Venice, Vincenzia, and Verona

Our class trip to Northern Italy before Spring Break!

Day 1: VENICE
We started our journey by bus from Orvieto at 7:00 am. We stopped shortly in Florence to see the Church of the Autostrada (Highway). This church is an interesting mesh of curves and shapes that aren’t normally found in religious architecture and there is no bell tower, just a couple bells hanging only 8 ft. off of the ground. We reboarded the bus and eventually ended up in Venice around 1:00. We took a Vaporetto from the parking area to where our hotel was. A vaporetto is a bigger boat that is the main form of public transportation. There are no cars in Venice. Which was wonderful! Our hotel was the Belle Arti by the Accademia Museum (kind of close to San Marco’s (St. Mark's) Square, but on the other side of the Grand Canal). We had a small little room and balcony, but the hotel was nice with a great area to sit outside in their garden. For the afternoon, we tried to take the advice of several people who had been to Venice, and we “got lost” in Venice. We just walked around leisurely and didn’t look at the map ever. We accidentally ran in San Marco’s at one point and we crossed a bridge and then got to the top and realized that is was the Rialto Bridge. We checked out a few restaurants for dinner and finally chose one overlooking the Grand Canal. It’s is a lot of fun to just walk around without a plan in Venice. There’s tons of shops, especially glass shops, and other fun things to see. They are also known for their awesome gelato.

Day 2: VENICE
We ate breakfast at the hotel, which was the best assortment of pastries, meats, cheese, cereals and everything you could imagine. After breakfast, we walked to San Marco’s Square to meet Marco for our morning tour. He told us about the columns located just at the entrance of the San Marco’s Square, which are referred to as the “Lover’s Columns” and represent the symbols of Venice. The current symbol of Venice is the winged lion and you can find it EVERYWHERE in Venice on EVERYTHING. Then he took us in a small chapel in the back of San Marco where tourists aren’t technically allowed unless they have special permission. He wanted us to show us the most famous gold fresco painting of the Madonna and child, which the Venetians were extremely proud of, because they stole it from Constantinople. Then we took our Marco-led tour of the Doge’s Palace and we got to see the private family quarters, the government meeting rooms and the prison. Afterwards, we found a bar to grab a sandwich in. Venice has the BEST wraps, which are stuffed full of meats, cheese and spinach. We then took Marco’s suggestion and rode the Vaporetto up and down the Grand Canal for a few hours and got to see all of the houses and buildings along the Canal. It was a lot of fun, and free, however, a bit chilly. After getting off the Vaporetto we found some good gelato and headed to the Academia Museum. Before dinner, we went shopping at a glass shop for some jewelry. Then we joined another group of students and went to a highly recommended Trattoria (like a more casual restaurant) for dinner, which had some incredible pizza. We then wandered over to the popular bar and club district and asked one of the Italians we ran into which bar was the best. He pointed us in the direction of a bar on the corner which had a special that night on Spritzers, but there was also a game on so the bar was full of football hooligans. But we stayed outside, so that we were out of the way, and we managed to make friends with a group from England.

Day 3: VENICE
After breakfast, Marco met us at the Rialto Bridge and lead us on a morning walk through the Northern part of Venice. We made short pit stops at several squares and churches along the way. The main highlight of the walk was the San Giovanni e Paolo and we were able to go inside and see the chapel. After the walk with Marco, we headed back to the San Marco area to get lunch in “sandwich row” which had been recommended by several other students. For the afternoon, we signed up to take an excursion to the islands of Murano, Burano, and Torcello. Murano is the island that makes all the glass products. The glass used to be made in shops in Venice, but the Venetians began to fear that all the kilns and ovens that were ablaze night and day would someday lead to a mega fire disaster and it would destroy all of Venice, so they forced the glass blowers to move to the island next door, called Murano. We got to see a glass smith make a vase and then another one made a horse. Then we got to go into the store and see all the glasses, vases and chandeliers. The chandeliers were amazing and I’ve never seen such extreme eccentric pieces before (or prices). Next was Burano and this is the island that is known for its brightly colored houses. It was the fisherman’s island, so the houses were colored so that the fisherman could see their homes when coming in from sea. It is also know for its lace. They have several places to get handmade lace and you can watch some of the women knitting lace in the shops. Lastly, we went to Torcello, which is a fairly vacant and morose place, but its known for its cathedral which has an interior that is lined in gold mosaics. After our boat excursion, we headed to another recommended seafood restaurant that was family owned and we were served by the nicest little old man who had a great sense of humor and loved joking with us. After gorging ourselves in a mesh of shrimp, mussels, lobster, fish, calamari and more, we went nearby to a bookstore, recommended by Marco. It was a rather hole-in-the-wall sort of place, but it was actually huge inside and books were just piled up. You definitely had to dig to find what you wanted. The back door dumped off into a canal and was labeled “fire exit”. I bought an Italian cookbook there and so now maybe I can cook something that’s actually “Italian”. This was followed by a leisurely walk back to the hotel and crashing for the night.

Day 4: VENICE, VINCENZIA, VERONA
My roommate, Meg and I woke up at 6:00 am and sleepily wandered over to San Marco’s Square and sat on the stairs by the gondola docks and watched the sunrise over Venice with the remainder of a bottle of wine from a few nights earlier. We left Venice around 9:00 am and headed for Vincenzia. On the way, we stopped at a small town to see the Brion cemetery, designed by the Spanish architect, Carlos Scarpa. We reached Vincenzia and only stayed a few hours and wandered around to see the several buildings designed by the ancient architect Palladio. We arrived in Verona and spent the remainder of the day just exploring the town. This is the supposed location of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, so it is quite the tourist mecca. We walked down the main street and were instantly sucked into a small café, which advertised 32 different flavors of hot chocolate. We then stopped at a bookstore and I found a Rick Steve’s 2009 Italy book, which I had been looking for. It has the best recommendations for sights, hotels, eating, and tons and tons of history. We then, with the help of Rick Steves, found a good restaurant, which had awesome spaghetti and crostini.

Day 5: VERONA
We went to the Castelvecchio in the morning and explored the museum and castle grounds, and got to walk along the guard wall in the garden. This was pretty much the only thing I could do for the day, because I had to catch a 1:00 train home. I actually had to catch a train to Bologna and switch trains and then come to Orvieto. I was lucky though because I had 4 other students with me, so with the 5 of us, we managed to find our way around fairly easily. So I arrived back home around 7:00 and that ended our trip to the north. I loved Venice and if I ever came back to Italy, I think that I would spend most of my time in Venice. Now, I am patiently awaiting the arrival of my parents and my brother, who will arrive in Rome tomorrow morning, and will be meeting me at the Orvieto train station around noon!