Venice continued

Day 2 of my Venice trip I was off to Piazzo San Marco. This is the most famous spot in Venice, home to Basilica San Marco (aka THE MOST IMPRESSIVE CHURCH I HAVE TOURED THUS FAR! It nearly moved me to tears). As I was walking in with my friend, I literally stopped short and forgot what we were talking about. I wish I had hours more to give to Basilica San Marco. The architecture is exquisite and the walls shine with color and gleam with gold. The church houses the tomb of St. Mark and claims to have a thorn of Jesus' crown. In a little alcove on the right hand side of the church is an absolute treasure trove! Inside a small series of rooms is a small collection of artifacts dating back to the time of the ancient Egyptians! There are also beautiful jewels and several relics. All in all, one of the best spent 20 minutes of my trip were in those 3 small rooms.

Saturday evening was the official kick off of La Carnivale di Venezia 2010! Erected in the middle of Piazzo San Marco is a huge stage where a short skit was performed that evening. The costumes were great...but I will never be able to tell you what skit was about because I don't speak a lick of Italian.

On Sunday, day 3, the sun made its debut! And what a great day it was! Sunday I rode on a gondolla. It was shocking how quiet Venice is once you get only a few short feet away from the Grand Canal. In between conversation, all that you can hear is the gondolier's oar moving the gondola along. It is incredibly peaceful.

On Sunday I spent some more time in Piazzo San Marco, but due to particularly horrendous sea sickness, I did A LOT of walking. My favorite locale of the day was the Rialto Bridge. The bridge offers a great view of the canal and is a great place to shop and people watch.

Because its Carnivale, there is confetti EVERYWHERE! People throw it at eachother just walking down the streets. At night, once most of the foot traffic has cleared out, it looks like the streets are made up of millions of tiny pieces of paper. One of my classmates, Molly, and I had some good old-fashioned fun by scooping up handfuls and having a confetti war in the middle of the piazzo!

Monday, day 4 and sadly the last day, was possibly my favorite day. Back on the water taxi (not much choice about that in Venice) to the very end of the line. This put us at Lido, a gorgeous island known for its beaches. We had lots of fun doing cartwheels on the beach and running around piggyback racing. I felt like a little kid! Monday was really a wandering day. After Lido, I hopped off wherever looked interesting and walked until I ran out of time. I also spent a lot of time just staring across the water to the rest of the islands of Venice. I remember saying how much I loved my life at least 100 times. I must be the luckiest girl alive!