May 9th - A Day in Venice!

I can't believe that I got to spend an entire day in Venice, Italy! As we rode the last waterbus through the Grand Canal tonight I watched the city from the window and realized that although this was my first, it might also be my last time in the city of Venice. I'm not sad though - I just can't help but think how amazing this experience has been (and who knows, maybe I will make it back some day).

Our day started on the Island of Mirano for a glass-blowing demonstration. It was sooo incredible! Before the demonstration, we were lucky enough to wander around the little shop and be inspired by the incredible work.

Kelsey and I found these beautiful hand-crafted masquerade masks and couldn't help but try them on. I think they gave both of us a strong desire to attend a masquerade ball...

I'm so glad that we actually got the opportunity to watch a glass-blowing demonstration to see the incredible talent that is associated with it. You wouldn't believe the exquisite detail on some of the pieces in the shop and then to witness how those things are actually made - wow!

Just to give you an example of how incredible the talent of glass-blowing really is... This horse took the demonstrator 50 seconds to make. 50 seconds! But apparently he can't do it any slower or the glass will harden too quickly. It was the most interesting thing to watch. The glass it attached to the end of a long stick and then put into the oven which heats it to a liquid form. As soon as it comes out, the blower ever so gently blows a little air into the end of the stick to give the glass a little form and then he uses large tweezers to shape the animal. The glass looks like homemade taffy as it is twisted and manipulated into the shape you see above. Incredible.

After the demonstration, we headed to the Museo Vetrario - a museum dedicated to the history of glass blowing throughout the centuries. It was quite interesting to see what has changed but mostly how much it has stayed the same for hundreds of years.

We were given a little free-time, so Kelsey and I wandered the island a little before we headed back to Venice.

You can never get enough pictures of the wonderful boats everywhere in Italy. 

My absolute favorite part about Italy is the attention to detail. Even this little window all by itself on the corner of a building is absolutely beautiful! Why do we only have rectangular windows in the states? I'm going to change this.

Kelsey and I waiting for the water bus to head back to Venice.

We slowly explored the ins and outs and little shops of Venice with a few other girls. I'm glad our day wasn't just filled with tours and museums - the best part about the little alleyways of Venice is just to explore.

I even found this wonderful little bookstore. It was tiny but loaded with books. Just like you would picture :)

We were looking at another shop when Yi (pronounced "e"), one of the other students, ran up to us and asked if we wanted a ride in a gondola. When we asked him how much he quickly brushed off our question and said he had already paid! He is such a sweetheart. I'm so glad he didn't let me leave Venice without a ride in a famous gondola. 

From left to right: Christina, Kelsey, Kyra, Stephani. We had the nicest gondola driver. He chatted with us a bit, gave us a little history, and even hummed and whistled a little. Perfect.

The water was actually pretty muggy and gross but I still took a picture of it.

Fancy detailing on the gondola.

No, our gondola driver wasn't really cute or anything, but of course Kelsey and I had to take seductive picture with him in the background ;) The romance of the whole gondola experience got to us I guess...

We enjoyed the ride and the relaxation so much that we didn't pay particular attention to the time... bad idea. When we got off we realized that we had five minutes to make it across town for our tour of St. Mark's! We had even been told by our instructors multiple times to not be late for this or we would miss a five hour tour of St. Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace. So what did we do? We ran of course - stress fracture and all. Of course it hurt, but I did not come all this way to miss out on anything. I have to admit, there's nothing better for one's self-esteem than being ahead of the entire group even with a limp and having them ask you to slow down ;) Apparently my half-marathon training is working! How many people can say they've run through the streets of Venice? Well I can now ;) The best part? Venice is at sea level and I'm used to running at 4300 feet so catching my breath was a breeze. Not to brag, but I felt sooo good! Especially as I listened to the other girls breathing heavy and wiping sweat of their foreheads for awhile. Woo! Gotta love being in shape!

St. Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace were breathtaking! Pictures just don't do it justice!

 This is the Doge's Palace.

And this is St. Mark's Square with the basilica it the back.

This is the inside courtyard of the Doge's Palace. It's so large my camera couldn't capture much but the brilliant white marble everywhere was absolutely gorgeous!

Detail was not overlooked anywhere in this palace with its 24 karat gold ceilings, frescos on EVERY wall, beautiful arches and gilding everywhere...

the scale for everything was enormous!

beautiful vaulting ceilings - this was one of my favorites

and after seeing this incredible coffered ceiling made of 24 karat gold, frescos in every empty space, rich color and exquisite detail in the ceiling, moldings, and walls, Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel didn't quite live up to its fame. (I wish I had a better picture of this incredible ceiling, but of course pictures were not allowed. I had to steal this off the internet. You'll just have to see it in person to really understand).

After this long tour we headed across the water to Saint Georgio's Church. I just can't believe how every single building has so much personality and detail. Nothing in Venice is the same. And everything is so elaborate. 

Instead of wandering around to get an up close look at all the detail of the church, I decided to sit in one of the pews and just take it all in. Again, incredible detailing was given to everything. As I sat there, one of my favorite quotes came to mind, "Be still - and know that I am God." The only problem in this building, I'm not sure how you could "be still". There was so much going on inside that church, such detailed carving, so many paintings and colors everywhere, designs and motifs on the floors, ceilings and walls... I just don't know how you would not be distracted; how you could be still enough to feel the Spirit. But I guess their purpose is to show the infinite power and majesty of the almighty God. I prefer a gentle, loving Father in Heaven...

This may be one of my favorite pictures :) This is the little sitting area you wait in for the water bus. The sun was at just the right angle that if you look closely, our reflection was almost as good as a mirror...

hahaha love this. such fun girls. 

We wandered around Venice a little bit more, realizing this was our last day and trying to soak in as much as we could. We enjoyed a lovely dinner at an outdoor cafe and then decided to take the scenic route home. We quickly hoped on a waterbus, realizing that they must not run as late as we thought and that we may have just caught the last one. We enjoyed the relaxation as the bus slowly made its way around Venice.

I was even able to capture a couple beautiful sunset pictures through the window...

(even Italy has cranes...)
A perfect ending to our stay in Venice. We thought...

About three stops from our desired destination, the driver of the waterbus began ushering everybody off, speaking Italian of course. As we attempted to communicate that we had three more stops to go, he simple shook his head, kept motioning us off, and said something about how this was the last stop... at least that's what we concluded with our incredible Italian deciphering skills. We weren't exactly in the best part of town, walking wasn't really an option, and daylight was slowly drifting away. Panic began to sink in about as quickly as the sun was setting as I flipped through my little Italian book and tried to translate the things flashing across the screen. I concluded that we should just wait 20 or so minutes and another bus would come around the corner. At least I prayed this would be the case.

As we waited we took a picture of our scared faces to document the experience. It's all about the experience, right? This picture was quite difficult to take seeing as I couldn't stop laughing which would then cause the other two to laugh which then would take us awhile to regain our composure only for the giggles to start again.  At least we were enjoying ourselves despite the situation.

Luckily a water bus did eventually show up. We were still in a bit of a bind though... we all had to go to the bathroom quite badly but of course there are no such things are public restrooms in Italy. (you rarely see them and they usually cost money). It was so bad Stephani almost left to find a bush while we waited but we were worried we would miss the next water bus so we decided to stick it out. Only problem, once we caught the water bus we had a 15 minute ride to the actual bus, a 20 minute ride on that, and then a quarter of a mile walk to our hotel. Let's just say it ended up being quite a brisk walk with calls for who got the bathroom first when we got back as the rest of us danced outside the door.

hahaha I love funny experiences like this. They are what make the trip memorable. Our stay in Venice is over but in the morning?? Florence! Ciao Venezia!