Verona, Vicenzia and Venezia

Our third school trip was to Verona, Vicenzia and Venezia (Venice). We took a bus early in the morning on Friday to Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet. Our Italian teachers said this was just to bring people to the city, but I still thought it was fun. We went to an art museum along with the architecture students and had lunch in a piazza. We had a little bit of free time to walk around and then we were off to Vicenzia. The Teatro Olimpico by Palladio is located here. For an architecture student, this is a big deal. Everyone else would have no idea. The theater was designed as an indoor ancient Greek amphitheatre. We had a special reservation where we watched a light show while they played opera music. It was pretty neat to see and experience.

After the Theatre we had a little more free time to roam around, so we opted for gelato! Yum! Then we were back on the bus and off to Venezia. Before arriving, we were told that we may walk to our hotel or take a water bus because of a transportation strike. The busses were running, but our teachers still opted for walking because each student would have an individual ticket to stamp and it was too much. Bummer! But this way we got a preview of the city. The city is built on islands, which at this point are sinking. All of the buildings are built right up to the canals too, so there is not much room for streets. Land transportation can only go so far because all of the bridges are also steps to allow room for boats to fit underneath. This is why there are water taxis and boats, kinda cool!

We arrived to our "Religious Guest House" and settled in. We found it humorous that we were basically in a convent for the weekend, is Kent trying to say something to us college students? At this point it is 8 at night, and we searched for around an hour for dinner. Everything was closed! And we might have passed around 5 people the entire time. We eventually found something though and ate dinner. After that it was lights out!

Saturday we started off at a contemporary art museum. We were a little worried, because our studio instructor loves to take us to art museums and they are not all so good. But Palazzo Grassi was great! We all really enjoyed the displays and I got a really neat notebook where the cover was made of promotional vinyl banners for the museum. After the museum we went to Piazza San Marco for lunch and our next museum was located. Museo Correr is a 19th century Neoclassical museum with a glass exhibit. We really wanted to see the glass since one of the islands, Murano, is a big place where glass is made. It was pretty dissapointing though. We walked across the piazza to the Doge's Palace where the royal family of Venice resided. Underneath of the building is where prisoners were housed. The conditions were very damp and wet, as you can imagine, so many of them passed from the conditions.

We were ready for a nap and headed back to our hotel after the palace. We then ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe (we needed some American food!). It was the biggest plate of food I have had in a long time! But it definately sufficed my cravings. Once we were done, nearly everything was closed so all we did was walk around and talk. The weather was absolutely beautiful all weekend, so we didn't mind sitting outside at all. It was nice and relaxing.

Sunday we went to a Museum of 18th Century Venice, which was a palazzo with an art gallery on the top floor. The palazzo was similarly decorated as ones we have previously seen. After that we were free for the day until we had to leave to head back to Florence. We walked towards the main bridge in the city while shopping along the way. We all got beautiful glass gifts to bring home to loved ones and also masks because of the popular parade that occurs each year before Lent. Everything was beautiful and I would have loved to buy so much more!! We sat by the canal and soaked in the sun until we had to head back. It was great! Venice was really beautiful with all of the water, if only everything stayed open later it would have been the perfect city to live in!