Venizia: Days 1 and 2 and 3

Sunday morning Hilary and I boarded a train from Rome to Venice and met up with the rest of our gang: Kevin, Emily, Haider and Vanessa. The train ride lasted several hours and put us into Venice around 3 PM. Let me note now that train travel is now possibly my favorite way to get about. Beautiful scenery, plenty of space, no pressure problems on the ears, just plenty of time to relax and get some reading done. I think we need more trains in the U.S. Or at least more trains that work.

But I digress. Having met up with the crew and depositing our luggage at the hostel (located 20 minutes by bus outside of Venice) we came back to town. We found a nice cheap gelato shop and indulged in the first of many, many scoops of gelato that we were to eat in Venice. With so many flavors to try and so little time, stopping 5 or 6 times in one day to eat gelato seemed like quite an amazing idea. With gelato in hand, we literally wandered the streets. Although we had a map, the streets were utterly maze-like, due to the height of the buildings and the narrowness of the walkways:


Short story: Any time somebody says "Amazing!" I have this habit of bursting into a song from the stage musical Little Women which goes like this:

"Amazing, there we were in Venice,
In a gondola, in Venice,
When he suddenly stood up and shouted,
"Will you marry me?""

So when someone in our group uttered the fateful word, I immediately began singing without a second thought. Until it clicked in my head that I was actually in Venice singing that song. I literally stopped in my tracks in disbelief.

And of course, what wandering would be complete without stumbling across a stunning building? No idea what it is beyond a church, but it reinforced just how wonderful life was at the moment.


While we were wandering, we also discovered that quite by chance we had arrived in Venice during Carnaval!



The masks they had to sell were simply stunning in their beauty....and ranged from 8 to nearly 200 euros! That's close to 300 dollars these days.



The next day we made breakfast in the kitchen of our hostel rooms, then took the bus to Venice. Our day started out with a gondola ride that started out along the Great Canal, then diverted into one of the many side channels. It was quite a bit of fun and I got some really great pictures which you can see at the links at the bottom of the post. As a side note, Hilary and Vanessa both reside just outside of Las Vegas, and couldn't help uttering "Woah...the Venetian Hotel did a really good job!" Apparently there were multiple spots where they both had a sensation of being back at home in the hotel's recreated Venice.





After the Gondola trip, it was time for mask shopping! Everyone in our group bought one, with the rule being once you bought a mask, you had to wear it for the rest of the day. Below is my selection, and the selection of everyone else (click to enlarge):



Somehow, everything is better in masks!

We made our windy twisty way through the streets, stopping every now and then for gelato, until we reached San Marco's Plaza, where the big festivities were. One of the most beautiful sights was that of the dozens of people who dressed up in elaborate costumes and did nothing but stand in the plaza and take pictures with people. I can imagine this easily be an annual tradition of the locals, and the results were quite stunning. Below is just one of many I took pictures of:


We also toured St. Mark's Basilica, which is amazing to go into solely to look at the mosaic pictures that cover the entire ceiling. However, there is no photography allowed inside the building, so I have no pictures to share.

We then went to the Rialto Bridge and took some amazing photos of the city at sunset, before heading to find a restaurant along the canal to have dinner. It was an absolutely delicious meal on outside tables literally next to the canal.

And this lasagna is just the first course!



Our day was fairly over after all that excitement, so we went back to the hostel. The next day we had all morning to see the city until our afternoon train to Luzern, so we headed back to San Marco's to the Campanile, a giant tower whose sole purpose, at the moment, is to entice tourist to pay overpriced fees to take an elevator to the top to take photos of the city. Having skipped a similar spot in Rome, I decided to fork over the cash this time, with some nice results, if slightly hampered by the annoying cloud cover that had moved in over night:


Then it was on the train to Luzern, where we ran across a surprising experience......

Albums are: Viva Venizia! Hide Your Face so the World Can Never Find You, and There are Buildings in Venice?