Venice

First stop of spring break. Kevin and I landed in the Pisa airport by Sunday morning and reached the Venice train station by Sunday afternoon. The Italian train system is wonderful. You can go to a train station and buy a ticket to anywhere in the country for a train leaving probably in the next hour. However, Italy is bigger than you think (it took nearly three and a half hours from Pisa to Venice in train time).

However, our first taste of Italy came before Venice. We befriended a girl from Chicago who was living with a host family in Florence for a year. She was a vocal critic of the Berlusconi government, citing his reported control of 90% of the national media and the lack of women officials in government. In her words, Italy's a great place to visit, but not so hot to live. I can't comment on the living, but visiting sure was amazing.

The first scene after Kevin and I put our bags down at our hostel. Before this sunset, we ate at a restaurant with outdoor tables on the water. It was the most peaceful meal I think I've ever had. Light breeze, still water, occasional boat, good pizza, this was certainly the life. We were so jealous of the Italians near us who looked like they did this every weekend.

As you know, Venice runs on vaporetto, or the boat in the picture. The per-trip charge is high (6.50 euros) so we bought a three-day pass. For us, riding the vaporetto was incredible in itself. On the first night, we just took the vaporetto until we hit a spot we liked, which of course ended up being the tourist-y Rialto. Surprisingly I don't have a picture of Rialto, but it's an easy-to-recognize bridge bustling with restaurants and shops nearby.

The courtyard of the Doge's Palace. I learned a lot about Venice here, especially its history as a maritime power and the significance of the doge, or the political leader. The Hall of the Great Council is enormous. Apparently, until the 14th century, every male aristocrat participated in Venetian government in this massive hall. Later government officials gained prestige by tracing their roots back to members of this Great Council - basically if you lived in Venice for generations, you had access to greater political power.

The ceiling leading to the Senate and debating rooms in the Doge's Palace. As you can tell, much of the palace was splendidly decorated. Each doge brought his own herald or symbol so many of the ceilings are covered in different symbols. Also the Bridge of Sighs is noteworthy. The judge's chambers, along with most government functions, were located in the Doge's Palace. Those convicted crossed the Bridge of Sighs into the adjacent building which held the prison cells. You can go into the cells, and it's a wonder that anyone came out of there with their sanity intact. It's dark, cold, and isolated with inch-thick walls of marble. However, as you can guess, with centuries of history and power, the rest of the palace is quite a sight. Definitely recommend.

The Doge's Palace is located in Piazza San Marco, which is the main tourist square in Venice. St. Mark's Basilica (pictured above), the Clock Tower, a couple art museums, and a couple expensive restaurants comprise the rest of the square. The Basilica has a tower, but save your money and go across the square to the Clock Tower, which is much higher.

A view of Piazza San Marco from the Clock Tower. This view faces away from St. Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace. Note the obnoxiously large LaCoste ad. I couldn't believe that Venice would let LaCoste ruin their main tourist square.

A view of the rest of the city from the Clock Tower. It's interesting to compare this view with the view of Paris from Notre Dame or the Arc de Triumph. All the roofs have much more color than the ones in Paris.

A random church. One of the things I loved in Venice, and all of Italy for that matter, was the architecture. You could walk around aimlessly, get lost, and still stumble on an utterly gorgeous building or view. In fact, that's what Kevin and I did for much of the second day after we'd explored Piazza San Marco. We must've creeped some people out since we explored every little alleyway, right up to their homes, but it was well worth it.

We also bought Carnival masks. Watch out for the tourist-y places near Piazza San Marco. We went further upriver and found good masks for 8 euros. It was a major pain making sure they didn't break in my luggage, but hopefully at Halloween, the effort will prove worthwhile. My friends from Florence said they went to Carnival and had a blast. They had to sleep in the train station (which was not a blast), but if you avoid that little inconvenience, I imagine it would be quite fun.

For dinner on the second (and last) night, we met up with a big group of friends. Trying to get home, Kevin and I got utterly lost. Especially at night, the alleyways are so tiny and numerous. The night vaporetto don't run as often so to get to the right station, we spent nearly an hour and a half navigating, getting to an abandoned station, and navigating to Rialto, where more vaporetto run. Yeah, quite scary when you hear footsteps or voices in a random, quiet alleyway, but hey, we made it home safely.

A final reminder about how gorgeous Venice was (I'm talking about the water, not about Kevin). The weather, the vaporetto, the Clock Tower, the pizza, the Carnival masks all combined to make a great time. You'll notice the history seems a bit drawn out in the Doge's Palace, but even that site was informative and interesting.