FlorenceForFun-Venezia (Venice, Italy) The Sinking City!

Cita di Venezia! 

1. There are NO cars in Venice. Since there are no roads, and only narrow pathways, people use boats to get from one place to another. If people want to take a taxi, there is a boat taxi. If people want to take a bus, there is a boat bus. The only way to get into Venice, is a boat or a train.

2. There are canals, NO streets. The  canals serve the function of roads, and almost every form of transport is on water or on foot.  I found this on wikipedia, "Venice is built on an archipelago of 117 islands formed by 177 canals in a shallow lagoon, connected by 409 bridges." A classic boat in Italy is called a gondola and a lot of tourists get the experience to ride on a gondola. Gondolas are a nice romantic way of transportation but they are very pricey. A gondola ride for about 45 minutes costs 90 euros (120 USD). 

3. Venice is entirely a TOURIST city! When I went there, it was crowed and there were a lot of tourist groups and cruise ships. Venice is the third biggest tourist city in the world because of it's uniqueness and beauty. There are about 50,000 tourists a day that come through venice. There are not a lot of locals that live in Venice anymore because there are so many tourists and it is so noisy. 

Okay  so now back to what I did in Venice. I took a day trip to Venice, through a student program called "Florence For Fun". We left at 8 am in the morning from the Florence Train Station and arrived in Venice at 11:30. 

Brittany, Celia, Me and Alexis at the Train Station ready to go to Venice

We rode the bus and then we had to take a train to get into Venice. When I first got into Venice, I walked out of the train station and saw the gorgeous Main canal of Venice! I got to take a 20 minute water taxi throughout the canals of Venice down the Grand Canal. It was gorgeous to see all of the boats and gondolas on the canals, and I could see the oldness of the the city by looking at the buildings. 

Ponte di Rialto

Alexis and I in the Water Taxi

When we got off of the water taxi we went past Piazza San Marco and saw St. Mark's Basilica. This is the largest piazza in Venice

Then we went to the Vecchia Murano Glass Company. At this factory, people make the finest and most elegant glass. Glassmakers personally blow glass to make cups, vases, plates, necklaces, rings, earrings, and of course chandeliers. Here is the description of how they make the glass from Vecchia Murano Glass Factoy handout:


"Each of the pieces produces by our company has been hand-made by Venetian "maestri" and expert bead workers who carry on the ancient technique of lamp-working and crystal cutting. The decoration of the beads is achieved by using fine glass or "avventurina" canes and silver or 24 carat gold leaf. The crystal, which contains rare and expensive neodymium, is also cut by hand. The tiny imperfections which may be found are sign that the beads are original and entirely hand made. "

I found this on Google and this is what the vases look like. It is made with 24 carat gold and that is why everything from this glass company is expensive. 

Murano Glass is not cheap but I ended up getting a rings and 2 bracelets that look like the real thing for cheap prices at another store (yes Amanda, I got you a glass blown bracelet from Venice). I could not take any pictures inside the shop of the Murano Glass Company, but I took some pictures of the glass blowing demonstration: 

Then we had free time. During this free time, I got my souvenirs and I found a mask. Masks are very important in Venice because every year they celebrate Carnevale. The magical celebration of Carnevale is an 8-day festa of concerts, pageants, masks and balls. People from all around the world come to this international reowned festival to see costumes, masks and parades in the heart of Venice. That is why there are a lot of masks in Venice. There are different styles and types in market stands and shops. Here is a picture of my mask for 11 euro, it is a real one because it has a stamp that is was made in Venice, Italy. 

Then we got to go on a 2 min. gondola ride across the canal:

I can finally say that I went on a gondola ride in Venice!!! yay!! After that we walked around Venice and went back to the train station so we could get our bus to go back to Florence. After going on this day trip, I can officially say I feel more in love with Italy. Venice was so beautiful with the canals and everything, I will be back to Venice in the future!! :) 


Random Photos of Venice:

Masks in a Shop (shhh I wasn't suppose to take a picture)

gondolas! 

A guy is making a mask! 

On Friday (the day before I went to Venice) I went to Mokaflor Coffee Factory in Florence. I got to learn about the process of making coffee, espresso and cappuccino. I even got to taste some of their coffee too :) 

Group of us that went on the day trip! 

This is awesome! <3 it!

a leaf made out of milk

me and my coffee! 

 


Last but not less, these pictures were taken when we went to the Tuscan coast about 2 weeks ago! I played around with the site called Picnik and came up with this. It represents SNC for St. Norbert College! 


Ciao SNC, all the way from Florence, Italy!