Venice.

Well, I have established a solid group of people to hang out with when I am here.  They are the people that came to Venice with me for the weekend!  We had a blast!  Naturally, I bought my arrival and return ticket for the same day, but the ticket counter was really nice and let me change it.  Also, all of us bought tickets for Venezia Mestre station (on the mainland) instead of Venezia St. Lucia (on the actual island)... where our hotel was... that was potentially bad, but they let us stay on. We changed our returns to St Lucia too!  We decided since we were spending the weekend in Venice that we would buy a water bus ticket for 36hrs, it was only like 14 euros.  Kind of a sweet deal!  You can whip around anywhere you want and they are the fastest way to get around! (The water taxis may be faster, but meh, not worth the bazillion euros.  And gondola rides- like 90euros.  I'll pass, thanks! 

So we ended up staying at this little hotel for $190USD for all 5 of us which was AWESOME.  And it was not too far, so we hauled our luggage to Hotel Pantelon to discover that it was a "hub" and had "suites" in a different part of the city- a 10 min walk- with our luggage.  Ahhhh.  It ended up being a super convenient location, though for getting places. After our "I DID turn the key to the right- oh" fiasco, (we were locked out for a short period of time.  oh, us...) we dropped off our luggage and walked around the corner to this place called Ostero Da Toni to eat lunch.  The pigeons in Italy are not afraid to get close and at one point our table experienced a live mating show.  Interesting.  I had some fried calamari which was simple and awesome.  The pizza had artichoke on it, and it was great.  The thing about the pizza here- it just comes unsliced.  In case you didn't know, that is a fun fact.  I don't even finish my pizza half the time because A.) its HUGE and B.) I have to work so hard to slice it lol.



As you walk through the streets (well... there are no streets.  More like sidewalks lining the canals), you will notice a bit of a smell, kinda sewage-y.  It isn't horrible (like not enough to ruin your outside meal) but it is heightened when you get a gust of wind to float it by your nose!  Graffiti is huge here!  It looks like NY on the metros, I see it everywhere and it is the SAME everywhere.  I think there is a secret underground school that graffiti artists attend to make universal bubble-letters around the world...In this photo, you can see that someone graffiti'd "Metallica" on the wall.  I just took a pic of it because it was Saturday, and that is the day that Metallica was playing in Detroit.  It was kind of a little reminder that even though I was in Venice, a little piece of me is in Detroit rocking out!

A lot of the places don't have places where you can just walk right up to the front- they have piers.  It makes it difficult to walk around, because you can dead-end at water with no way to cross... so you have to go back.  You get the hang of it quickly, though.  And the bridges are not flat like ours, they have stairs on them!  Like it is just a staircase in the shape of a bridge.  I don't know why they are like that.  On the upside, you get an amazing workout! 


After lunch, we headed to Piazza San Marco and the Rialto bridge.  The piazza must've been crowded earlier, but it was kind of dead at the time we got there.  Near the Rialto bridge, there is a ton of shopping.  It was hard to find the shopping first, and they don't have the seating around the city the way that Rome does.  Anyway, I went to a mask shop and bought a handmade Venetian mask!  It was this one guy who makes them and I like his style because they were a little bit creepier than the others- demonic, almost. I wanted one of those, but I thought I would frighten guests, so I got a pretty one... (that I put on at dinner that night and scared Julie!  haha)

Since we only had one night in town and it was a day off, we decided to head to Lido to go to the beach! We didn't get our suits or anything, but it was just nice to be somewhere calm and relaxed.  Taking an intensive course in 1.5 weeks is ROUGH, so we all needed a break!  They went down to the beach and I naturally got some iced vodka drink and made some friends at the bar.  They asked where I was from and I said "Washington D.C." and then said, "Washington D.C., NY?" haha no no.  I can't really laugh, I don't know anything
                                         about geography.  Still funny though.

We hung out at the beach for a bit and went to get our reservation at this restaurant. Villa Laguna.  It looks really nice.  The sun was going down and the sky was so pretty.  That is just a normal shot on my iPhone, no filter.

The appetizer they gave us was free, which was nice, and it looked like tuna (tuna is in/on EVERYTHING here,  I swear lol.  even pizza).  I knew that if I came to Venice, I'd need to eat some squid ink pasta or nere for black (thanks, Matt, best idea ever!) It probably doesn't taste any different than regular pasta, but that lobster sauce (which is just bits of lobster on top with some sort of green liquid) and the pasta made this the best meal I ever had.  

Only to top it all off with a tiramisu.  SU roommates, I really wanted to get creme brulee, but it was not an option :) but look at how pretty. 

Notice the bike- parking lot.  Apparently everyone there bikes.  I even saw a middle aged woman coming out of a mansion-like place in heels hopping on her bike!  Guess it is really convenient there!   I can't remember what we did after that...o yes!  We saw a "locks of love" bridge and I thought it was pretty cool!  Reminded me of Kardashians in  Paris, haha!  I wanted to put a lock on it, but decided that it's not cool to do by yourself!  It was getting close to midnight and we wanted a fresh start in the morning, so we walked back to our room to sleep.  It was so cute!  It had like marble floors and a shub (shower/tub) and a kitchenette!  I would totally stay there again if I visited. The town is so beautiful at night!  I have always dreamed of seeing Venice at night and it was all I ever dreamed. I could definitely live up here...

The next day, I really wanted to go to Punta Della Dogana, this museum there that is supposed to be awesome and creepy (so my style) but I was convinced to go to Murano instead to see the glass-making for which Murano is so well known.  So, on the way, I got a picture of it, and I also got a picture of a pirate ship!  I bet there were real pirates on it...
That picture with the reddish brick buildings is what they call a Furnace "Fornace", which where people make glass.  What kind of glass, you ask?  The prettiest glass you will ever see.  Check out these chandeliers below!




Hey Mandy and Julie :) We got to the shop and the first shop we went into informed us that since it was Sunday, a lot of the people are not working in the fornace today and that it was perfectly fine for us to still spend our money... haha.
We entered a second store, and to our surprise and excitement, there was an expert there who made glass!  Also, he was about to do a demonstration and we were welcome to join for only 5 euros (I don't like to do the conversion because AH I would hate to know how much USDs' I'm really spending!). 

 So the process starts out with this grain and then gets heated up to 1,500 degrees!  See it on the end of that stick?  Then, the expert just sits down in a stool to pull and twist the malleable glass into positions and then puts in back in the fire from time to time to get it to be malleable again.  He made 2 things- a vase and a horse. After the vase was completed, he demonstrated how hot it was by putting in a piece of newspaper and instantly the newspaper went up in flames and in a second, all that remained was smoke.

 Here is a picture of this expert holding this horse by the tongs.  He made this horse in about one minute!  He just heated up the glass, was pulling it into shape with the tongs, and then it was done.  it can stand and everything!  I got a picture of the vase as it was bursting because it was too hot.  If that happens with more expensive materials, it could become pricey!

After that, we went around and took more pictures.  I bought this BEAUTIFUL Murano glass necklace.  I was just walking by and it called to me.  So I answered.  With money. 

All in all, it was a fun trip and we had a ton of good food- yes I could live there! Or maybe in that Lido suburb-like area.  They actually have some roads and cars there. It is a mystery how they leave though, it must cost a fortune to own one!  Below: a pic of me and Mandy enjoying the nice water bus ride back from Murano!  We looked so nautical- I will rock my Venice sailor hat every day! 

Just When You Think You've Seen It All

Friday was another day filled with Rome-ness.  We didn't have class until the evening and we had a tour at the Vatican/Basillica set up for the morning.  Our tour guide was amazing, his name was Rick.  I loved how he was so passionate about the history of everything in the Vatican.  A lot of people were complaining that he was going too fast, but if you were listening attentively (as psychologists are supposed to do...) then you would have caught the main points at least. 

 

One of the first things we see as we entered the Vatican area is this deer (what a lot of people are calling Harry Potter's Patronus).  I just thought that was funny, so I put it in here :)

 The artwork in here is amazing.  I guess the artists are just discovering how to portray depth based on perception.  The amount of studying and understanding how the mind works is phenoms.  I love how the intricacies of the human body are explored and exaggerated, as if to say they are usually overlooked.

The ceilings in the photos here are painted to look 3D like they have been sculpted out of the building's ceiling, but in fact, it is flat.  Unbelievable.  I thought our tour guide was pulling our legs!

I just tried to get a picture of some stuff with people in it so you can see how HUGE these paintings are.  The rooms in this place have walls that are COVERED with beautiful paintings done by the most influential artists. 

After all of the art and talking, you head into the Sistine Chapel.  It is also sacred and there is no talking and no picture taking, but of course, people are going to be disrespectful and do both of those things.  I chose the high road and did not do either of them, so you don't get to see any pictures of it.  It isn't like I was going to get any that were better than the pictures on the internet, right?  It is very neat how it is all laid out.  As you enter, the story of Moses is on the right wall and Jesus on the left.  All around the upper ceilings above that are the statues of biblical figures, (Joseph, Job, etc.) and then finally above that is the great ceiling of the creation of man (with the finger touching, the creation of woman, the tree of good/evil, etc.  The ceiling is full of nudes, again embracing the beauty of God's creation.  I don't think that anyone quite grasped the intricacies of the human form quite like Michaelangelo.  To complete all of the frescoes in there, it took about 4 years.  4 years!

After that amazingness was captured into my memory, a few of us, instead of going back to the convent (we're in ROME!)  wanted to go into the Basillica and into the dome!  We took the elevator and still had to walk up a lot of steps to get to the very top. Here is what we could see before entering the dome, after the elevator ride, including the view down below.  It already looked amazing, so we were super excited to see what was up even higher!

After we entered and before we went up, we decided to look down into the area from the beginning (brim) of the dome.  Not the place to be if you are afraid of heights!


After that, the hike to the top was on!  I guess it makes sense for the walls of the stairwells to curve in, as the dome curves in.  It was just trippy to see!

 At one point, we even had to use a rope to steady ourselves as we got closer and closer to the top!  Liz is the demonstrator haha.

 

The view.  Oh my, the view.  

You can practically see the entire city of Rome.  :)

 We stayed up there for a while trying to get pictures. I think this is the point where I was frustrated with taking pictures to the point that I didn't want to take anymore!  Things are just so much better in person and pictures, although they do an okay job, just don't get the point across!

Over to the right, Liz once again displaying the tightness of one of the spiraling staircases!  I think it is super hard to be out of shape in these cities, btw.  The amount of walking would make any person like a supermodel, even with the amaaazing food!

When we got back down from the top, we stopped outside before heading to the elevator and saw all of these statues of biblical figures lining the top of the facade (and along the edge of the building).  Jesus is up there too, cross in hand.  Hey Jesus :)








Inside the building, it was way huger that I thought!  I felt like my feet were going to just die there on the spot and leave my body to find another way of transportation, but my eyes convinced them that they were able to hang on for a little while longer, because it was amazing inside here!  It is told and accepted that Peter's bones are buried beneath the building in this spot.  This place is his tomb and the dome above it is spectacular.  There is a statue on the right (you can see this gold awning on the right side of the photo here >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>





and that is where the sculpture of Peter is.  People were forming a line to touch the foot of Peter for good luck and blessings.  Here is a closer view of it. Note woman touching foot.  I did it too... why not?
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It was getting close to class time (which some people in class non-verbally refer to as "nap-time") so we had to go.  I am glad I didn't get that extra couple of hours of rest- I can rest when I get home!  I am in ROME!