I will try to get everything in, but I will absolutely forget some things, and for that I am sorry.
May 10- We arrived in Venice around 11 am. From the airport we took a water taxi- really 2- to our hotel. Boy am I glad I brought my backpacking backpack- makes for more weight on my shoulders but I dont have to deal with the lifting and lugging of the wheeled bags. Our hotel rooms weren't ready so we were sent out to explore, and explore we did. Venice is expensive, has lots of little alley ways and if you get lost you just turn into a different alley and you will probably find a sign to either Per S. Marco or Per Rialto... and from there you can get where you need to go. The first stop on our expedition was to the atm, everyone needed some euros! We walked across the Rialto bridge and got lunch- I got a Gondola pizza- yep, a pizza shaped like a Gondola and a Sprite. And by then we could check into our rooms. We then set out again and just wandered around with no real destination. We caught sights of several churches and the San Marco square. The class came together again as a whole around 6:30 and our tour guide- Marco, led us around to give us a bit of an orientation. While he was nice, Marco was distracted. He was no older than 30 (probably more like 25) and he was constantly on his phone or talking to Dr. Cochis in Italian. Dinner and then bed, we had been up for almost 24 hours!
May 11- We have free breakfasts at all of our hotels, so that was the first order of business on Wednesday. Then we went to the San Marco Basilica, the Doge Palace, and to a glass factory where we got to see a glass blowing demonstration- the guy made a Pegasus, and we did all that as a class. After that Katrina, Mindy, Dr. Bob and myself went to 6 other museums- all free thanks to our ticket from the Doge Palace. If you think that is a lot, you should have been there. All of the museums are fascinating, I am in awe at least once in pretty much every building I go into, but as I write this - on the 15th- I am getting slightly burned out. Too many museums. I am glad for this morning off, but lets get back to topic. We saw a modern art museum, a natural history museum, a biblioteca, archeology, and the Correr museums. A LOT of museums. But also it was nice to get some of the mix of the new and the old, both. It makes for great comparison, or just something different. Too much of one thing can be exhausting to its nice to mix it up a little bit. Again, we had lunch on the go- it seems to be the way to do things around here. And dinner was with a bigger group- 8 of us went together, but the snack bar that we went to seemed to just heat their food in the microwave- I had lasagna... it was eh.
May 12- On this day we went to Scuola de San Rocco- which was more of a museum, sort of. It had many paintings, covering EVERYTHING, including the ceiling! Thats another thing about Italy, one best be checking out the ceilings to make sure they dont miss something cool! Then we branched off again, and one group went to the Jewish Ghetto and to the museum that is there. That was really cool, I guess I hadnt realized that Jews had been discriminated against in the late 1400's into the 1500's... Silly me! Another quick lunch and then we had to meet the group to catch a Vaporetto (basically water bus) to the Islands of Morano and Burano. At Morano we got to see a glass museum- wow, glass is kind of awesome! And OLD some of the relics were from the 1-3rd century B.C.E.- WOW. We had a little shopping time on Morano and then off to Burano we went, we were having our first meal as a class here- it was ok, not wonderful. And again silly me, I didnt realize that seafood was something that Italians would have a lot of- umm DUH Jessie, they are a peninsula- IN the Mediterranean Sea! I had chicken this night, thank you very much! :) So after dinner we had a nice sunset Vaporetto ride back to the greater Venice islands. And again, I kind of fell into bed... exhausted!
May 13- Our last full day in Venice, we started with a group trip to Accademia museum of Venice as a class- again more old Baroque paintings. If nothing else, my Art History class has given me a better appreciation for art, and while I still kind of run through museums, I appreciate everything much more. And I dont mean that I run through and miss things, I just mean that apparently my art appreciation is faster than everyone elses. I dont like reading all the little signs, I like seeing the pictures, and if I feel like I have to read all the signs I miss out on really looking at the pictures. Maybe its just me, but thats how I see things. I can either look at the pictures and appreciate them, OR I can read all the captions, I do not have the ability to do BOTH! :) Again the groups broke off and did their own things. Lee, Katrina, Mindy and myself broke off and went to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, which has more modern art, which was another great way to compare and contrast the stuff that we saw as a group, you know the older Baroque and sometimes Renaissance paintings. After the Guggenheim, we had a Gondola ride, and though the canals of Venice are stinky the ride was very relaxing. Our driver man told us all about becoming a Gondoleer? Apparently one has to have several years of apprenticeship- and doing the turns takes a great deal of practicing because the turns are different during the different tides or depending on if there was more or less traffic. Gondola drivers have definitely studied and practice an art- one that is not something that may always be talked about. After the Gondola ride it was lunch/shopping time. We decided to get our lunch from the farmer's market that is around apparently every day! We got some lunch things and then since neither Katrina nor I had eaten we were both a little grumpy and when I asked a question she got irritated, which made me irritated, and so we blew up at one another. She went back to the hotel, while Mindy and I were on a mission to find a bread that she had to have. Once we got back to the hotel Katrina and I were fine- little undercurrents still, but mostly fine. Katrina and Mindy went out to dinner at a fancier restaurant, and I ate with some of the people I hadnt eaten with before. It was time for a break I think.
May 14- Today we had to get up early to eat, pack up and catch a water taxi to the bus station to grab our bus to head to Padova and then Florence. Bear in mind this was the first time that we have seen CARS, automobiles since we left the airport in Venice, it was kind of shocking! We caught our bus, said Arrivederchi to Marco and Cio to Katia. And already she is much better. She had a map of Padova to show us everything that we were going to do, and we did a lot in a time period of about 4 hours! It was hot though, very hot. We saw the University of Padova, where Galileo taught for 18 years, the center of the city, which is a nice oval field but the person who made it happened missed Venice so he built a canal going through it. And a nice Chapel, or 2. haha. Lunch was cafeteria style, but fairly good and then it was back to the bus for a 2-3 hour drive to Florence. We drove through, literally through mountains, there were lots of tunnels. But the countryside of italy is beautiful- at least the parts that I saw, I slept and read a lot on the bus! We arrived in Florence around 5:30 or 6 and then met at 6:30. It was during this meeting that we discovered that several Museums had free entry from 7pm-1am. So guess what we did?! We went Museum hopping! And got in at 11:30ish. Most of us went to 2 museums while some of us went to 3. I cant remember the name of the first museum, oh wait it started with a B. But it was nice, there were some carvings in there that were OMG amazing, how could a person be so detailed? Just took our breath away. And then we went to the Accademia, where Michelangelo's Davit is.... WOW is he impressive... just amazing, really no words can express the wow factor. This museum also had a little music museum in it too! And it was funny because I was just thinking about the history of a Piano... I dont know why but I felt like I should know about it and that it was probably fascinating, and low and behold but this museum had one of the first PianoForte's... COOL!!! And then we came back, I got on the FREE WIFI for an hour or so and then bed... glorious bed.
May 15- Hey thats today! Well so far I have gotten up, eaten breakfast and updated this blog. We are meeting as a class at 2:30 and we get to see the Duomo, San Croche and the Baptistry. But for now, its 11:15 and I get some time to relax! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment