This weekend started on Thursday, one of our two long travel weekends. I finished my classes like always, and headed out for another few days in Venice with Chip Harrison, a friend from Alabama who is studying in Greece (but first spending a weekend before classes in Venice with me). I caught a bus to Bassano, a train to the Veneto Mestre station, then a much shorter second train from the mainland to the Santa Lucia station on the island. From there I hopped on a 30 minute water bus ride to Rialto Bridge, then walked to Hotel Da Bruno (the same place I stayed the first weekend). Chip was coming in on Friday around 4PM, so I had a day by myself to relax and catch up on some sleep. That evening I grabbed some dinner and gelato and tried walking much into the city further than I had previously gone.
The things that I find here never cease to amaze me. I found tons of beautiful little churches and some really cool spots to sit and watch the gondolas (most of the time occupied by elderly Asian groups). I also came across an amazing little leather-working shop owned by the sweetest woman. She spoke English fairly well, so we talked for a while and she showed me all of the things she made (leather-bound books, bags, tobacco pouches, etc). I really liked the bags that she did, so I asked if she could make one for me. She said “of course,” and asked how I wanted it to look. We drew it out on a piece of paper, and she told me that it would be ready on Saturday evening. She gave me a very good price for what she was making since I was a student. After I said goodbye and left the shop, I headed back to the hotel for some sleep.
I woke up at 7:30 on Friday morning, thinking that my hotel’s breakfast ended at 8 (it actually ends at 10). Unfortunately, once I wake up, I’m awake for the day; so after I ate, I went ahead and got ready. I walked around some more, got an espresso, and went to Rialto to get some gelato and wait for Chip to arrive. His boat pulled up at around 4:45, and we went to the hotel so he could drop off his stuff in the room.
We went back out an hour later, and headed toward San Marco square for some sight-seeing. We walked around outside, but decided to wait to get tickets for the museums on Saturday.
We also saw a weddin' at San Marco Square.
Once it got dark, we headed back in the general direction of the hotel, and found a discothèque (I can’t remember the name, but it’s no big deal -- the place itself was not very memorable either). We walked in and were just about the only people there (strange for a Friday night). The only other people that were there was a group of students from South Carolina studying in Italy for the summer as well. We sat with them and got to know each other for a while before deciding to leave and find a different place to hang out. We found a pretty cool jazz club that no one could afford, so we ended up just walking around in Venice and talking. At about 2AM, we all said goodbye, they headed off to their hotel on the mainland, and Chip and I went back to Da Bruno for the night.
PS: Friday was Chip’s birthday, so he got a birthday kiss from one of the South Carolina girls.
We woke up at around 9 on Saturday, and got ready to go sight-seeing. We started at San Marco square and bought a cheap student museum ticket that let us into a bunch of different museums (we only ended up going to two before our feet started hurting too badly). The museums were very cool, but my favorite part of San Marco was the prison. I’ll just put up some pictures so I don’t have to type a bunch about it.
The hands-down highlight of our day was actually in the middle of the square. If you are familiar with the area, you may say “but there’s nothing there except crappy knick-knack stands and pigeons.” You are absolutely right, and the latter of the two brought us hours of fun. We picked up some bread and bought some seed and fed the pigeons. It's hard to explain in words, so I’ll just put up some pictures.
And here's a baby...
After we had our fill of bird wrangling, we went back to that leather shop to pick up my custom-made man purse (it’s awesome, by the way).
Then, we headed toward our hotel to attend an opera called La Traviata. It was pretty good voice-wise, but the plot was horribly boring and cliché. After the show, we went back out into Venice and tried taking a boat to the mainland. A British couple told us that the best place to get off would be the San Roma stop, so we believed them. This stop wasn’t on the mainland. Oh well. We got off at the Roma stop anyways, and ended up walking all the way back to Rialto, where we met another group of students from Georgia that was a part of the same study abroad program as the South Carolina students from the night before. We hung out with them for a while, and at about 1, we called it a night and went back to the hotel.
The next morning, we woke up at 9 and went downstairs for breakfast. After we ate, we headed to the water bus station to get ready to leave (Chip to Greece, me to Paderno). We hopped on the boat and said goodbye to Venice. I got off at the train station, but he stayed on to go to the ferry dock, where he would be departing for Greece at 1. I bought a train ticket to Bassano, where I arrived at about 12:30.
I explored Bassano a little, and I came across a concert in one of the squares of Bassano. I stayed for two groups -- the first was a youth rock/orchestral band that played some Green Day, and the second was an actually band that played some hip Italian tunes. It was pretty unexpected and ended up being a great way to pass the time while I waited to go back to Paderno.
I also did some relaxing by the river. It felt amazing outside.
I guess that just about sums up my weekend. Next weekend I will hopefully be going to Interlaken, Switzerland!
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