A Stranger in Paradise… Me in Venice that is!

Hello Folks,

It is true, I have found paradise. I have officially fallen in love with the city of Venice. Not to be confused, West Virginia will always be the place where my heart feels home, but if I am at home in WV, Venice can be my heart’s vacation spot. From the second we stepped off the train I was absolutely taken by the city. Words (and pictures) simply cannot describe the beauty of this place. I think what I loved most though was not the beauty, but the sense of peace that the water provided. Vienna is beautiful, but it definitely feels like a city with loud noises and all the hustle and bustle. But Venice is quiet and calm. It was just the get away that I needed in the middle of a busy semester.

Danielle, Brian and I left Vienna around 9 pm on Wednesday night after a successful few days of mid-term exams. It turns out that half of our program was also going to Venice because of the cheep deal. (Only 38 euro round trip) The ride was uneventful and we all slept well. We arrived in Venice around 8 30 am Thursday morning ready to take on the day. After a short ride on the water bus, we found our hostel which was very cute. The room wasn’t huge but we had our own bathroom and it was the perfect size for the 3 of us. They brought us breakfast each morning too, which was awesome.

After dropping off our stuff, we were pretty hungry and went to a nearby restaurant to get our first Italian pizzas. The weather was nice enough that we could sit outside. While eating, we saw Kerry and Nisha, two of our friends from IES who were actually staying in our same hostel and we met up with them again later. Then… we explored. So the way the island is set up: there is the grand canal that runs through the middle, and 300 or so smaller canals that branch off of that and the rest of the streets are ally ways, some narrower than others. First, we just explored the area around our hostel, which was filled with shops and souvenir vendors.

Then we made our way to St. Marks Square, which is pretty much the center of the city. We went into the cathedral, which was So Cool! For the non-musicians, St. Marks Cathedral is where any number of major composers held the position of Maestro di Capella, including Monteverdi. This church was the center of Renaissance and early Baroque music much the way that New York is the center of Broadway music today. We talked about St. Marks a lot in my music history class and I have sung a good deal of Monteverdi in choirs at UNH so it was pretty cool to know that I was standing in the presence of greatness.

And then… we got Gelato (or Gelati in Italy) = Heaven! You all know my allegiance to Kimball Farm Ice Cream in Carlisle, MA, but Kimball’s still doesn’t come close.  Simply put, Gelati is pure joy on a cone.

Finally, we met up with Kerry and Nisha and went out for dinner where I got pasta and we had a quirky waiter. That night we were all exhausted from the trip and it was raining so we crashed early.

Friday was exciting. First we took a short trip to the island of Murano. Still a part of Venice, it is known for its glass blowing. In fact… that is the only thing that happens on this island. After getting off the waterbus, we saw a demonstration for 2 euro that was very cool. It is crazy the way that they can just whip shapes out of half melted glass in the end of a stick. Then we walked around the shops and looked at all the pretty things that we can’t afford.

On the way back to the main island, the waterbus made a stop at a curious looking island and I asked if we could get off and see what it was. It turns out that this island was called Cemetiri and you guessed it, it is the Cemetery Island for the city of Venice. I know, it sounds like it would be morbid, but it wasn’t at all. Actually, it was beautiful and one of my favorite parts of the trip. Brian was joking around asking if I had picked out my plot yet, because I told them that that is where I want to be buried. In all seriousness though, I’ve decided that this island is what death should look like. All of the gravestones were close together, as a community and every single one had fresh, bright, colorful flowers. The sun was shining that day and it just felt like such a happy place, not dark and dreary at all. I probably could have stayed there all day walking around, but I didn’t get the same sense from everybody else so we headed back to the main island.

When we got back we got some lunch and began shopping. I got myself a couple of shirts, and a painting from a local vendor of a canal.  Oh! And then we went on a Gondola ride! (I almost forgot) For about 16 euro each, we got a half hour ride down the Grand Canal and through some other smaller canals. On the ride our gondola-man pointed out some important palaces and… Vivaldi’s house! We realized that we were being super touristy by going on a ride, but it was totally worth it.

After eating dinner, we went back to our rooms to chill for a bit before trying to go out and do something fun that night. We came to learn that there is no such thing as nightlife in Venice. We eventually found an Irish pub… that closed at 12:30. Well… we tried.

By Saturday, we had pretty much run out of things to do.  There were certainly museums that we could have checked out but didn’t totally feel like trying to find them so we just kind of wandered for a while. That is easy to do in Venice; the cool part is… you always end up at St. Marks. One of the things that Danielle’s guidebook recommended was to take one of the waterbuses all the way up and down the Grand Canal, which we did. Several of us fell asleep on the ride but it was beautiful. At the end of the line we got off on Lido (like the pizza place in Westminster!) one of the other islands that some of our friends were staying on. We walked around there a bit and found a beach! That was exciting. Then we headed back to the train station, got dinner, and got on the train to go home.

3 days was the perfect amount of time to be there. We had enough time to see what we wanted to without feeling like we were cramming it in or getting bored. It was all nice and relaxed with no complaints whatsoever.

I still can’t quite get over it all. I will probably rave about this trip for months.  The best part is that I woke up this morning (Monday) feeling totally refreshed and ready to take on the rest of the semester.  Hopefully that will last, haha. My roommate from home, Bridget, is studying abroad in France this semester and coming to visit me this weekend. We are both really excited for it. Then, 4 days after she leaves, my parents get here to spend spring break with me. So there are lots of exciting things coming up. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing about it. I’ll be sure to post again soon.

Love,

Caitlin