Julie in Rome: Venice Carnevale!

After the snow melted, everything slowly went back to normal. Classes resumed, and on Tuesday we went to the Capitoline Museums with my theology class. The museums were awesome, and it really made me wish I was in Rome with my high school latin teacher because he knows EVERYTHING and would have made the trip much more interesting. My theology professor is a moral theologian who teaches at PC, so statues and art are not her forte. She spent most of the museum trip saying "now what do you guys think this is?" and one of my classmates would have to google the statues and tell her the background information. Very frustrating. However, we got to see a lot of stuff that I had learned about and still remember from Latin, which was cool. The She-Wolf statue was a memorable one, as well as the gigantic Marcus Aurelius on horseback statue and the Hall of Emperors. Before my mom and the whole gang come, I will have to brush up on some of the other things so I can give them a tour.

That weekend we had planned on staying in Rome, but as my roommate Shannon and I checked our calendars, we realized that we didn't have time for a weekend in Venice! Now, I have heard mixed reviews about Venice, but Meg Walsh said it was one of her favorite cities, and we're usually on the same page about these things, so I figured I had to get there. The only problem was that this particular weekend was the first weekend of Carnevale, the Venice Mardi Gras celebration. It is the oldest Mardi Gras celebration in the world. Now, that all sounds great, until you check out the price of train tickets...through the roof! One of the tour companies was doing a day trip to Venice for the carnevale, but we wanted to actually see Venice rather than spend the day on a bus. So, we made a goal to figure out a way to get to Venice or cheap. And we did! We were able to find round trip transportation and a night at a hostel for only 10 euros more than the day trip. Pretty impressive.

We left early Friday morning for Florence, where we had a two hour layover. Perfect amount of time for lunch! Based off another suggestion from the lovely Danica Lynch, we walked across the river to Gusta Pizza. Still a little disappointed that our Naples trip was cancelled, we wanted to fill the void. Let me just preface this by saying I am not and never have been a huge pizza person. I eat it occasionally and enjoy it, but I would never choose pizza over chicken or fish or pasta. This pizza was different. It honestly MELTED in my mouth. My entire pie was consumed in no more than six minutes. It was absolutely fantastic. Naples has nothing on Gusta. Mom, Patti, if you're reading this, make sure you add Gusta to the itinerary, preferably when I will be in Florence to go with you!!

After some stress at the train station (one train was cancelled and we almost missed the other one), we were on our way to Venice. When we finally got there, it was COLD. And WINDY. Venice is made up of almost 120 islands, so there are smalls rivers and bridges everywhere. They do not have cars on the roads, and the taxis and buses are actually boats that run through the rivers. All the buildings are brightly colored, and the city is so quaint and beautiful, despite the cold. It was around 4PM, so we checked into our hostel, which was absolutely perfect. We arrived just in time, as the complimentary tea began at 4. We dropped our bags, warmed up with tea and Nutella cookies, and we were ready to head out and explore the city. Technically, the celebrating began the next day, so we were excited to have one night in Venice without the crowds and chaos.

About thirty feet from out hostel, there was a small abandoned boat in the river. I didn't bring my camera to Venice for fear of it being stolen or broken, so Shannon was on camera duty for the weekend. I asked her to take a picture of me with the boat and the river in the background. She got down on the dock to improve the angle, and BOOM, fell right in the water!!! I didn't even hear a splash, and I was looking the opposite direction at the time, but all of a sudden I heard an innocent cry for help, and saw her hanging onto the dock for dear life. I have never laughed harder in my 20 years of life. I tried to pull her out, but the dock was slippery and I almost fell in myself, besides, I was laughing so hard I couldn't really focus on the situation at hand. All of a sudden, two random Italian men came sprinting across the piazza and plucked her from the murky water, leaving her to dry on the dock. After awhile of hysterical laughter, we finally came to, and walked three doors down to our hostel to get her changed into some warm clothes. (Side note: there is no sewer system in Venice, so most of the sewage seeps into the canal and tributaries, so gross). The sad part of the story is that her camera did break, and she had to buy a new one. But I have to give her credit because she was a very good sport, I would have been miserable the rest of the weekend. Also, that story was my inspiration for starting this blog, so shout out to Shannon for that! It is definitely a story that I will remember forever.

After she showered, we walked around for awhile and got her some new clothes. We stop in for a quick bite to eat and called it a night, since Saturday was a big day. We woke up early on Saturday and headed into town. On the way, we stopped and got masks! In a true New Orleans Mardi Gras fashion, I got one that is green, purple and gold. Soon after we got into the center, we found Meg, my friend from Sundae School! She was with two friends, so the 5 of us spent the day together. Venice Carnevale is hard to explain. There were people there of all ages, some in $1,000+ costumes, some in full body paint. Every piazza was bumping with street performers and their audiences. In the main square there was a huge stage and there were groups performing all day and night. Basically, it was a huge party. We were outside the entire day, with the exception of a few stops into various cafes to warm up. It was so fun to just walk around and see all of the different masks and costumes. There was even a group of college aged boys dressed as pigs, with full pink suits, face paint and noses. Also, there was a group of 20+ people all in banana suits. I wish I had more time to plan ahead! I guess I'm not as smart as Steve Walsh when it comes to always having a costume on me! There were people there from all over the world. I met people from Switzerland, Brazil, United States, Portugal, the list goes on. Thinking back that far, it is tough to remember every costume and detail, but a lot of people went all out. Later that day, we ran into even more people we knew. Europe is a small continent. We hadn't booked a hostel for that night, so we took a night train home. Although it was another great weekend, once again, it was great to be back in Rome