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Published: October 10th 2009
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The first week in Venice has been such a whirlwind!! Even though I’m in one of the most beautiful cities in the world on what would seem to be a 3 month long vacation, I’ve felt like I haven’t had a spare minute this entire week! With classes, readings and class tours of the city, I haven’t had much time to explore the city for myself. However, this weekend Elyse and I have been taking it easy, catching up on homework (this is definitely not a slack off study abroad program!) and “attempting” (this being the key word) to explore the city for ourselves. While out and about trying to complete our weekend assignment, which included finding a campo, or city square, and taking pictures/writing of the various architectural features present in the square, we got lost numerous times and couldn’t figure out for the life of us how to get out of the eastern part of the city. We kept ending up in the same place no matter which street we went down or which bridge we crossed. That’s Venice for you- an unpredictable maze! However, we were pretty excited we got to work our sweet rain trenches and rain
boots for the first time in this rainy city. So, let’s play catch up of the past few days:
On Wednesday night, our class was invited over to our professor's apartment (which, may I add, has an amazing balcony overlooking a canal) for dinner and a hearty Venice welcome. We started out the night with a scavenger hunt in which we had 30 minutes and a partner to run around Venice, only speaking Italian, and buy ingredients for the meal. Lizzie and I were assigned bread, so with our American accents we spouted out some broken Italian soccer moms who gave us directions to the bread shop. Afterwards, we had some delicious gnocchi (with pumpkin!) and polenta then the best part of the night: A nighttime gondola ride!!! It was AMAZING! The canals were dimly lit and the city was quiet. We rode around for 30 minutes exploring the twists and turns of the canals....it was one of the coolest experiences of my life! (Check out the video at
)
On Thursday, we ended class at noon and then headed off to Lido, a Venetian lagoon island with a sandy beach. Lido is the only place in Venice
with cars……we nearly got killed trying to cross the street! We had gotten a little too used to not having to deal with anything other than pedestrian traffic. We enjoyed the beach and then headed off to buy some wine for the evening. The local wine shops will fill up your own liter bottles that you bring in for only 1.70-2 euros. We got this delicious wine (best wine ever!) and ended up finishing off the liter while water for the water bus to pick us up (let me add that there were 5 of us, it wasn’t just Elyse and I!) Europe has really made me more obsessed with wine; it is so good over here and everywhere you go it’s the cheapest thing you can get. Hey, it’s even in juice boxes in our food court (as my last blog demonstrated!).
So, to end this blog, I’ll wrap up with my newest observations of the city:
1) Tourists are SLOW. SOOOO SLOW. All I’m trying to do is rush to class and people keep stopping in front of me and taking pictures (and if you’ve been to Venice, most of the streets are basically small alleys where
if you stop, you hold up the entire flow of people.) I have a new respect for Venetians who have to deal with this on a daily basis!
2) Italians are usually late, and they don’t consider being late actually being late. It’s so weird after living somewhere where being late is frowned upon. But for those who know me, I’m always late, so I guess I belong in Italy! 😊
3) I wish we had water buses in Indiana. Actually I just wish we had more water in Indiana. I just love being constantly by the water all the time!
4) The canals in Venice do kind of smell, but you get used to it. It’s a small price to pay for the beauty of the city.
5) Once again, gelato is delicious!
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Mom
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great gondola video
I just watched your gondola video on you tube. (It already had 7 views!) I'm impressed, Steph! I didn't know that you knew how to post on you tube. I loved watching the video. The stillness and the slight echo of your voices were so peaceful. I really got a kick out of Lorenzo. He is such a curious little chatterbox!! The man who waved at you looked very authentic. The beginning reminded me of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney World. I kept expecting to hear a sea chantey! Love, Mom