Clownin' Around at Venice Carnival

So Sunday of our weekend to Slovenia we made a pit stop in Venice to catch the tail end of Carnival. Carnival has been happening for hundreds of years, and people dress in OUT OF THIS WORLD mascarade outfits and walk through out the town and celebrate before Ash Wednesday. It's 2 weeks long, basically a giant block party with music, people, masks, and food. Besides walking around and seeing all of the bridges, gondolas, restaurants, and precious Italian families, it had seemed to be quite the long weekend. A lot of the people in costumes would pose for photos, and we got to see a costume contest on the main stage of best couples. In the main piazza, San Marco, there is the Basilica of Saint Mark (hence being named San Marco for Saint Mark), and my friend Maddie told me that is the church he is buried in. We walked inside the church, but were not allowed in the chapel, and up on the ceiling are thousands, maybe millions of gold and painted tiles, each apart of a mosaic that represents a book in the Bible, all books in the New and Old Testaments. Googled some info and theres over 800 square meters of mosaics. Wowzers!The outside of the church has gold painted statues and is another great example of Greek architecture- absolutely beautiful! Took over 400 years to create.

There is also the main bell tower, city hall, and cafes with tables outside to enjoy being around the piazza. I also learned that Venice originated to be a safe haven during wars, and having to cross the massive body of water surrounding it made it hard to enemies to attack. Also learned that Venice is sinking, and hope to visit it again with my parents before that happens!

 The hard thing about maneuvering around Venice was that there were over 300,000 people on the islands of Venice the day we were there. It was also cold, and raining. Still didn't kill my time in the magical city! We got lost a few times, stopped to have some pizza, and on the main bridge bought my first very touristy article of clothing: a stripped hoodie sweatshirt that matched the stripes of the gondola drivers.

 I didn't go on a gondola, but I did walk on countless amounts of bridges over canals. Didn't fall in at all but we did get lost a lot! So many dead ends, and without a map, it was hard to rejoin our group when it came time to leave. As we were heading back to our bus I ran into one of my friends from high school. Carl Tveite was in my grade at Jefferson, goes to St. Thomas but is studying abroad in Barcelona. First run in from Jefferson and was so awesome!! We left early because of the rain, and we were all tired from the weekend it was plenty of time to get to know Venice. Might go visit when it's a little warmer, but if not it was still a wonderful time!! Next stop: Siena! Much Love, AF