Venice - Carnevale

I spent the second week in February traveling to the beautiful city of Venice – built entirely on water. It has six different districts and you can either walk along the canal to get to them or take a ferry. Movies and pictures can’t do justice to just how pretty and amazing Venice is. I choose this particular weekend to travel there because of CARNEVALE season – a Venetian tradition where people dress up in masks and costumes and gather in San Marco Square to celebrate. It is similar to what Mardi Gras in New Orleans would be – but without nude people and crazy drunk Americans. And much more cultural and authentic.

We took a six-hour train into Venice on Friday night, and stayed at a Holiday Inn for the weekend. It was nice to stay in a clean and secure place that had unlimited amounts of hot water J I thoroughly enjoyed the free American buffet-style breakfast that I got upgraded to receive. It was delicious, and a good way to begin the day. The next day we bought a 36-hour bus and ferry ride, because you need to take a ferry or water taxi to travel from one point in Venice to another. How interesting that the city does not have actual cars but water taxis or ferries to travel! We began the day by shopping around for a unique mask that we could wear for the festivities. On that particular day, there was going to be a parade and an evening concert in San Marco Square. After trying on dozens of masks, I settled on a navy blue and gold one that was pretty big and obnoxious. Most of my friends selected smaller ones, but I wanted something that would stand out. San Marco Square itself was so amazing at first glance  - St. Mark’s church was breathtakingly beautiful. We walked around and took pictures for a while before finding a nearby restaurant for lunch. The restaurant was a tourist trap with terrible service, but we were so hungry that we settled for it. After lunch my friends and I each bought a bottle of wine and headed back to the main square to watch the parade. We met up with other people in my program and spent the afternoon drinking, taking pictures in masks and watching people dressed up in obscene costumes walk around San Marco Square. One thing is for sure – only the Americans visiting Venice were actually drinking publicly in this square….apparently it’s not suppose to be a shitshow like Mardi Gras is.

We went to dinner with the group far away from San Marco Square so that we wouldn’t be near touristy restaurants. I wasn’t hungry so I skipped ordering food and got wine instead, which put me at a happy place by 6pm. Afterwards, we found this winery place that let you fill up one liter of wine in any bottle for 2 euros. It was a FANTASTIC deal – because the wine tasted good and it was so cheap! I knew I didn’t need the wine, but I couldn’t pass up the deal. We decided to walk back to San Marco Square for the “evening party” because not everyone in the group had the ferry pass. It was a long walk, but it was really fun going up and down the streets and looking at the different shops that were selling Venetian masks and costumes. We spent the rest of the night in the square – drinking, dancing and listening to music. It was VERY cold, to the point where my toes and fingers were numb – but I had a great time. My greatest difficulty was finding a bathroom – only customers were allowed to use the bathroom at any nearby cafés and there were no public bathrooms. So, I ended up buying the cheapest thing every time I had to use the bathroom – an expresso shot. I had a total of 4 expresso shots by the end of the night. That mixed in with over a bottle of wine = not good things for your body. Gathering the girls and finding our way back to the Holiday Inn was quite the journey and made for some very interesting memories.

The next day we decided to take the ferry to other areas of the city and explore. We quickly came to realize that almost everything was closed – either because it was Sunday or because everyone went to San Marco Square for Carnevale festivities. The only other area that was open was Murano – a place known to make and shape real glass into various objects. We went to Murano and saw a demonstration of how real glass is made. It was really cool to see the glass artists make different objects & color them. Afterwards we shopped around for Murano glass souvenirs. As fond as I was of this Murano glass, I ended up falling in love with a random bronze ring with a turquoise gem that was displayed at one of the small shops. I decided to buy the ring as my souvenir because I knew I would most likely break any glass object before it made it back to the states. Afterwards we went to Rialto Bridge, which is the main bridge crossing Venice’s grand canal and it is covered entirely by shops. It’s a great picture taking point, and it looks really pretty in the evening just as the soon is going down. By the time it was early evening, we were all really exhausted so we spent some time in a café drinking hot chocolate before heading to dinner. Hot chocolate in Italy makes any hot chocolate in America seem like a joke….it is sooo good. We rested in the hotel lounge for some time before getting on our midnight train back to Rome. This train ride was awful. It was an overnight train, I had booked my tickets last minute so did not have official seats, the train was extremely cold, and my stomach did not feel well. I would have given any amount of money to somehow have magically gotten home and avoided this train ride – but life does not work that way. I was SOO happy to be home and crawl into my bed at 7:30am. It’s amazing to think that I’m calling my little Rome apartment “home” J

Venice Carnevale was pretty cool, and going to it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I can only hope that some day I’ll see be in New Orleans for Mardi Gras and at least be able to compare the two events.

P.S. I did not do the ever-famous gondola ride through the canals of Venice – but I plan to be back with a lover some day and do it. At the very least, I want to re-visit Venice for a day in a month or two when it is much warmer and I can enjoy the scenery better.