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Published: February 12th 2008
I am happy to report that I made it back in one piece from our first "backpacking" adventure. Everything actually work out pretty well, we found our trains and managed not to get too lost in Venezia.
We caught the train early Saturday morning from the chaos that was the train station in Firenze. There were crazy people running around all over the place. The train was so cool though, we had our own compartment, just like Harry Potter. I pretending I was on the Hogwarts Express and was disappointed when the snack lady didn't come by. We got into Venice around 12:30 and quickly got on a Vaporetto (water bus) to take us down the Grand Canal. It was a great way to see the entire city right away. We got off at San Marco, the architecture is so different from Florence. Much more Byzantine and, well Venetian. We walked around the Piazza, it was so gorgeous. We were lucky because we had such great weather the entire weekend, perfect blue skies.
I was shocked, and I little grossed out, to see people all over the Piazza feeding the flying rats of Venice (aka pigeons). They were flying
all over the place and people were just holding them in their hands. I was convinced I was going to be pooped on and although my roommate Alex said it was good luck, I didn't feel like I want that kind of luck.
On Saturday we explored San Marco, the Palazzo Ducale, and the Museums around the Piazza. It was amazing to see the different types of art and architecture. In the Palazzo Ducale (Palace of the Dukes) we saw their highly ornate bedrooms and huge state rooms where important people from all over Italy used to meet. The prisons were housed in the same building and we got a chance to go into one of the cells. After finishing at the museums we grabbed a caffe latte and ventured out into the maze of alleys and canals. Our hostel was in the Jewish Ghetto of Venice, which actually is nothing like the meaning of "ghetto" now. It is actually the oldest ghetto in Europe, where the Venetian government forced the Jews to live, within in walls and heavily guarded. When we finally found our hostel, I was surprised by how nice it was. It is run by students
at the Catholic University that sits there. We had our own room and bathroom and everything.
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Early Sunday morning we left the hostel and grabbed some breakfast at a local bakery, cronettes (croissants) and caffe. We found a little stone sitting area right next to the Grand Canal and ate quickly, the flying rats can sense food from miles away and the place was soon swarming with them. We headed down the river to the Rialto Bridge and walked around the market for awhile. We met up with a few girls we knew from school and had lunch at a little pizzeria off the beaten path. Once out on the streets again we decided to make our way up to the train station, allowing time to get lost in dead end alleys along the way. The train trip home went smoothly, other than a very loud, old, Italian man who thought he need to shout in order to be heard on his cell phone. (My mom can attest to this, since I was talking to her right we he started shouting, forcing me to end the call early. ha ha)
It is nice to be back in Florence,
though on to another week of school. I am already looking forward to my cooking class Wednesday!
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T Boone
Taylor Symons
Flying rats...
I literally laughed out loud in the FH Ed. Wing when I read that. I'm so glad you're having fun and that Italy has just made your sense of humor even better! :) PS- Way to get a DS picture by yourself with a lion in Italy... classic.