I just returned to Madrid today from a journey through Italy. I went straight to Venice from Brussels, and one of my best friends from home, Raquel, met me the next day. She'll be studying in South Africa next semester and decided to travel in Italy for the week before her semester starts. I spent three days in Venice (Raquel two), took the train to Florence where we were for two days, then continued to Rome to spend the last two days. Arriving in Venice was confusing. I flew on RyanAir from Brussels, and it's always a gamble with that airline, as I wrote in the previous post. The RyanAir flight to Venice actually landed in Treviso, a city 45 minutes away from Venice. I found a 5 euro bus outside the airport into the actual city of Venice. Although I had seen pictures, when I finally arrived at the island I couldn't believe what I was surrounded by. The weather wasn't perfect, but it didn't matter to me. Getting off the bus from the airport I was plopped in the middle of such a wondeful place, almost impossible to describe with words! The canals combined with the old, pastel colored buildings and a certain Italian flair in the air painted this city the most beautiful place I have ever been.
Finding my hostel was a different, more pressing task in Venice than it had been in other places. I was unable to just wander the streets and ask people for directions, knowing in the back of my mind I could take a taxi if I got lost...it was raining, there aren't streets to wander, nor are there taxis! To get from one place to another the most common mode of transportation is the waterbus. This is a medium sized boat that travels along the grand canal, winding in an S-shape around and through the city. There are multiple "lines" of the waterbus going different directions. To make a long story short, I found my hostel. It was called Sweet Dreams, and was very close to the Rialto Bridge in the San Polo/San Marco area of Venice. I was greeted warmly by the Chinese woman who is the only staff member at the hostel, just like I ended up being the only guest staying at the hostel that night! She and I became friends, and she told me that it is very unusual to have so few people staying with them, and guessed that it's a quiet period because it's right after such a popular time to travel (xmas and new years). Very tired from the previous days and that early morning of travel, I spent most of the day resting in the hostel and planning the next few days. Went to dinner by myself along the canal...a little bit lonely, but had excellent fettuccini alfredo.
The next day, Thursday the 7th, Raquel arrived! To pick up Raquel at the airport, I needed to take a short bus ride from the Island. Instead of taking a waterbus to the bus station, I decided to leave early and wander, walking, to the bus station. There are scattered signs throughout the city pointing pedestrians towards Piazzole Roma, the train station next to the bus station, so I tried to follow those. It happened to be bright and sunny that morning, so that hour long walk was my favorite part of my trip to Venice. Wandering through the narrow alleyways and discovering tiny bridges over even tinier canals threaded through beautiful architecture was such an adventure. A warm jacket, comfy shoes, not knowing where I was going without needing to care about time nor anything was the best feeling. And I was finally going to pick up my travel companion! It was so nice to be with Raquel. We found an awesome store where a woman and her daughters make beautiful leather-bound journals. I bought a dark brown one, and can't wait to start writing in it as soon as I finish writing in my current one. Raquel and I had a good Venetian dinner in a small restaurant in San Marco, and then walking back to the hostel we found a Vivaldi concert!! This was soooo cool. A chamber group--four violinists, a violist, cellist, bassist, and organist played 3 Vivaldi pieces, one Correlli piece, and one something else. Held in the St Vidal Church near the Academia Bridge, the acoustics were awesome and it was such a cool experience. (Vivaldi was from Venice, and wrote most of his pieces, including the four seasons, about Venice itself!)
Even though it rained the entire next day, Raquel and I had a productive day. First, we went and explored the Jewish Ghetto. There's a cool Jewish museum there, and we went on a tour of their three synagogues. The Jewish ghetto in Venice was the first in the world, and the word ghetto came from the Italian word geto which actually menas foundry. It was great to see m'zuzot and Hebrew letters everywhere. Also, the lady pointed out that when looking at the synagogue from the street one can see five windows lined up, symbolizing the five books of the Torah. Besides for these windows, it is impossible to tell from the outside that these synagogues are what they are. The first of the three synagogues we saw was the oldest and it was just a small room, but very decorated with a pretty ark. The floor was sort of lopsided, and the lady said they had to build it so it would be balanced because the city is sinking. The second two synagogues actually reminded me of Catholic churches--the architecture was similar, and the bimah was elevated like the place where a priest stands in a church. Jews couldn't be architects when these synagogues were built, so they were actually designed and built by Christians, who didn't know any better than to build them like their own churches. After the tour, we ate at a Kosher restaurant called Gam Gam. Expensive, but awesome shnitzel and matza ball soup! Later, Raquel and I went all the way to the Peggy Guggenheim museum. It was cool--I enjoyed the art by Picasso, Dalí, and Jackson Pollack. Also had an interesting statue of a boy with a huge erection riding some sort of a hippopotamus--we learned that his penis is removable in case she hosts more prudish guests!
Finding my hostel was a different, more pressing task in Venice than it had been in other places. I was unable to just wander the streets and ask people for directions, knowing in the back of my mind I could take a taxi if I got lost...it was raining, there aren't streets to wander, nor are there taxis! To get from one place to another the most common mode of transportation is the waterbus. This is a medium sized boat that travels along the grand canal, winding in an S-shape around and through the city. There are multiple "lines" of the waterbus going different directions. To make a long story short, I found my hostel. It was called Sweet Dreams, and was very close to the Rialto Bridge in the San Polo/San Marco area of Venice. I was greeted warmly by the Chinese woman who is the only staff member at the hostel, just like I ended up being the only guest staying at the hostel that night! She and I became friends, and she told me that it is very unusual to have so few people staying with them, and guessed that it's a quiet period because it's right after such a popular time to travel (xmas and new years). Very tired from the previous days and that early morning of travel, I spent most of the day resting in the hostel and planning the next few days. Went to dinner by myself along the canal...a little bit lonely, but had excellent fettuccini alfredo.
The next day, Thursday the 7th, Raquel arrived! To pick up Raquel at the airport, I needed to take a short bus ride from the Island. Instead of taking a waterbus to the bus station, I decided to leave early and wander, walking, to the bus station. There are scattered signs throughout the city pointing pedestrians towards Piazzole Roma, the train station next to the bus station, so I tried to follow those. It happened to be bright and sunny that morning, so that hour long walk was my favorite part of my trip to Venice. Wandering through the narrow alleyways and discovering tiny bridges over even tinier canals threaded through beautiful architecture was such an adventure. A warm jacket, comfy shoes, not knowing where I was going without needing to care about time nor anything was the best feeling. And I was finally going to pick up my travel companion! It was so nice to be with Raquel. We found an awesome store where a woman and her daughters make beautiful leather-bound journals. I bought a dark brown one, and can't wait to start writing in it as soon as I finish writing in my current one. Raquel and I had a good Venetian dinner in a small restaurant in San Marco, and then walking back to the hostel we found a Vivaldi concert!! This was soooo cool. A chamber group--four violinists, a violist, cellist, bassist, and organist played 3 Vivaldi pieces, one Correlli piece, and one something else. Held in the St Vidal Church near the Academia Bridge, the acoustics were awesome and it was such a cool experience. (Vivaldi was from Venice, and wrote most of his pieces, including the four seasons, about Venice itself!)
Even though it rained the entire next day, Raquel and I had a productive day. First, we went and explored the Jewish Ghetto. There's a cool Jewish museum there, and we went on a tour of their three synagogues. The Jewish ghetto in Venice was the first in the world, and the word ghetto came from the Italian word geto which actually menas foundry. It was great to see m'zuzot and Hebrew letters everywhere. Also, the lady pointed out that when looking at the synagogue from the street one can see five windows lined up, symbolizing the five books of the Torah. Besides for these windows, it is impossible to tell from the outside that these synagogues are what they are. The first of the three synagogues we saw was the oldest and it was just a small room, but very decorated with a pretty ark. The floor was sort of lopsided, and the lady said they had to build it so it would be balanced because the city is sinking. The second two synagogues actually reminded me of Catholic churches--the architecture was similar, and the bimah was elevated like the place where a priest stands in a church. Jews couldn't be architects when these synagogues were built, so they were actually designed and built by Christians, who didn't know any better than to build them like their own churches. After the tour, we ate at a Kosher restaurant called Gam Gam. Expensive, but awesome shnitzel and matza ball soup! Later, Raquel and I went all the way to the Peggy Guggenheim museum. It was cool--I enjoyed the art by Picasso, Dalí, and Jackson Pollack. Also had an interesting statue of a boy with a huge erection riding some sort of a hippopotamus--we learned that his penis is removable in case she hosts more prudish guests!
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