Venice ….aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh BRAVO!!!!

            OK soooo take anything I have seen so far and times it by ten! VENICE IS … WOW…

Really, I can’t even explain it. It’s not only the beauty of the city but the art that literally MAKES the city. There are galleries everywhere, but that is not where the ‘fine arts’ are… just look at the ceiling of almost every building you walk into…it’s BEAUTIFUL. The buildings are so full of character and they seem to be in their original architectural form (well most of the buildings at least) and most of the architectural style is Gothic… MY FAVOURITE!!!… they say that Venice is the best preserved big city in Europe…and it is over 1500 years old! There is music playing on gondolas and in some of the squares …last night we went to a classical concert where they played the 4seasons by Vivaldi and some Mozart and … something else I can’t remember haha. But it was fantastic.  Almost every store you go into you can buy masques or marionettes or statues and drawings of Commedia dell’Arte characters… it is just RICH with all art! I really wish I could have come here during ‘Carnevale’ where people dress up in costume and wear masks …I have seen pictures…looks AMAZING….

            Honestly, Foolish Wit gang, I SINCERELY think you all should come here… I keep finding myself thinking of each and every one of you guys and saying “ooohh god I wish—- was here… she/he’d LOVE this…” makes me miss you all the more.

This city was created on a lagoon and that means that there are NO vehicles ANYWHERE… there are boats of all sorts (the ‘buses’ are boats called vaporetto)…even the taxis are boats… Venice is constructed of hundreds of islands that are all connected by little foot bridges…soooo beautiful! So the MOST fun thing to do here is simply walk around and get lost…you eventually find yourself at a main sight or landmark anyways so it’s not so bad. Yesterday we also went to Doge’s Palace…which was CRAZY…it’s full of art and was the seat of the Venetian government and was the home of the Duke and it is attached to the prison by the ‘Bridge of Sighs’ called so because of all the prisoners that were sentenced to prison (actual dungeons) and had to cross that bridge and see Venice for their last time. It was SSSOOOO COOL to actually walk through it.… there are even writings, carvings and drawings  on the walls of the prison cells from past prisoners (many of naked women but at a grade five caliber of sketch haha).

            Anyways… Saint Mark’s Square is where all the pigeons are… man it was SO much fun just to buy some corn and feed them… they sit on your shoulders and head… it’s kinda gross to think about, but FUN and it’s neat when they sit on your shoulder and you can hear them talk… it’s quite cute actually.

            What else can I say…. I LOVE this city. I think THIS would be a neat place to get a summer job. AND THE LANGUAGE … it’s so beautiful! I want to learn Italian now. The people here are quite nice, like when we got here two days ago at midnight and some stranger asked where we were trying to go (in VERY broken English) and motioned ‘where are you sleeping’ and I told him and he took us there. I thought ‘hmm perhaps this guy is trying to lead us to some dark alley, note to self-don’t follow down dark places’ or  that he WOULD show us the way and then demand payment or something… but nope… he was just a nice guy trying to help-out some tired lost souls. Unfortunately, due to the language barrier, he did not lead us to the right hotel…so I went back to the directions I had originally written down, got on a bus and asked the bus driver to tell us when we were at our stop, to which he agreed… then, after about eight min of driving, he pulled a u-turn and started going back the way he came…the only other man on the bus asked what he was doing and the bus driver said that he forgot to tell us when to get off… the next thing we knew he took us DIRECTLY in front of our hotel… SO NICE!!!

            Oh and Gelati…mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm… and MOM you would LOVE the baking here… the biscuits are AMAZING as are the cookies and bread… I can’t stop eating them and they are so cheap!

            Anyways, tonight we are going on a ‘couchette’ (night train you sleep on) to Rome… so hopefully it will be as beautiful and fantastical as Venice.