Venice, You Will Be Missed

As this past weekend rolled around a group of us decided to travel to Venice to get away for the weekend.  This was my first experience with riding the train and it proved to be a very easy process.  We arrived in Venice late Friday night and made our way to the hostel.  We choose a hostel called Camping Jolly where you get to sleep in tents.  Now these tents were not what people think of back in the states when we go camping.  They were large tent like structures with beds inside.  Our hostel was amazing, at least from my viewpoint, as it had probably over 100 different tents to sleep in, a pool, night club, grocery store, hot warm showers, and more.  The best part about this hostel was it was only 11 euros a night! (Can you tell I am a broke college student?) It was about 15 minutes from bus outside of town.  Being outside of town was  wonderful because it was quiet, yet lively with people from all over the world staying there.

Saturday morning we headed into the city bright and early to explore.  As Haley and I had not done much research on the city we wanted to just explore and check out a couple of places that were recommended to us.  We got a map, although it was not much help to us because venice curves and twists and there are about 5 different ways to get to each place, so we just followed the signs.  We made our way to St. Marks Square first as we knew we wanted to explore Saint Mark’s Basilica.  There is no better way to describe the Basilica than beautiful.  It is the city cathedral and mass was going on (off to the side of the church) as we went and toured the inside. As you walk inside the doors the walls from floor to ceiling are elaborately decorated with murals and different scenes.  They look as if they were just painted yesterday as the colors are so rich and vibrant.  It was amazing to walk around the inside and be able to just enjoy and capture the beauty of the basilica.  The pictures I have taken do not do the place justice and if anyone is ever in Venice it is a must see.

Another amazing piece of architecture in the city was Doge’s Palace. Doge’s Palace has so much history and story to the entire palace and needs a lengthy amount of time to take in each room.  What is nice about Doge’s Palace is that each room has the history of what happened or went on in that room starting from the 1500’s until the early 1900’s when it later became the museum it is today.  The palace is massive to say the least with high walls surrounding the courtyard.  Each new staircase we went up was filled with painting on the ceilings and each room was covered in paintings from floor to ceiling.  Some of the rooms, like the chamber room, we were allowed to sit and just take in all of the history that was surrounding us.  Sadly pictures were not allowed in the interior of the Palace, so I guess you will all just have to go and see it for yourselves one day.

As we continued our journey around the city we explored other small churches along the way.  They each also were decorated with murals and chandeliers to fill the high vaulted ceilings.  Venice is such a beautiful city as each building or house you past is unique and different in their own way.  Some has flowers growing outside the windows, colorful painted houses, shutters of different colors, and doors each unique to their own home.  Some were old and worn as others had carvings in them each with a different handle to open the doors.

Venice is a beautiful city full of small narrow alleyways, houses of all colors, canals filled with gondolas, and many steps and bridges to cross the water.  Each alleyway is filled with shops from amazing gelato, pasta, wine, and gifts.  It was the perfect getaway and weekend to remember as my first trip with friends while abroad.

Pictures to come.

Ciao!