Carnival of Venice

Sorry it's taken so long for a update. I'll be honest, I just really haven't felt like writing lately - but here we go! This should be a nice long update...

I know that I mentioned the Chocolate Festival this weekend in the Piazza Santa Croce. I don't think that I've ever seen so much chocolate in one place at one time. It was like chocolate as a work of art. There where more chocolate animals than I could count, "rusty" chocolate hand tools, nails, horseshoes, etc..., chocolate covered fruit, hot chocolate.....the list goes on and on! I did have some hot chocolate, "cioccolato calda", which here is basically melted chocolate mixed with cream - so rich, but so delicious!

I went to Venice this weekend for the Carnival with the other girls from St. Norbert (Sarah, Beth, and Caressa) and Caressa's roommate Abbey. What an amazing weekend! We took the train out of Florence, which passed through many tunnels. I later realized that the tunnels were actually going straight through the mountains. There was snow everywhere! This may sound crazy, but seeing the snow made me both homesick, and more glad that I was in Italy at the same time. Talk about mixed emotions, all from a little snow!

We arrived in Venice at about 4:30 on Friday, and took the water bus to the stop by our amazing apartment. Venice is a city with no roadways, all transportation is via a series of water canals and boats, including buses, taxis, police, and deliveries (FedEx!). All of the "roads" are actually just walkways. This was a love/hate relationship with me - I will walk just about anywhere within reach, but I'm not really fond of boats. It ended up being really fun though. That night, we went to a market, and made a nice dinner in our apartment, before walking around the city at night in the rain, and doing some mask shopping.

Saturday was nicer, weather-wise (overcast, but no rain!). We walked across the famous Rialto Bridge and to the market (complete with many dead fish - yuck! - we were right on the Adriatic Sea), and then around the rest of Venice, taking time to stop in many of the fun shops with clothes, boots, Murano glass, and the famous Venice masks. We ended up in Piazza San Marco, were the stage for the festivities was slowly being uncovered. The piazza is named after St. Mark's Basilica, which is an amazing building. It is really interesting, because over a period of centuries, elements kept being added on, creating this crazy, colorful, yet really interesting compilation of styles of art. I think that it is one of the most beautiful buildings that I have ever seen! St. Mark's is famous for it's golden mosaics, a few of which we saw when we walked through the entrance of the basilica. We also saw Doge's Palace, the Campanile (belltower), and the clocktower (with the world first "digital clock"). We then got back on the water bus, and just spent some time riding down the Grand Canal and taking photos on our way to Giudecca, a large island just off of the historical center. We were actually looking for the "Art and Chocolate" exhibit that we saw advertised, but it ended up not being open while we were there. After returning to the main island, we walked back past the Bridge of Sighs, and into the heart of the carnival. There were a bunch of people gathering at the main stage, so we decided to stay and see what was going to happen. Some man came out and announced that weather permitting, the performance (a play of Arlecchino Servitore Di Due Padroni) would be taking place in a half an hour, weather permitting, but first, some workers from the recently closed steel factory would be performing their own interpretation of "Full Monty". Sure enough, three men get up on stage, start dancing, and stripping down to their underwear - that was pretty much the last thing we expected to see, but it was really funny! Anyway, we stayed for the beginning of the performance, and then headed back to the apartment for the night.

Sunday was absolutely beautiful! Sunny and warm. After checking out of the apartment, we walked around some more and did some shopping. We went back to the piazza to watch the Flight of the Angel - a tradition where a woman "flies" down from the bell tower to the piazza.

I don't know if I was just tired from the weekend or what, but yesterday was really the first crummy day I've had since I arrived in Italy. I started to get really homesick - I was tired of the crowded streets, pollution, not being able to communicate, etc... I couldn't find what I wanted at the market, got really lost trying to buy some schoolbooks, missed my class because of a broken apartment door latch - anyway, I did get through it and today has been much better! My Renaissance Art in Florence class took place at the Cathedral and Baptistery, and inside the Museo dell'Opera (the Cathedral/Duomo Museum). It was so amazing to be standing in front of the pieces that we were discussing, rather than just looking at slides (although it was hard to take notes!).


***I updated my photo page! http://www.flickr.com/photos/mia065/