Venice

Wow, so I have been slacking off and haven't updated in a while... but a lot has been going on! This past week/end my parents came into town. They flew in last Thursday morning at like 8, and I not only made them stay up all day but then fly to Venice that night. Least to say they were a bit jet lagged and not too happy with me. Nonetheless, at like ten pm that night we jumped on a water-bus in Venice!!!! Venice is completely navigated on foot and by canal, there are no roads or cars, just waterways and gondolas! It was absolutely amazing, especially to come in at night with all the buildings lit up around us. The architecture is mixed through the centuries but there are enormous churches, palaces, and ornate bridges. The city mapping however, not so good. That whole streets being parallel is apparently not an Italian thing. So it took us a while to find the hotel- but that too ended up being very cool. Nothing like the hostels I am used to. Plus the room was only prepped for 2, so they just had to give me my own queen sized room. I know, life is hard... So yeah, the next day we went exploring with Rick Steves as our guide. Venice is famous for blown glass and masques! They have the third largest Mardi Gra in the world and everyone wears masquerade gear- and we are having our on masquerade at the Rome Center- so of course I need an authentic mask. And like every other city (in the world I 'm coming to find) we checked out billions of churches and works of art. Of course we also investigated Italy's most famous art: dining! Not gonna lie, it is much easy to experience food when mom and dad are paying. I think over the course of the week we literally must have had 20 bottles of wine, plus a lot of pizza, pasta, bread, and caprese (italian dish with tomatoes and mozzarella). Probably the highlight of the trip for me was the all classic and ever expensive: gondola ride! My friends were also in Venice for the weekend with school, and we met up with them (by accident) at sunset on Rialto bridge at sunset. After exposing my mom to petrofils, we decided that we needed to take the gondola ride in Venice, so mom and dad, sarah, olenka, lindsay, and I all piled in and took a tour of the grand canal in a gondola!! I know I'm probably making a boat ride out to be more than it is, but c'mon! I think every girl (maybe boy) dreams her whole life of getting to float through the canals of venice on a gondola! Granted, I was slightly disappointed I was with my parents and three girl friends instead of my boyfriend, but oh well, still a good time. On Sunday we got up at 4am and flew back to Rome, and then preceded to walk the city- which was quite intense. I was just a little tired. Nonetheless, a little as expected, I think Venice is my new current favorite city :-).