Thursday night we left from downtown Grenoble at 10:30 pm on our overnight bus ride to Venice. We finally got to our destination about 9am the next day, which was chilly yet sunny. We rode on the vaporettos from our hotel on the island of Lido to the actual island of Venezia into San Marco Piazza. We saw the Rialto Bridge, the Grand Canal, the Gondoliers on the tiny cute little canals, Doge Palace, and many other sites. My friends and I bought masks for the opening ceremonies of Carnivale and wandered in and out of little shops, taking the vaporetto just to enjoy all the sites on the beautiful day, got our faces painted like little girls at the state fair :), and had lots of fun.
Saturday we went to the island of Murano, which is famous for the Venetian glass blowing. Those shops were just absolutely amazing! We all bought a few [too many] pieces of jewelry for ourselves, and "the mama" as the shopkeeper kept saying, that are very beautiful.
The opening ceremonies for Carnival were postponed due to citywide mourning for two Venetian's deaths. Rumors said they were killed in the war, while others said there was a boating accident. Anyway... the ceremonies started at midnight and continued the next day. We were stuck in the biggest crowd I have ever experienced while waiting for the "Angelo" of Carnivale to come down from the top of the bell tower. I was pretty amazing! Then there was a parade with all the people in their elaborate costumes. Carnivale is certainly like nothing else I have ever seen.
We had lots of good pasta, fritellis (cream-puff like Venetian delicacy only made during Carnivale), and tirimasu. I've been making some good friends, seeing wonderful sights, and having lots of good laughs.
Well I've got to catch the bus to go view the film for my cinema class this week. Ciao!
1 comment:
Great masks, great fun, great chat. Love you, Mom:)
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