to see the square in all its glory since there was construction that covered up most of the outside of the Basilica in the square. I really wanted to go inside to see what it looked like on the inside. We waited for a couple minutes, but when we got inside it was so dark in there I could hardly see what it looked like! :( I could tell however that this church was full of mosaics... gold mosaics on the ceilings and brown, black, and white tiled mosaics on the floor. That is what stood out to me and made this church unique.

Then we did something I've only ever imagined, something I've seen in the movies, but never thought I'd get the chance too... we went on a gondola ride!! That right there made it feel like I was truly in Venice! It was so fun too :D I think it was about an hour and we went in and out of the canals in Venice. The gondolier told us that Venice is composed of 118 islands and has 409 bridges!!! We were all surprised by that.

The picture above makes me laugh because it looks like the gondolier is a little man standing on my head hahah! 

The gondola ride was so peaceful and relaxing. I enjoyed every part of it! It was interesting to see how the buildings were built up right along the canals. The foundations of the buildings did not look sturdy at all to me and it looked like some of them were falling apart, but how would I know. Some had entrances that faced these water canals; I suppose you had to get straight off the boat and go right into the building. The whole set up of Venice was incredibly fascinating and unlike anything I've seen before. 

After our gondola ride, only one thing was on our mind... dinner!! All of us were so hungry! We went to a restaurant that had local Italian dishes. I had some of the best tortellini, filled with spinach and cheese, topped with meat sauce! We were at that dinner table for quite some time. The waiter was in no rush to give us the check and we were in no rush to get the check. That is one thing I've gotten use to and really like about European meals. Everyone takes their time and enjoys the dinner experience. 

By the time we finished and went back outside, it seemed as though the streets had cleared out! Venice does not have much of a nightlife and we were witnessing its emptiness at night. When we went back to Piazza San Marco, there were just a handful of people.

Now unfortunately we did have an incident happen... we got totally and completely lost. The streets, canals, bridges, or whatever it is that can give you a sign where you are were not marked at all. And if they were, there were like 3 or 4 signs pointing different directions for the same place... it was pretty comical actually. I have yet to be in a place where the streets were that badly marked. We ended up going in circles and having to ask at least 5 or 6 people for directions back to the dock we needed to get to. After a solid half an hour to an hour being lost, we made our way back! At that point we were very ready to call it a night and go to bed.

Day 3:

Waking up to a drizzly morning, we took our time checking out of our hostel and eating breakfast. We were glad we left for the train station with so much time because our water taxi ride took much longer than we expected as we had to change boats 2 times during the ride. By the time we got to the train station, we only had about 45 min to wander around. I went into one of the small churches there. I was able to listen to the end of a mass and say a couple prayers. 

Four of us got a real traveling picture before leaving, backpacks included! Right on the bridge over the Grand Canal of Venice!

But at this point, it was time to get on the train. It was a smooth ride back to Riva and I did some reading for my class the next day. We arrived at Riva in time for dinner and were able to have a relaxing Sunday evening. I reflected on my time in Venice and I could not have asked for more out of my weekend. It was truly such a fun time with great sites, good friends, and amazing food! :)