Venice

10/5/12 - 10/7/12

The Venice trip started off on a bad foot as the train to Milano Centrale was delayed. As my train pulled into Milan, I saw the Venice train pulling away. After being sent to a few information desks, I was told to just get on the next train. Unfortunately, the train was completely full. Even with having reservations, a group of four of us sat on the floor near the bathrooms. Needless to say it was not the best ride to Venice. Once we arrived, all of us bought 72 hour passes that let us take the public transport boats anywhere. It is interesting, because the boats run exactly the same way that buses in any other city do. On our way to the hostel, I realized that the canals, well at least the main ones, were a lot wider than I thought they would be. We stayed at Ostello Venice and it is probably the worst hostel I have stayed in so far. There were no locks on the doors, so anyone could slide open the door to your room. By the time we were all checked in, we decided to walk around and find somewhere to eat. After walking around the little roads for about an hour, we came across a little pizza place and ate along the river. Eventually we came across Piazza San Marco and walked around there for a little bit. There were so many men trying to sell silly toys to everyone. Many of them could get quite aggressive. I saw one man hand a woman a rose and he refused to take it back just so that she would have to pay for it. All in all it was a relaxing night and I loved just enjoying the beauty of Venice. Our hostel was right on one of the larger canals, so it was nice to just sit outside and watch. 

Grand Canal

The hostel

View from the hostel

 

On Saturday morning, our group woke up and went to the Piazza San Marco again. There were too many of us to all walk around together, so we split off into smaller groups and did our own things. I went to the island of Murano, which is famous for its glass making. Murano became famous for its glassmaking when the Venetian Republic ordered glassmakers to move their foundries to the island in 1291. They feared that fire would destroy the city’s wooden buildings. It took a while to get there by boat, but it was definitely worth it. All of the buildings were very colorful and the shops had beautiful glass. There were so many cool vases, plates, and sculptures that I would want in my house when I get older. For most of the day I just explored all of the little shops by the water. In the afternoon, we stopped by this restaurant on the water and had a delicious meal. It was a little bit more expensive that what I would normally pay, but it was worth it. I had homemade pasta with pesto and tomato sauce. Allyson and I then headed back to the hostel to take a nap, before we went out that night. Some of us had planned to go on a ghost tour that night which left from Rialto Bridge. By the time we finished eating dinner and got to the bridge, there was no tour guide in sight. After wasting that money, we decided to hang out near the bridge for the rest of the night. 

Piazza San Marco

On the way to Murano.

Murano

Delicious lunch!

View from the Rialto Bridge at night

 

On Sunday we all decided to go off in small group again. Cody, Holland, Gretchen, and I walked around and just got lost in Venice. We started walking near the Piazza San Marco and by the end of the day we ended up at the train station. I had my backpack on all day, which was not as bad as I thought it would be. It was nice to be in a small group, because we just walked into random places and stayed for however long we wanted. After going down little alley ways we came across this lookout onto the canals and we almost saw a gondola accident. The main part of our day was visiting the natural history museum. There were so many interesting things to look at and all of the rooms were set up in a very unique way. The room of wonders was one of my favorites, because they had some really bizarre animals, including a half fish half human! Before catching our train home, we ate supper along the water again. Venice was completely different than I expected it to be, but I was definitely pleasantly surprised.  

Almost an accident

Natural history museum

Room of Wonders