I had heard prior to going to Venice that you either love it or hate it. People told me that it was gorgeous and that you would never want to leave, but I also had friends tell me that it was smelly and dirty and off-putting. Yet, from the moment that I walked out of St Lucia Train Station, I found myself in love with the magic of Venenzia. I don't quite understand how you couldn't be in the love with the serene waterways and the hidden treasures of the back roads, canals, and alleyways. My two days there with my 5 roommates was magical, something out of a dream.What follows, in what is sure to be an obscenely long blog post, are the memories and highlights of a weekend that I won't soon forget.
The train ride there really left something to be desired. We were told that it shouldn’t take more than 4.5 hours, but 6 hours later when we got off the train, we knew the truth. I guess the complaining should be kept to a minimum considering I slept a good portion of the way, but this was just another example of how little Italians actually care about time. It just isn’t important to them. I can respect that about them on one hand, but on the other hand, it just makes punctual me a little crazy.
Because we decided about a week and a half ago to go to Venice for the weekend, we had little luck finding hotels or hostels with room for us. What we decided to do was stay on the mainland in Menstre – a 10 minute train ride to Venice. When we booked the hotel, we thought that we would be smart and try to save money by only booking a room that houses 4 people, but having all 6 of us stay in there. Well, when we got to the hotel, we came to find out that the police come every night and check to see how many people are registered to the hotel. If they allow more people to stay in the room than allowed, the hotel can be shut down for 6 months. That information put quite a wrench in our plans. We wound up spending a good hour wondering around Menstre going to every hotel there looking for another room. A $100 room at the Hotel Roberta was the best we could do – but there wasn’t any other option.
As I said before, from the first moments I stepped outside of the train station in Venice, I was in love. I think that from the second I stepped onto the Vaporetti (the boats that function as buses) my jaw was on the floor because I was in such awe. By the time we made it onto the water, darkness has fallen and everything has this gorgeous romantic glow to it. It was as if I had stepped into this magical dream world.
The dream world continued once we disembarked as San Marco. The entire Piazza was lit up, and the dueling chamber groups were setting up along the perimeter of the square. The 6 of us opted to have dinner before we went back to listen to the music. Our meal was fantastic – everything seemed better than usual - even the water had a silk-like quality to it. My spaghetti was cooked to perfection, and the meat sauce had so much flavor to it. Dinner ended with a weird banter with our waiter who kept coming over to tell us random facts that we didn’t really understand.
Following dinner, 4 of the girls opted to sit down to listen to the music on the Piazza, while Ali and I wandered around the square. The entire atmosphere left nothing to be desired, it was perfection. I wish I had the words to describe how I felt that night, but nothing seems to do it justice.
By the time we got back on the Vaporetti, the trains had already stopped running back to Menstre, so we had to find the buses to take us back there. After a very stressful situation where some women laughed at us after we mentioned where we wanted to go, we finally figured out what was the right bus, and got ourselves back to our hotel. Once back at Giovannina, the door was locked. We kept ringing the bell, and finally this man (who we later found out was “Uncle George”) answered. We hadn’t been told by the person who checked us in earlier in the day that we had a curfew, but apparently we did. After we finally convinced Uncle George that we were the 4 girls who were staying in room 109, he let us in. Uncle George then told us that the guy who checked us in earlier was his nephew and he “has no friends.” It was a hysterical conversation where he told us that he wants us to have fun because we are on holiday, but he doesn’t want 4 girls being out late on their own… Oh Uncle George. This was our first encounter with him, but it certainly wasn’t our last.
The next morning, after a really good night’s sleep – the 6 of us headed into Venice for the tour that was organized by AUR. The tour focused on the unseen Venice, the parts that the tourists don’t usually pay attention to. Our tour guide (who never bothered to tell us her name) took us through the many back streets of Venice and gave us insight into the grandeur and history of many of the buildings and Campos in the city. If there was one thing that I took away from the tour, it was the ability to tell how old a building is by the types of windows and arches it has.
After the tour, we set off to find Venetian glass. Oh, and man, did we find it. We happened upon this little shop down a tiny hidden street where this lady makes all of her own glass. We spent a good hour and a half in this shop that was easily smaller than my dorm room back at AU. The stuff was gorgeous! I spent quite a bit of money in there, but many of the things that I purchased will be presents for people. The lady who owns the shop also took time to show us how she makes beads. She normally doesn’t do any glass work on Saturday, but we convinced her to show us her technique. I was blown away by the work that goes into each individual bead. It was quite impressive. Check out my pictures for more insight into that part of the day.
Upon leaving the glass shop we decided we wanted to head back in the general direction of San Marco’s. Well, that turned into a big adventure. In Venice they don’t believe in the grid system. You could go down one street and wind up some place completely different than if you had chosen the street directly next to it. Talk about confusing. We finally found our way out to the grand canal, but we came out on a dock where the Vaporetti don’t stop – so that essentially did us no good at all. Go figure. We finally made our way to a vaporetti stop, and what a relief that was, since by this time we were all exhausted and our feet were starting to hurt. We had been up since 8, and on our feet since 9 AM. Nine hours of walking can really do you in. (It is at these moments that I really wish I had a pedometer to keep track of how far I walk in a single day). The 6 of us opted to have a quick dinner in a café, and then walk back to San Marco’s for a final look at its glory and a cup of gelato.
We made it back to the train station in time to make the train. What a train ride this was…talk about feeling like you were being filmed for America’s Funniest Home Videos or something. The train ride was fine, but when we tried to get off at our stop (the first stop) ALL of the doors of the train were locked from the inside. Practically the entire train was running up and down through the cars trying to find an open door. At this point the train was stopped in the station, but then it started to move. A lady was screaming out the window to the people on the platform trying to get them to help us. Finally a man had the brilliant idea to pull the emergency brake. I’m still not exactly sure why all the doors were locked, but they were. Molly said that the whole situation gave her a real appreciation for the scene in Titanic when they have no place to go. I wouldn’t have classified it like that, but it was still quite an interesting experience.
Back at the Giovannina Uncle George roped Melanie, Molly, and Sarah into a conversation while I fell asleep upstairs in the room. Although I wasn’t there, I heard about all of the stories he told them. He seems to just be a lonely man who needs someone to talk to. It’s quite sad, actually. Sarah told me later that he manipulates the rooms that he has open in the hotel to set up social experiments. He has apparently set up 7 couples through doing this – which is actually quite impressive. I don’t know if Sarah or Molly has written about him yet in their blogs, but watch them for more on Uncle George.
Yesterday morning we woke up early again and headed back into Venice for our last time, and this time we were on a mission. Priority #1 was getting back to the glass shop, and priority #2 was finding a Gondola so that we could take a ride. After all, what is a trip to Venice without going on a gondola? We found our way back to the glass shop pretty easily – we only got lost once, which was SO impressive. I have so much respect for their postal service. I can only imagine how hard it is to figure out where to deliver everything.
Our gondola ride was perfect. I am not sure what else to say about it besides that. I felt so calm and at peace during that time. I got off the boat feeling as if I don’t deserve all of this. I am so lucky to be here and have this experience. I couldn’t ask for anything more.
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