Venice: City of Masks and Water

 Hello Blog People!

It's been a bit longer than I had wanted, but I cannot wait to tell you about my trip to Venice. 

    For the first time since we have started traveling, Villa took us on the train up to Venice. We got a little bit of a later start, and rode for a few hours. Once we got to Venice, we left the station and started walking. As soon as you step out of the station, you are met with a classic Venetian view: water, a bridge, and old buildings. I got really excited when I saw it, I even skipped around a little bit. I also forgot to mention that we went to Venice while Carnival is happening. So we also saw people dressed up in masks, waling around the train station and in the streets. 

As a theater kid, I LOVED seeing all the costumes. I am still in awe at the amount of time and effort that goes into each of the masks. They are covered head to toe, and all everything is sparkly and elaborate. The dresses and suits were inspired from different things in nature or culture, using bright colors and even some props. There were other people that dressed up as characters from movies, like Elsa, Mary Poppins, and even a group of Teletubbies. My favorite part was just seeing people walk in the streets, acting like the main character in life and posing for pictures. As soon as a new mask would enter a common space, people would flock around the person and take pictures with and of them. And they didn't say anything, just posed for a while and then would try to keep moving. The people would FLOCK around the coolest masks, almost like it was a popularity contest. It was so interesting to observe and see this age old tradition. 

    From the train station, we walked to Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square), one of the most famous areas in Venice. In the square is the Doge's Palace (Duke's Palace) and Basilica di San Marco. I didn't go inside either of them (I'll save that for another trip I guess). the outside of the basilica was super impressive! There were paintings all over the outside, and bright gold on some of the arches. It was beautiful. 

    On our way to the piazza we stopped at one of the most famous bridges in Venice: Rialto Bridge, the oldest bridge in the city. It was CROWDED (because, well, it's carnival and tons of people are there in Venice anyway. Tourism is Venice's main source of income). After we walked to Piazza San Marco (which took about 30 minutes). We took a picture and then were set free to spend our time however we wanted in the city. I walked to see the water with some of my friends, and then we decided to find something to eat. We decided on Pasta to go, which was a little weird but pretty good. The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around, looking at little shops for souvenirs and seeing some of the little sights. 

    Venice is also famous for a little island nearby named Murano. Everything that comes from there is handmade, and it is absolutely beautiful. There are class shops ALL OVER Venice, selling everything from cups and earrings to little animal figurines and little figurine chess pieces. It was super impressive to see all of the glass. I did buy myself a few things. I bought a beautiful bracelet with white class, and a pair of dangly earring that are a sparkly navy blue.  I also bought myself a mask. It is gold and black and white and has music notes along the forehead. I wanted to be able to tell my kids/grandkids someday "This is a mask I bought when I was studying abroad in college, when we went to Venice for Carnival." because HOW COOL IS THAT! I think my mask is beautiful. But as soon as I bought one, I wanted to buy like 5 more. 

    One of the other eventful things was getting to ride a gondola. Now normally, if you want to ride a gondola, it costs about 90 euros for a 30-minute ride. However, TikTok came through and we heard about a place where you could ride a gondola and cross the Grand Canal for 2 euros a person. So we found the place, and all got into a gondola and rode it across. It was so much fun. We were all super excited. Our excitement lead us to being not the best passengers. We were laughing and screeching and having a super fun time. The whole ride took about a minute, but we had a great time. Afterward we were waiting on the other side for one of our friends. there was a gondolier standing by a pole. My friend Ainsley wore a black and white stripped shirt, and we quickly realized that they were matching. But she was shy and din't want to go and take a picture with the man. So she posed a little ways away, and the gondolier saw, and started to sneak up behind here. We all were giggling at the whole situation, and he came up behind her and put his hat on her head. We could not keep it together and bust out laughing. I'm pretty sure that was the highlight of the whole trip for our group. That will forever be one of my favorite memories from our trip. 

    Overall, I had a good time in Venice. It was busy, and we walked A LOT, but it was super fun. I had a great time and would definitely recommend going there. It's one of the things that you should see at some point in your life. And I'm glad I got to go there now, and I hope I can go again. 

Ciao,

            Ellie 

Pictures Below:

The view outside the train station

Waterways

GONDOLA

Fabi and I on Rialto Bridge

What a front door could look like (LOL)

Basilica di San Marco

Some Carnival masks

I love a place that makes me glow 

My mask

Girlies

Our Personal Gondolier

Basilica smiles