Venice and Milan

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Friday (21/11)

Bright and early, my overnight train arrives in Venice a little before 8 am. It really is a spectacular sight. As I wander through the streets of Venice I am perplexed by the lack of cars. There's only people walking in the streets and boats in the many canals, some loading cargo for transport. This is very different from any city I have ever been to before. I make my way through the narrow streets, across many canals and find myself at Accademia Bridge, where I am to meet Nadia, my spanish speaking Couchsurfing (CS) host for that night. Her english is a bit broken but she speaks well enough that I don't have too much trouble figuring out what she is saying. I learn that she is there for six months studying architecture. She leads me back to her house, right along the sea on the south side of the city. We relax for a bit over a cup of tea and some crackers, but then she has to leave for work and so I begin my adventure around Venice.
The Guttenburg art museum just happened to be nearby so I wandered past it. It was too expensive for me to go inside, and sadly there wasn't too much to look on the outside, considering that the entrance is simply a decorated gate in the corner of a narrow passageway. However, I was more excited to see a the museum of Leonardo Da Vinci, which only cost 5 euro and was a bit small, but it had many models of his inventions based on his sketches, which I thought was very neat. They even had a replica of the tank he designed. This take up most of my morning and I was supposed to meet my host Nadia in St. Mark's square in the Center of the city at noon, so I started to make my way over there. Unfortunately, she was stuck at work and wasn't able to meet me, which was fine with me. So I visited St. Mark's Basilica, a beautiful church that was adorned with gold on the inside. Also right near the basilica was the Campanile which I would've liked to have climbed but the price was too steep for me, as was the case for the Doge's Palace that was right nearby along the Grand Canal. And so I set out to find some lunch, trying to find one of the better cheap restaurants in the city, but failing to find one that was open and not too busy so I just settled on a cheap pizza place I found (which I later found out the pizza in Venice is not all that great), where they cut the pizza into tiny squares and gave me two stick to eat it with, rather weird I think.
But after lunch I made a wandered around the rather small city a bit to kill some time before a free walking tour began at 3 that I participated in. It was quite informative, as the tour guide explained how there used to be 7,000 Venetian wells in the city, where they would get there drinking water from, but now only 200 or so are left, and they're all sealed off as I had seen when first walking around. She also explained how 6 months out the year during hide tide, the entire city tends to flood, which the residents simply deal with by putting on long boots. For tourists who come unprepared, there are tables set out in the streets, but they can barely fit two people across them. The businesses there can either let the water in, simply block it out with a metal guard, or pump the water out with a system, but most seem to just block it out with the short metal divider. She then elaborated on the ridiculous structure of the city, as the streets have no sort of organization, and the building numbering isn't in chronological order as they simply numbered them as they were built. Also, that many times the street names are reused in the city and that the past way to ask for directions is by the nearest piazza. She was kind enough to explain the different forms of water transportation, such as the 80 euro gondola ride, the 40 euro water taxi, the 7 euro water bus, or the 2 euro gondola ride that simply takes you across the grand canal, which sounded neat enough for me to want to try it. The tour took us to the old hospital which has a magnificent facade since it was hidden underground and preserved during the world wars. It was very cool because it gave the perception of three dimensions, but unfortunately part of it was destroyed earlier this year by children playing soccer. And inside there was a very cool one room museum that displayed old medical instruments and textbooks. The facade makes the unfinished face of the church next to it look very bleak but it cannot be finished now because it would somehow ruin the integrity of the history of the building. But as we took a break here, I stopped at a gelateria nearby that the guide recommended and I tried the rum raisin and chocolate mousse flavors. The other people on the tour were a bit shocked that I was eating gelato since they thought it was too cold for it. The tour guide then took us to this neat little bookshop that kept its books in boats and bathtubs in order to prevent water damage during high tide. and the books that were ruined by water have been used to make a staircase in the back patio, which was very cool. And the owner is a big fan of cats, so he just lets his hang around the bookshop. Our tour ended with us in St. Mark's square, and she described the clock tower, the basilica and the two large pillars that face the sea, which hold the two patrons of Venice, one being the lion with wings symbolizing St Mark. Apparently it is bad luck to walk in between the two pillars as that is where they executed the prisoners. In fact, they used to tease the prisoners with a chance of "salvation" in which if they could walk around one of the pillars of the Doge's palace without falling off the small stepledge, they would be allowed to live. Of course, the one pillar they had to do it on was built fatter than the others, not leaving enough room physically for the person to stay on the ledge and walk around the pillar. After finishing the tour, I headed to eat dinner at a cinchetteria that the guide had recommended. Cinchetta being small fried finger seafood. It was quite good and cheap, my particular favorite was being the fried mozarella square with salmon in it. Here I ran into three California girls from the free tour, and so I ate with them and then we went to the sweets festival that was happening that night. The tour guide told us how that day it just so happened to be the festival of the Madonna of the Salute. Happening once a year, they build a temporary bridge on barges across the grand canal leading from St. Mark's square to the Church of Madonna of the Salute. Feeling very special, we crossed the bridge and perused through the festival of sweets and treats on the otherside. I ended up trying some candied strawberries, which had a crunchy yet slightly dripping liquid outer coating, and a rum flavored ball of chocolate, both being quite delicious. After this, the girls wanted to go to a bar and I went with, where we only had one drink before calling it a night, because they had to catch an early flight to Paris the next day before heading backing to Bordeux, where they were studying for the semester. I had told them my last name because they wanted to add me on Facebook, and the one girl said that if they didn't add me, then something happened to them on the way back to their hostel that night, which I clearly took for a joke. But they never did get around to adding me, so I am a bit curious if something might have actually happened...





Saturday (22/11)

That morning I woke up a bit earlier than I needed to because I wanted to ride a gondola across the grand canal. Being in Venice, I felt like I had to be on the water at least once. The "traghetto" gondolas, as they're called, are only located in certain spots, so I went to the nearby Church of Madonna of the Salute where one was supposed to be. Unfortunately, they traghetti here weren't being operated at that time. But I figured I could still ride one across the canal right in front of the train station. But sadly, I had no luck there either. I couldn't even find where the gondolas here were supposed to be. When I asked some people where it was, they directed me to another traghetto spot that was farther down the canal than I had time to go to before my train was to leave that morning. So defeated in my attempt to traverse the waters of Venice, I simply bought a kebab from a well rated restaurant for an early lunch (which was rather spicy but very delicious), and then boarded my train for Milan. Halfway during the ride, I had a pretty good view of the some of the mountains of the Alps, which were a bit off in the distance but still cool nonetheless. When I arrived in Milan, I was astounded by the massive central train station, so old and grand. I then made my way down one of the busier shopping streets of the city, noting the stark difference from Venice, where the city was quite small and there were no cars. It was like being dropped into Chicago after having just spent a day on some isolated island. Many cars and even more people all bustling about. I ventured through a quaint park and headed towards the famous duomo. But along the way of this church, I was amazed at the large shopping district right next to the cathedral. All the major clothing brands were very expensive, with I think some of the highest priced clothes I saw were priced in the thousands. for a shirt. Just ridiculous. I was also intrigued by the displays of these stores, with a few having full size cars parked inside the store. But one storefront I walked past had two girls sitting in the glass front modeling off the clothing, which I thought was very peculiar. I reach the large duomo and am astounded at the magnificent size of it. It is supposedly the 4th largest cathedral in the world. And the outside is decorated with over 3,400 detailed statues. I walk through the inside, which was so large, having some huge pillars to hold it up. Definitely a must see church.
After the duomo, my next stop is to see the castle in Milan. It was quite spectacular. I only strolled through the pathway across the inside courtyards, as to be able to actually go inside cost a price for the museums inside. But behind the castle was a large park area, that was very nice, and really gave off that fall feeling. Starting to get a bit late now, I walked for about an hour (huge city) across the city to reach my place of residence for the evening, a small hostel. Luckily, this hostel was right near where I would be having dinner that evening. Unfortunately, no one from couchsurfing was able to host me, but a lady did recommend to me that I attend this Table Babel event. This Table Bable is a similar website, but it is for orchestrating dinners where people can get together to speak in different languages. Usually they're held at restaurants, but the host for this event held the dinner in her apartment. I figured it was a cheap dinner and a good way to practice my Italian. All the other guests were Italian speaking individuals who live in Milan, but most are originally from the Naples area. The host spoke English very well and was very accommodating to my difficulty with Italian, which was to be the language for the evening. It was a great experience for me, with some delicious homemade food. At one point in the evening, the host decided to really include me in the event, by having me ask each of the other guests a question in English that they would have to respond to in English. And then they each asked me a simple question in Italian that I had to answer in Italian. It was difficult but very fun. I'm quite glad I decided to go, since they were all very welcoming and I learned a good deal about their culture, like the fact that I showed up on time, and most of the others didn't show up until an hour and a half later (I forgot that Italians are never punctual). Also, most of them are not big fans of Milan, but since it is the large modern city, it is where all the jobs are, but they would prefer to live in the more relaxed southern cities such as Naples. They also have a positive outlook on America, where they see it as a land of many opportunities that you cannot find anywhere else. But after a long night with these wonderful people, I was quite exhausted and longed for sleep.





Sunday (23/11)

Having such an informative free walking tour in Venice, I thought I should try one here in Milan. Unfortunately, the tour guide never showed up, so I just discovered the city by myself, using some guides off the internet. So I wandered through the Galleria Vittorio Manuele II, the huge famous shopping crossroads that is right near the duomo. It was simply spectacular. My next destination was the monumental cemetery on the outside of the city. This place was huuuuuge, with hundreds of thousands of grave. There are so many large mausoleums, housing entire families. It was just insane how many dead people are there. I spent a good amount of time wandering through this large cemetery.
But then I wandered back toward the center of the city and stumbled upon the Leonardo Museum of Science and Technology. It had peaked my interested and since I had a lot of time left in the day, I decided to check it out. It was a very large museum, that covered many different science topics. I particularly liked the technology and space sections. I saw so many old television sets, ones that were as large as old time radios and looked just like them, but the top opened to reveal a mirror to see the image of the cathode ray tube inside. I also discovered mechanical television there, where the image is recorded by the varying intensity of light through small holes in a spinning disk in front of the light source. This signal is then trimester through radio waves to the receiver television that recreates the image with a similar spinning disk and light source apparatus. It was really neat to see for the first time. The space exploration exhibit right next to it was very cool. They had space suits, pieces of satellites and fragments of asteroids. They even had a small fragment of the moon on display! I was six inches away from the moon! The rest of the museum focused on different materials, manufacturing processes, energy usage and reduction, and the last building of the museum housed a lot of airplanes and water vessels.
After the museum, it was getting to be almost dusk, so I hurried over to the duomo. I wanted to make it to the onto the rooftop terrace to see the sunset. I managed to make it to the top just as the sun was setting. It was such an extraordinary sight. The orange sky behind the spires on the facade of the cathedral, it was so spectacular. I spent a good amount of time just gazing at the skyline of the skyscrapers to the north. It was also very cool to watch the bustling movement of all the people in the square below. I then meandered past all the brilliantly lit store fronts as I slowly made my way towards the train station. One entrance had me particularly intrigued, so I went inside to find a magnificent mall. It was already decorated for Christmas and it was beautiful. All the stores inside were Armani, Gucci, Chanel, and all the other ridiculously expensive brands, but it was nice to see. Strolling through the streets, I also happened to find the Ferrari merchandise store, which was quite awesome. Eventually I made it back to the train station, where I reluctantly boarded my train make to Rome. Even though it was a frecca train (which means fast, I clocked the train going a top speed of 136 mph on my phone), the trip still took quite a while. Having departed Milan at 9 pm, I didn't get back to campus until 1 am, making it a very long weekend.

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