dramaturgy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dramaturgy) wrote2007-04-26 09:07 pm
dramaturgy) wrote2007-04-26 09:07 pm
Venezia!
Arguably the best part about Venice is when we returned and got to tell our Italian professora about the trip in Italian and Eric said he bought a man (masche) rather than a mask (machere).
That nonwithstanding, Venice itself was pretty great too.
Friday the train left at 8:30, so yeah. Early. x_x Janet insisted we draw slips of paper for our seat numbers, despite the fact that as more or less mature adults (okay, I don't know about mature, but adults at the very least) we should have been able to organize the sixteen of us into sixteen seats. But no. So we got there after a three hour train ride and... yeah. At first it looked sort of like New Jersey, but we got past all that and into the train station and it was like OMG WE'RE HERE. The Grand Canal was RIGHT THERE and it was beautiful. We boarded the vaporetto (water bus) to go to our hotel (which Janet said wasn't that nice but... well, let's say that it was a step above the Albert as far as accomodation goes and the breakfast was delicious).
Right across from the train station.
The three flags, left to right: European Union, Italy, and Venice.
We got off at the Accademia bridge, and walked quite aways down narrow streets (all the streets are narrow, BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE TO BE ABLE TO HOLD CARS!) to the hotel. I swear, I thought Janet was going to kill us and leave us for the crows. We had a lunch break and got to walk around a bit before we went to Piazza di San Marco.
From the other side of the island. I think that's Judecca down there.
HI GUYS!!!
Your average residential street in Venice. Honest to god.
San Marco! Okay. I can't remember if Janet said if this was the cathedral of Venice or not, but it's gorgeous inside. It's right next door, indeed, connected to the Ducal palace (yes, the dukes of Venice as in the doge, thank you![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
artful_doge) and is huge and really old and the mosaics inside are among the most beautiful things I've seen, even in this very beautiful city.
That's the doge's palace. It housed not only the executive, judicial, and legislative bodies of Venice, but the doge and his family as well. The Venetian republic lasted for a really long time, because they were very dedicated to the idea of justice - socially liberal, but very strict about serving justice. They were isolated too, the only way to reach it until the 19th century was by boat. The city's also sinking because it's basically built on a swamp, but hey.
Facing the sea.
The piazza from the balcony of San Marco.
The bell tower that stands in the piazza. I didn't go up there because you would pretty much have to carry me down, but Megan, Jamie, and Parissa did and they said that it was well worth it.
From around the corner, with the doge's palace and the sea.
After we finished at San Marco, a few of us went to San Zacchariah where he is supposedly buried - the father of John the Baptist, mind you. We looked at his tomb, but we couldn't figure out which was supposed to be the body and which was supposed to be the funeral effigy. We also went into the crypt of the church, and it was very Phantom of the Opera. It was a raised walkway so that you didn't have to wade through the water, and on the other end was an alter with a lone Mary statue on it. It was actually kind of creepy. But very Phantom of the Opera.
On the way back, Allison, Sarah, and I had a traghetto (which is a ferry gondola, not a fancy schmancy one that cost a lot of money for half an hour but just one that will take you across the Grand Canal for fifty cents) all to ourselves. So it was sort of like having a private gondola ride! Besides, there were three gondaliers for some reason, and they were very good looking.
Sarah (left) and Allison and me trying to be in the picture as I was taking it.
And then Allison took one of Sarah and me.
And Allison, Parissa, and I wandered around before dinner, just taking 238597593275 pictures.
(This is crooked because I was basically hanging over the side of a canal and trying not to fall in.)
(Parissa and Allison took one of me sort of like this not too long before I took this one of Parissa, so I had to. :) )
That was that for Friday. Dinner was lackluster, although at dinner Janet insisted (against hotel staff's requests) that she be tacked on to our table. It was like![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
customers_suck but I was in it. I wanted to weep. I even apologized to the hotel guy. I mean, come on. He just wanted to keep the aisle clear so that our food could be delivered in a timely fashion.
A bunch of people went out and even though I was determined to see more of Venice, I was exhausted and went to bed quite early. As I said, breakfast was quite delicious. See, Italians like to have chocolate things for breakfast. Which I have absolutely no problem with. Afterwards, we went to Santa Maria Gloriosa di Frari (although on our itinerary, it was typoed as Frafi, which I think is funnier), which is the big Franciscan church in Venice. It's gorgeous inside, as you'll see, although all the brick work on the wall? Not all brick. A lot of it is painted to look like brick. *nod*
This is the tomb of a painter, Tritian (not 100% that's spelled right) who did a lot of stuff for the church. It's a Very Big Tomb.
Okay, this tomb is effing creepy. Well, okay first of all, this guy was a sculptor from somewhere north of Venice. And a church there has a bit of him and this one has another. But that door in the middle of the pyramid? Is hanging open. *shudder*
This is the top of a doge's tomb.
The high alter - a wedding was getting ready to take place. :D
Monteverdi is also buried here.
Walking around after (we had the rest of the day after we saw this church) we found this boat maker's shop. This sign was hanging on the door. "I'm in the workshop." Come on, where do you see that in the United States? Nowhere.
Some random piazza.
This is the Rialto bridge, one of the three bridges that span the Grand Canal. Much like the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, it's covered with shops.
The view off the Rialto.
Okay, so after we crossed the Rialto we went back to the Piazza di San Marco looking for this mask shop that we found the day before. But I really, really needed something to eat. So I bought a very big sandwich and sat on the side of San Marco while I ate it. Not such a great idea. Because there are a lot of pigeons (who apparently attack tourists with plastic sacks):
That is how close they were getting. There is no zoom. There were just a lot of pigeons. I think pigeons are technically a flock, but I definitely think that the word "swarm" also applies.
The view off the Accademia bridge, which I crossed on the way back to the hotel.
This is the light fixture in our bedroom. I don't know for sure but I would bet that it's Murano glass.
All of us modelling masks we bought (the one I'm wearing I'm actually giving to my sister though, so shh).
Just holding them.
That night after dinner Jamie and Megan were going to go to Harry's Bar, which is pretty famous because Ernest Hemingway and Ezra Pound went there when they were, you know, living. Ashton Kutcher also goes there in Just Married. Allison, Parissa, and I tagged along and checked it out, and it was pretty much determined that it was too pricey for our tastes so what did we do? We went to the piazza di San Marco, sat at one of the outdoor bars, listened to a quintet, and split a bottle of cabernet for fifty euro.
(Not fifty euro each, fifty total, and only four of us drank so it came out to be about 12.50 each.They also charge about five euro for each person to cover the musicians, which is fine.)
The musicians were awesome. The violinists kept making eyes at Jamie, and as we consumed more wine it got funnier and funnier. They played some great music: New York, New York, Memory (okay, shut up, I like that song), and My Heart Will Go On (I cross my eyes every time I hear the Celine Dion version, but I like hearing a good arrangement of it; it's a beautiful song). They also played a Josh Groban song, but I'd be damned if I could tell you which one. The weather was gorgeous, and it was a wonderful memory. I kept the cork from the wine. :D
Parissa actually took this picture, and I shamlessly lifted it from facebook. That's Jamie, Megan in the middle, me, and San Marco in the background. :D
That's the quintet, but I don't know why it came out all blurry. They didn't look like that in person, I promise.
Sunday was the going home day. :( We were, by this time, all pretty much in agreement that it shouldn't be the London/Florence program, but the London/Venice program. It's a beautiful city. My favorite part was no traffic, i.e. no motorini ready to run my ass over. A motorini is either going to kill me or I am going to kill them. One of the two. Anyway.
So, we went to this palazzo that is now a museum. It was built by a family who bought their way into the golden book, although God strike me dead if I can remember their name. I hope it wasn't important. >_>
This is the courtyard, although they were like RAWR NO CAMERAS INSIDE so that was that.
Then we did more wandering.
This place provided masks for the movie Eyes Wide Shut. Which freaked me out a lot when I saw it, but I think I liked it. I'd have to watch it again to make sure, but I'm pretty sure I liked it! >_>
I also went to the Guggenheim collection museum because we were given ten euro for a museum, and so I felt obligated to use it, but I ended up leaving because the staff was... sort of rude. And honestly, I was exhausted, my feet hurt (my own fault for the shoes I was wearing BUT THEY MATCHED MY OUTFIT), and I was ready to sit down. So I left and went and sat on the south side of the island with my feet hanging over the edge. It was cool because if a particularly powerful wave came along it would hit the wall with more force and splash my feet.
Boat!
So it came time then to meet back at the hotel, collect our stuff, and board the vaporetto to go to the train station. The thing was a stop REALLY close and there was the Accademia which was a little bit of a hike but not too bad. Janet said if we didn't look like a group we could get on the one that was really close. All seventeen of us (sixteen students plus Gail) sat and blinked at Janet. I finally broke the silence with, "Are you kidding me?" I mean, seriously. We're eighteen people with a lot of luggage. We look like a group from a mile away. Apparently if we didn't talk to one another, we were just going to look like eighteen seperate people. Turisti!
Bah. Well, we wound up on the vaporetto and had to wait for a little bit to see where our track was. Allison and I were bored.
And out came the camera.
She uh. Bought her dad a gondalier's hat and modeled it. XD
I personally love this one.
I love this girl, what am I going to do without her? ;_;
My last look of Venice out of the window of the train. Bye!
If I go back to Italy, I think I'll have to go back to Venice. Maybe Rome. I can't decide. Well, I haven't been to Rome yet, right? Right.
That nonwithstanding, Venice itself was pretty great too.
Friday the train left at 8:30, so yeah. Early. x_x Janet insisted we draw slips of paper for our seat numbers, despite the fact that as more or less mature adults (okay, I don't know about mature, but adults at the very least) we should have been able to organize the sixteen of us into sixteen seats. But no. So we got there after a three hour train ride and... yeah. At first it looked sort of like New Jersey, but we got past all that and into the train station and it was like OMG WE'RE HERE. The Grand Canal was RIGHT THERE and it was beautiful. We boarded the vaporetto (water bus) to go to our hotel (which Janet said wasn't that nice but... well, let's say that it was a step above the Albert as far as accomodation goes and the breakfast was delicious).
Right across from the train station.
The three flags, left to right: European Union, Italy, and Venice.
We got off at the Accademia bridge, and walked quite aways down narrow streets (all the streets are narrow, BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE TO BE ABLE TO HOLD CARS!) to the hotel. I swear, I thought Janet was going to kill us and leave us for the crows. We had a lunch break and got to walk around a bit before we went to Piazza di San Marco.
From the other side of the island. I think that's Judecca down there.
HI GUYS!!!
Your average residential street in Venice. Honest to god.
San Marco! Okay. I can't remember if Janet said if this was the cathedral of Venice or not, but it's gorgeous inside. It's right next door, indeed, connected to the Ducal palace (yes, the dukes of Venice as in the doge, thank you
artful_doge) and is huge and really old and the mosaics inside are among the most beautiful things I've seen, even in this very beautiful city.That's the doge's palace. It housed not only the executive, judicial, and legislative bodies of Venice, but the doge and his family as well. The Venetian republic lasted for a really long time, because they were very dedicated to the idea of justice - socially liberal, but very strict about serving justice. They were isolated too, the only way to reach it until the 19th century was by boat. The city's also sinking because it's basically built on a swamp, but hey.
Facing the sea.
The piazza from the balcony of San Marco.
The bell tower that stands in the piazza. I didn't go up there because you would pretty much have to carry me down, but Megan, Jamie, and Parissa did and they said that it was well worth it.
From around the corner, with the doge's palace and the sea.
After we finished at San Marco, a few of us went to San Zacchariah where he is supposedly buried - the father of John the Baptist, mind you. We looked at his tomb, but we couldn't figure out which was supposed to be the body and which was supposed to be the funeral effigy. We also went into the crypt of the church, and it was very Phantom of the Opera. It was a raised walkway so that you didn't have to wade through the water, and on the other end was an alter with a lone Mary statue on it. It was actually kind of creepy. But very Phantom of the Opera.
On the way back, Allison, Sarah, and I had a traghetto (which is a ferry gondola, not a fancy schmancy one that cost a lot of money for half an hour but just one that will take you across the Grand Canal for fifty cents) all to ourselves. So it was sort of like having a private gondola ride! Besides, there were three gondaliers for some reason, and they were very good looking.
Sarah (left) and Allison and me trying to be in the picture as I was taking it.
And then Allison took one of Sarah and me.
And Allison, Parissa, and I wandered around before dinner, just taking 238597593275 pictures.
(This is crooked because I was basically hanging over the side of a canal and trying not to fall in.)
(Parissa and Allison took one of me sort of like this not too long before I took this one of Parissa, so I had to. :) )
That was that for Friday. Dinner was lackluster, although at dinner Janet insisted (against hotel staff's requests) that she be tacked on to our table. It was like
customers_suck but I was in it. I wanted to weep. I even apologized to the hotel guy. I mean, come on. He just wanted to keep the aisle clear so that our food could be delivered in a timely fashion.A bunch of people went out and even though I was determined to see more of Venice, I was exhausted and went to bed quite early. As I said, breakfast was quite delicious. See, Italians like to have chocolate things for breakfast. Which I have absolutely no problem with. Afterwards, we went to Santa Maria Gloriosa di Frari (although on our itinerary, it was typoed as Frafi, which I think is funnier), which is the big Franciscan church in Venice. It's gorgeous inside, as you'll see, although all the brick work on the wall? Not all brick. A lot of it is painted to look like brick. *nod*
This is the tomb of a painter, Tritian (not 100% that's spelled right) who did a lot of stuff for the church. It's a Very Big Tomb.
Okay, this tomb is effing creepy. Well, okay first of all, this guy was a sculptor from somewhere north of Venice. And a church there has a bit of him and this one has another. But that door in the middle of the pyramid? Is hanging open. *shudder*
This is the top of a doge's tomb.
The high alter - a wedding was getting ready to take place. :D
Monteverdi is also buried here.
Walking around after (we had the rest of the day after we saw this church) we found this boat maker's shop. This sign was hanging on the door. "I'm in the workshop." Come on, where do you see that in the United States? Nowhere.
Some random piazza.
This is the Rialto bridge, one of the three bridges that span the Grand Canal. Much like the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, it's covered with shops.
The view off the Rialto.
Okay, so after we crossed the Rialto we went back to the Piazza di San Marco looking for this mask shop that we found the day before. But I really, really needed something to eat. So I bought a very big sandwich and sat on the side of San Marco while I ate it. Not such a great idea. Because there are a lot of pigeons (who apparently attack tourists with plastic sacks):
That is how close they were getting. There is no zoom. There were just a lot of pigeons. I think pigeons are technically a flock, but I definitely think that the word "swarm" also applies.
The view off the Accademia bridge, which I crossed on the way back to the hotel.
This is the light fixture in our bedroom. I don't know for sure but I would bet that it's Murano glass.
All of us modelling masks we bought (the one I'm wearing I'm actually giving to my sister though, so shh).
Just holding them.
That night after dinner Jamie and Megan were going to go to Harry's Bar, which is pretty famous because Ernest Hemingway and Ezra Pound went there when they were, you know, living. Ashton Kutcher also goes there in Just Married. Allison, Parissa, and I tagged along and checked it out, and it was pretty much determined that it was too pricey for our tastes so what did we do? We went to the piazza di San Marco, sat at one of the outdoor bars, listened to a quintet, and split a bottle of cabernet for fifty euro.
(Not fifty euro each, fifty total, and only four of us drank so it came out to be about 12.50 each.They also charge about five euro for each person to cover the musicians, which is fine.)
The musicians were awesome. The violinists kept making eyes at Jamie, and as we consumed more wine it got funnier and funnier. They played some great music: New York, New York, Memory (okay, shut up, I like that song), and My Heart Will Go On (I cross my eyes every time I hear the Celine Dion version, but I like hearing a good arrangement of it; it's a beautiful song). They also played a Josh Groban song, but I'd be damned if I could tell you which one. The weather was gorgeous, and it was a wonderful memory. I kept the cork from the wine. :D
Parissa actually took this picture, and I shamlessly lifted it from facebook. That's Jamie, Megan in the middle, me, and San Marco in the background. :D
That's the quintet, but I don't know why it came out all blurry. They didn't look like that in person, I promise.
Sunday was the going home day. :( We were, by this time, all pretty much in agreement that it shouldn't be the London/Florence program, but the London/Venice program. It's a beautiful city. My favorite part was no traffic, i.e. no motorini ready to run my ass over. A motorini is either going to kill me or I am going to kill them. One of the two. Anyway.
So, we went to this palazzo that is now a museum. It was built by a family who bought their way into the golden book, although God strike me dead if I can remember their name. I hope it wasn't important. >_>
This is the courtyard, although they were like RAWR NO CAMERAS INSIDE so that was that.
Then we did more wandering.
This place provided masks for the movie Eyes Wide Shut. Which freaked me out a lot when I saw it, but I think I liked it. I'd have to watch it again to make sure, but I'm pretty sure I liked it! >_>
I also went to the Guggenheim collection museum because we were given ten euro for a museum, and so I felt obligated to use it, but I ended up leaving because the staff was... sort of rude. And honestly, I was exhausted, my feet hurt (my own fault for the shoes I was wearing BUT THEY MATCHED MY OUTFIT), and I was ready to sit down. So I left and went and sat on the south side of the island with my feet hanging over the edge. It was cool because if a particularly powerful wave came along it would hit the wall with more force and splash my feet.
Boat!
So it came time then to meet back at the hotel, collect our stuff, and board the vaporetto to go to the train station. The thing was a stop REALLY close and there was the Accademia which was a little bit of a hike but not too bad. Janet said if we didn't look like a group we could get on the one that was really close. All seventeen of us (sixteen students plus Gail) sat and blinked at Janet. I finally broke the silence with, "Are you kidding me?" I mean, seriously. We're eighteen people with a lot of luggage. We look like a group from a mile away. Apparently if we didn't talk to one another, we were just going to look like eighteen seperate people. Turisti!
Bah. Well, we wound up on the vaporetto and had to wait for a little bit to see where our track was. Allison and I were bored.
And out came the camera.
She uh. Bought her dad a gondalier's hat and modeled it. XD
I personally love this one.
I love this girl, what am I going to do without her? ;_;
My last look of Venice out of the window of the train. Bye!
If I go back to Italy, I think I'll have to go back to Venice. Maybe Rome. I can't decide. Well, I haven't been to Rome yet, right? Right.
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Miss you! Can't wait to see you again!
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Lovely pictures. <3
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Funny you should mention Casanova. That's Eric's last name. XD
It was really good wine, too.
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Your pictures are beautiful!
I fell down the stairs in Venice... yea...
*hugs*
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