Towns and Villages: Vedo Venezia

Ah, sweet Venice. Where to begin. Perhaps with waking up at 6 in the morning to trudge through the rain to the train station? This is where we met up with our program and boarded the "luxury" bus for a 3.5 hour ride to Venice.

soo luxurious

Our tour guide and program leader, a hilarious man named Frederico, put on The Tourist (which takes place in Venice) to get us cultured.

great hills for sledding

The countryside between Florence and Venice was absolutely beautiful, but then again, so is Angelina Jolie (back to the Tourist).

After a frightening/hilarious incident where the bus driver tried to take us down under an overpass and completely scratched and damaged the roof of the bus but still attempted to make it while it sounded like the ceiling was caving in, eventually resorting to backing out while the scraping pierced our ears, we ran to the Santa Lucia station to catch our train into the heart of Venice.

I'm coming for you my love

A short ride later, we popped out...

in Venice!!

First thing's first, on to a water taxi ride to our first destination.

our fearless co-captain

hello my pretties

goofy and unashamed (ok a little ashamed)

I'm actually walking on water

definitely an important building

It was a bit irksome because each water taxi seated 12 and my roommate and I somehow got split up into the taxi with your typical college girls (see: ashamed selfie).

i h8 college girls

Nevertheless, we disembarked shortly and were on our way!

Behold, Piazza San Marco!

PIGEONS

Piazza San Pigeons, really.

grossly obese birds

very cool architecture though

tourists, tourists everywhere

I don't think I got a picture of it but Frederico informed us that the stacked-up table-looking things were "runways" for when there is high tide and/or flooding, so that the people can continue on their way! He said we all become models then.

Here is the front of St. Mark's Basilica, where there are (replicas of) the horses from the Sack of Constantinople! Enjoy, mom:

selfie stick, anyone?

minor facial distortions, but you get the picture

the neverending story (of construction)

I annoy even myself

And of course, a selfie with the horses to make mum proud.

canal 1 of 38789437598

Then it was off to a private glassblowing exhibit, over the bridge and through the canals.

hi I was there too

The glassblowing exhibit was probably the coolest thing I've ever seen. The maestro made a vase in about 5 minutes and we all cried for lack of our own talents. There was also this giant copper horse which again, mum would appreciate:

no photos my butt

it's funny alright

Then there was this banana in the water that I thought was hysterical because I'm 2 years old.

We went on a brief walking tour through the city, during which we saw the oldest cafe in Venice, Caffe Florian, built in 1720!

we were floored

The Building that is Pretty

Santa Maria del Giglio, or Saint Mary of the Lily, or the Building that is Pretty.

Then came the main event...a gondola ride down the Grand Canal!

IT'S HAPPENING

traghetto = ferry (or between ghettos?)

I'm on a gondola!!

cloudy with a chance of a gondola ride

on a gondola did you know

obviously too cool for us

Our wise and hip gondolier.

Palazzo Barbarigo ft. fellow gondolier

Our gondolier kept chatting up this above gondolier, hardly paying attention to us and more importantly, our gondola. This didn't make me as nervous as the other gondolier talking on his cell phone. Masters of their trade, I guess.

faces of disbelief as he casually rows one-handed

wheee

The most unconvincing smile possibly ever known to man (come on, it was cold).

down a narrow canalley, patent pending

oh no not her again

only a little bit nerve-wracking

Frederico then took us to a leaning tower,

awk

and to a secret tower of Pisa,

awk x2

Did I mention we spent a good chunk of our day shopping for masks for Carnivale? Well, we did. High and low, near and far, we must have gone in every mask store (impossible). At long last, I found my perfect mask!

hand-painted and perfect

I took two horrible last-second photos to try to convey the absolute chaos that is inside mask shops. The options are endless and of course when what you think is your fated mask turns out to cost 500 euros, perspectives change.