This morning a group of eight from our study abroad program (me, Brenda, Minji, Luis, Kelsey, Sarah, Anthony & Marson) woke up in our 2 separate hotel rooms on the Island of Lido. Lido is a part of a connection of 117 small islands located in the Venetian Lagoon. An interesting fact is that the Venice Film Festival takes place on the Island of Lido every September.
Venice is a historically & culturally rich city found on the eastern coast of northern Italy. Our group specifically chose to come to Venice this particular weekend to participate in the Carnivale festivities. Carnivale is a annual festival that's hosted in Venice & starts around two weeks before Ash Wednesday. It ends of Shrove Tuesday or 'Fat Tuesday' (known in Mardi Gras terms) which is the day before Ash Wednesday.
Our group was exhausted from the work load of our busy week in Rome, in addition to waking up at 3:30am yesterday morning in order to pack our bags and make our 7am flight to Venice. Needless to say, after we checked into our hotel all of us took a nice long nap (lasting 5 hours) until we decided to make a little night tour of San Marco, grab some dinner, and tour some of Venice's famous sights.
So when we finally woke up late Saturday morning, we quickly dressed in our Carnivale 'costumes' and caught the taxi ferry to Piazza San Marco to help kick off Carnivale! We really lucked out with the weather having bright blue skies, moderate sun shine & non-freezing temperatures. It was a really beautiful day & perfect weather to explore downtown Venice :)
The first thing many of us decided to do was get our faces painted! It was relatively quick (10mins) & fairly inexpensive. Plus, it was a nice compromise to our Carnivale masks which obstructed our view and facial movements... We all chose different colors and we were fortunate that they all came out super cute! Traditionally, during Carnivale, people were allowed to wear masks to conceal their identity from others while conversing. The masks were decorated with complex designs, making them stand out. This is a centuries old tradition in Venice, making it an extremely popular festival amongst tourists and natives alike!
From here we decided to take a gondola ride around the many of the long and winding canals :) The Gondola is a traditional flat-bottomed Venetian Rowing Boat, and perfectly designed for the conditions of the lagoon. For centuries gondolas were the primary means of transportation, and the most common watercraft within Venice. Today, the iconic boats serve as traghetti (ferries) over the Grand Canal. However, their primary function is to carry tourists for sightseeing excursions....like me!!! And let me tell you, the Gondolliers definitely got their monies worth with us (me, Minji & Luis went twice this weekend)!!!
After our little midday tour, the three of us & the rest of the group met up for a late lunch at a local Chinese restaurant in the San Polo district in Venice. Some of the group had dinner at this same restaurant the night before, and it came highly recommended from two other girls in our program (Gina & Natalie). So, after ordering the first round of wine we decided to go around the group and give a brief statement of what each of us were thankful for. The collective response was that we were all very thankful for the opportunity to meet eachother through the UW Honors study abroad program, and that we were looking forward to spending this last weekend's adventure here in the beautiful city of Venice & with all of us =))))
After lunch we spent a lot of time exploring all the different areas that make Venice a world famous landmark & help contribute to it's unique characterists. Then, after the sun started setting, we decided to head to Santa Croce (known as the College district) to find a nice spot for dinner. We decided on this really picturesque and popular Italian restaurant in Piazzale Roma (unfortunarely, i can't remember the name). The food was fantastic and the servers were very friendly with their recommendations on dishes and wine.
After dinner some of the group decided to make it back to the hotel because they were tired, and some decided to go tour another area. However, four of us (me, Minji, Luis & Anthony) decided that it was time to (literally) get the party started!!! So we headed back to Piazza San Marco for the Carnivale kick-off concert!!! Walking through the street and headed in that direction, you could literally feel the vibrations of the music through the streets and streaming into your body... It was crazy! Not to mention that everywhere you turned there were people donning their Carnivale costumes & masks!! It was like a crazy threatrical Halloween party!! I freaking loved every minute of it!! =))) Heading the concert was this Italian soft rock/pop group and they were extremely entertaining (though we couldn't understand a word they were saying...) but we were having fun pushing ourselves through the mob of people, dancing (aka jumping around), and 'rocking out' all the same ;) It was the perfect ending to our Carnivale experience! Ciao Ciao!!
No comments:
Post a Comment