me & the Tekes
I’ll just start off by saying that Venice is definitely the
most beautiful place that I have ever been to. Although it is very touristy (I
heard nearly as much English there from Americans than I did Italian) and
expensive, there is no other place like Venizia. But I’ll start the recap from
the beginning.
We spent
the first day in Padua,
going to the churches and exploring the small town. It was beautiful, despite
being caught in an afternoon downpour. But the best thing was, we found a great
restaurant right across the street from our hotel. You probably wouldn’t think
it, but it is sometimes difficult to get good pasta in Italy for a
cheap price.
the Grand Canal
There is pizza and panini everywhere, but pasta is generally only
served in nicer restaurants under the “primi” menu (first course). At this
place however, they had great pasta for about 5 euros, not to mention liter
pitchers of wine for about the same price. It was also fun to go to the grocery
store and get lunch, where meat, cheese, bread (or crackers), and wine won’t
kill your wallet (I even found a 1 euro bottle of red wine)! We spent the next
two days in
Venice,
and we had to get there by train since it is so difficult by bus.
The first
day was great, as we explored the city and met up at a couple of museums and
churches. It is almost unfathomable that they built this city on this chain of
islands; the engineering behind it must be amazing.
better view of the church
It is quite a challenge
trying to navigate the city by walking, as street names change by the block,
and you have to find the right bridges to cross at certain places. Many of us
bought day passes for the “vaporetto,” which is like a water bus that runs down
the
Grand Canal and stops every so often. That
day was fun, as we found nice places to eat for lunch and dinner, checked out
San Marco (St. Mark’s square) with all of its pigeons, stopped at an Irish pub
for a few drinks, and even rode on the famous gondola for about 100 euro a
boat. Split between 6 people, it was about 17 per person, but well worth it as
it was a beautiful ride at dusk through the canals. Probably the funniest thing
during the day was when I found myself sitting at a street café having drinks
with professor Lewcock (our 80-year old British art teacher; the dude is a
badass), and Sally, one of our trip leaders.
on teh gondola
Chilling with Lewcock is so much
fun, and hearing his stories (the guy is extremely well traveled) is awesome.I
think I’m also picking up Italian a little faster than I did German.
The second
day started off quite interesting, as we soon found out that all trains to Venice had been blocked
and would not run. Ironically enough, we have good old George Bush to thank for
that. Apparently, at many stations across the nation, many Bush protesters were
boarding trains to Rome,
where they were going to protest Bush and his audience with the Pope and prime
minister. After the police refused to let the trains of people go into Rome, the protesters got
out of the trains and sat on the lines, blocking nearly all of the train
traffic that afternoon.
Rachel is not enjoying this
Trains did start running again, but we were able to bus
in that day. It’s pretty funny when you think of how Bush’s tour of
Europe has paralleled our journey thus far. We seem to be
one step ahead of him every time, as we just barely missed the protests in
Prague and
Berlin
for the G8 summit. But anyway, back to
Venice.
The second day featured a bit more
exploring, but the best part was probably the concert we attended that night,
which was a chamber string ensemble known as the Interpretati Veneziani. They
are wonderful, and I would describe them as almost a rouge group of musicians
who are dedicated to playing purely Venetian music to its fullest extent. The
best part is their cellist, who looks like Johnny Depp and played perhaps the
most animated cello I have ever seen. It was pretty dang funny watching him,
and he did a crazy face-melting solo at the end. I also did a little bit of
shopping, as there are vendor everywhere trying to haggle with you. After the
bus ride back, I was definitely pleased with the city. Definitely the most
beautiful thing we’ve seen so far!
