MONDAY, June 1
We left for Venice on Monday morning at 7:40 AM and arrived around 12 PM. After the group found the hotel and dropped our luggage off, we split off into groups. My group immediately inhaled sandwiches from a cafe and made our way to Piazza di San Marco, which is the main attraction in Venice.
Our first stop at the Piazza was the Basilica di San Marco, which is the most beautiful church I have ever seen. It was HUGE and the interior was just as beautiful as the exterior. Mosaics covered gigantic ceilings and it was amazing. We even got to see the beginnings of a wedding take place as we left! After visiting the Basilica we rode an elevator to the top of the Campanile di San Marco, which is the bell tower in the middle of the piazza. We were able to see the entire city from the top of the tower and it was amazing. I couldn't stop taking pictures! We also stayed up long enough to hear the giant bells ring, which was awesome, but also made us deaf for a few minutes after we got down.
After visiting the Piazza we headed to the Rialto Bridge, which goes right over Canal Grande in the middle of Venice. We shopped for a bit, took lots of pictures by the bridge, and took in the scenery, which was (as always in Italy) beautiful. We ended up going to visit another church after we left the bridge and we also met up with Matteo, Natalie, and Marianna from the trip. One group of six girls (myself included) really wanted to do a gondola ride (we were in Venice afterall), but the others wanted to try and find a local gondola place that only charged €1 for a ride. I was hesitant and unsure if it would work out, so I ended up going with the other five girls in search of a gondolier who was willing to negotiate his prices for a gondola ride. After a short search we found Christian, a gondolier who let us ride for €12 each, which was a ridiculously good deal considering he started out saying it would be €25 a person.
The gondola ride was absolutely amazing and probably one of the coolest things I've ever done. Christian was a great gondolier, mainly because he was born and raised in Venice and able to tell us all about the history of the city as we floated along the canals. The other five girls on the gondola with me (Jessica, Elizabeth, Natalie, Chelsea, and Jenny) sat at the end of the boat with Christian, but I sat at the front of the boat alone. It was kind of lame not being able to sit with everyone for pictures, but I also had a better view of the canals, so it ended up working out well. I have so many amazing pictures of the Venice canals and I can't wait to show them to everyone! It was BEAUTIFUL!
After the gondola ride we met up with the other girls, who actually did end up finding the local gondolier and getting a ride for only €1! I was very happy they were able to experience the gondolas for so cheap, but also glad that I didn't take a chance on it in case we wouldn't have been able to go on a ride. Once we were all together we took pictures with the gondoliers (in their typical striped shirts and hats) and then headed back to the hotel to change and get ready for dinner. We found a great restaurant earlier in the day that was very close to our hotel (and relatively inexpensive!) so we had a delicious dinner of pasta, pizza, and Lambrusco right on the river.
Once we were done with dinner everyone was exhausted, but Matteo insisted that we walk to San Marco again to see the piazza at night. We stopped on the way for more gelato (the second time in one day) and some €3 bottles of wine, which ended up being great! The piazza at night was beautiful, but there wasn't much to do so Jessica, Casey, and I decided to dip out early and make our way back to the hotel to get some sleep.
We left Piazza San Marco at 10 PM, walked for 10 minutes, and ended up at the same place where we left from. It was really hard to navigate the city at night on foot because the easiest way to travel is on the water, so we made our way back to the hotel as best as we could. Unfortunately we got super lost because our maps were very unhelpful and the tricky alleys around the canals weren't marked well at all... after an hour and fifty minutes of walking aimlessly around Venice at night we somehow FINALLY found our way back to the restaurant we ate at for dinner. As we walked by we ran into some girls from our program, who were sitting at tables outside of a bar by the hotel, and they said we looked awful. When we told them we'd been lost for almost 2 hours they definitely understood why we looked the way we did! At this point we were EXHAUSTED and so relieved to be in familiar territory that we went straight to the hotel, with the intention of falling asleep immediately. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the hotel there was no one at the reception desk to give us our key (note: in Europe, you usually have to give your key to the reception desk and take it from them when you come in), so we waited for another 20 minutes on the guy to give us our key. When we FINALLY got into our room (after climbing four flights of stairs) we were pleasantly surprised to discover that our room smelled like rotten broccoli and trash can. It was disgusting, but we were so tired and delerious at this point that we couldn't stop laughing at how ridiculous our night had been. When we finally made it into bed after a very long day we fell asleep within two seconds of hitting the pillow...
TUESDAY, June 2
This morning we were woken up at 9 AM by church bells... only in Italy. We got ready, packed our things, and went downstairs to eat breakfast before checking out of the hotel at 10:30. We then went to shop around Venice for a bit before meeting the group at 12:30.
The entire city of Venice is full of shops that sell glass (probably because Venice is the glass capital of the world), so we were on a search for glass goodies all morning. After a bit of shopping we grabbed sandwiches and ate them on the way to San Marco.
Matteo scheduled for the entire group to take a private boat to the islands of Murano and Burano, so we met at 12:30 by the water and made our way to our private boat, which was named Liza. The boat ride to Murano took about 30 minutes, but it was amazing. The weather was sunny and clear and the Adriatic Sea was beautiful. It was also really nice to be able to sit down for a while after a long day of walking!
Once we got to the island of Murano we went to a small glass factory to learn how Venetian glass is made. It was really neat to watch a man blow glass into a huge vase and a Ferrari horse figurine! We then went to look around the shops at all of the glass that was for sale. Unfortunately there wasn't much else to see in Murano other than the shops that sold the same glass we found earlier in Venice. Dr. Tolley was convinced she saw Helen Hunt sitting on a dock by the water in Murano... we never saw her, but she claims she did.
We then got back on the boat and headed to Burano, where lace originated. It was really neat to see all of the handmade lace in the town, but (once again) there wasn't much else to see on the island.
After an hour of wandering around Burano we met back on the back and made our way back to Venice. Kelly, Jessica, Natalie, Jenny, and I got to ride on top of the boat the entire way back, which was great. The sun was out and the breeze was nice-- it was so relaxing!
When our boat driver finally dropped us off by the hotel we only had about 30 minutes to get back to the hotel, retrieve our bags, eat a fast dinner, and get to the train station. After another long weekend of travel we finally made it back to Modena for our last night with our host families. Most of the girls on the trip are heading back to Atlanta tomorrow, so it was very sad to say goodbyes to everyone at the train station.
As much as I'm looking forward to visiting Rome and Paris, I'm a bit jealous I'm not going home with everyone else because they've been talking about how excited they are to get back all weekend! I still can't believe that tomorrow is our last day at the school and in Modena. My host family is dropping me off at the train station tomorrow afternoon at 4:15 to meet Jessica and Natalia and make our way towards Roma!! Tomorrow is going to be hectic with leaving school, packing up, leaving my family, and going to Rome, but I'm also very excited for what's to come!
We left for Venice on Monday morning at 7:40 AM and arrived around 12 PM. After the group found the hotel and dropped our luggage off, we split off into groups. My group immediately inhaled sandwiches from a cafe and made our way to Piazza di San Marco, which is the main attraction in Venice.
Our first stop at the Piazza was the Basilica di San Marco, which is the most beautiful church I have ever seen. It was HUGE and the interior was just as beautiful as the exterior. Mosaics covered gigantic ceilings and it was amazing. We even got to see the beginnings of a wedding take place as we left! After visiting the Basilica we rode an elevator to the top of the Campanile di San Marco, which is the bell tower in the middle of the piazza. We were able to see the entire city from the top of the tower and it was amazing. I couldn't stop taking pictures! We also stayed up long enough to hear the giant bells ring, which was awesome, but also made us deaf for a few minutes after we got down.
After visiting the Piazza we headed to the Rialto Bridge, which goes right over Canal Grande in the middle of Venice. We shopped for a bit, took lots of pictures by the bridge, and took in the scenery, which was (as always in Italy) beautiful. We ended up going to visit another church after we left the bridge and we also met up with Matteo, Natalie, and Marianna from the trip. One group of six girls (myself included) really wanted to do a gondola ride (we were in Venice afterall), but the others wanted to try and find a local gondola place that only charged €1 for a ride. I was hesitant and unsure if it would work out, so I ended up going with the other five girls in search of a gondolier who was willing to negotiate his prices for a gondola ride. After a short search we found Christian, a gondolier who let us ride for €12 each, which was a ridiculously good deal considering he started out saying it would be €25 a person.
The gondola ride was absolutely amazing and probably one of the coolest things I've ever done. Christian was a great gondolier, mainly because he was born and raised in Venice and able to tell us all about the history of the city as we floated along the canals. The other five girls on the gondola with me (Jessica, Elizabeth, Natalie, Chelsea, and Jenny) sat at the end of the boat with Christian, but I sat at the front of the boat alone. It was kind of lame not being able to sit with everyone for pictures, but I also had a better view of the canals, so it ended up working out well. I have so many amazing pictures of the Venice canals and I can't wait to show them to everyone! It was BEAUTIFUL!
After the gondola ride we met up with the other girls, who actually did end up finding the local gondolier and getting a ride for only €1! I was very happy they were able to experience the gondolas for so cheap, but also glad that I didn't take a chance on it in case we wouldn't have been able to go on a ride. Once we were all together we took pictures with the gondoliers (in their typical striped shirts and hats) and then headed back to the hotel to change and get ready for dinner. We found a great restaurant earlier in the day that was very close to our hotel (and relatively inexpensive!) so we had a delicious dinner of pasta, pizza, and Lambrusco right on the river.
Once we were done with dinner everyone was exhausted, but Matteo insisted that we walk to San Marco again to see the piazza at night. We stopped on the way for more gelato (the second time in one day) and some €3 bottles of wine, which ended up being great! The piazza at night was beautiful, but there wasn't much to do so Jessica, Casey, and I decided to dip out early and make our way back to the hotel to get some sleep.
We left Piazza San Marco at 10 PM, walked for 10 minutes, and ended up at the same place where we left from. It was really hard to navigate the city at night on foot because the easiest way to travel is on the water, so we made our way back to the hotel as best as we could. Unfortunately we got super lost because our maps were very unhelpful and the tricky alleys around the canals weren't marked well at all... after an hour and fifty minutes of walking aimlessly around Venice at night we somehow FINALLY found our way back to the restaurant we ate at for dinner. As we walked by we ran into some girls from our program, who were sitting at tables outside of a bar by the hotel, and they said we looked awful. When we told them we'd been lost for almost 2 hours they definitely understood why we looked the way we did! At this point we were EXHAUSTED and so relieved to be in familiar territory that we went straight to the hotel, with the intention of falling asleep immediately. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the hotel there was no one at the reception desk to give us our key (note: in Europe, you usually have to give your key to the reception desk and take it from them when you come in), so we waited for another 20 minutes on the guy to give us our key. When we FINALLY got into our room (after climbing four flights of stairs) we were pleasantly surprised to discover that our room smelled like rotten broccoli and trash can. It was disgusting, but we were so tired and delerious at this point that we couldn't stop laughing at how ridiculous our night had been. When we finally made it into bed after a very long day we fell asleep within two seconds of hitting the pillow...
TUESDAY, June 2
This morning we were woken up at 9 AM by church bells... only in Italy. We got ready, packed our things, and went downstairs to eat breakfast before checking out of the hotel at 10:30. We then went to shop around Venice for a bit before meeting the group at 12:30.
The entire city of Venice is full of shops that sell glass (probably because Venice is the glass capital of the world), so we were on a search for glass goodies all morning. After a bit of shopping we grabbed sandwiches and ate them on the way to San Marco.
Matteo scheduled for the entire group to take a private boat to the islands of Murano and Burano, so we met at 12:30 by the water and made our way to our private boat, which was named Liza. The boat ride to Murano took about 30 minutes, but it was amazing. The weather was sunny and clear and the Adriatic Sea was beautiful. It was also really nice to be able to sit down for a while after a long day of walking!
Once we got to the island of Murano we went to a small glass factory to learn how Venetian glass is made. It was really neat to watch a man blow glass into a huge vase and a Ferrari horse figurine! We then went to look around the shops at all of the glass that was for sale. Unfortunately there wasn't much else to see in Murano other than the shops that sold the same glass we found earlier in Venice. Dr. Tolley was convinced she saw Helen Hunt sitting on a dock by the water in Murano... we never saw her, but she claims she did.
We then got back on the boat and headed to Burano, where lace originated. It was really neat to see all of the handmade lace in the town, but (once again) there wasn't much else to see on the island.
After an hour of wandering around Burano we met back on the back and made our way back to Venice. Kelly, Jessica, Natalie, Jenny, and I got to ride on top of the boat the entire way back, which was great. The sun was out and the breeze was nice-- it was so relaxing!
When our boat driver finally dropped us off by the hotel we only had about 30 minutes to get back to the hotel, retrieve our bags, eat a fast dinner, and get to the train station. After another long weekend of travel we finally made it back to Modena for our last night with our host families. Most of the girls on the trip are heading back to Atlanta tomorrow, so it was very sad to say goodbyes to everyone at the train station.
As much as I'm looking forward to visiting Rome and Paris, I'm a bit jealous I'm not going home with everyone else because they've been talking about how excited they are to get back all weekend! I still can't believe that tomorrow is our last day at the school and in Modena. My host family is dropping me off at the train station tomorrow afternoon at 4:15 to meet Jessica and Natalia and make our way towards Roma!! Tomorrow is going to be hectic with leaving school, packing up, leaving my family, and going to Rome, but I'm also very excited for what's to come!
Another thrilling adventure!!! I'm curious how you get the posts done after such a full day but thanks for doing it. It's made your trip such fun for us back home. I can't wait to see all your photos. Love, MOM
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