Venice and Verona

My first time traveling for more than a day trip!

On Friday after my horn lesson (post on that later) eight of us headed to Venice. We took a train and got there in the early evening. We had a bit of an issue checking into our hostel (more like a camping ground, it was interesting) because some people didn't realize they needed their passport. However, things worked out, we got our stuff into our "house tents" and headed back to the main island of Venice (it's a lot cheaper to stay on the mainland area) to find some dinner. We got to pass San Marco (St. Mark's) in the evening which was pretty.

Saturday was our whole day in Venice. We started at San Giorgio which overlooks the rest of Venice and was very pretty. Then we headed to get some lunch on the mainland and while wandering (always keeping in mind where the Grand Canal was) we actually ran into the church were Antonio Vivaldi was baptized. That was pretty awesome so we poked around there a bit. We got some lunch and headed to see San Marco's.

This is when it got interesting...turns out that since Venice is sinking, at high tide Piazza San Marco floods. We had to take our shoes off and wade to a higher area and then only one entrance to the church was open since it wasn't being flooded. We had to walk in on these raised platforms for the entry areas. Luckily the actual church area does not flood.

After San Marco's our group decided to split up (we discovered that going around with eight people is really difficult) and my group spent time looking in at all the Murano glass stores around the Duomo area, getting gelato, and then heading over towards the Rialto.

The Rialto was the first bridge still standing to cross the Grand Canal and was the only bridge to cross it for about three hundred years. It's really pretty and has good views down the Grand Canal. The area was also the first populated area and we wandered around the market area. Finally, we headed about halfway down the Canal toward San Marco, got a nice drink before dinner, and then met up with the other group to go to dinner. I had a really good pizza with prosciutto on it which was really yummy.

After dinner we walked up the Grand Canal some, crossed the Accedemia bridge (the second bridge built to cross the Grand Canal) before getting on a vaporetto (a water bus and our main form of transportation) and head back to the bus stop to catch our bus back. It was great but I'm glad I know I'll be visiting Venice again because there's so much more I want to see.

The next morning we headed out of Venice and took a train to Verona. Verona is gorgeous and very quaint. It made a fantastic day trip and we had a really good time. We split up again and I started by heading to the castle that is there which reminded me a lot of the Castle Sforza in Milan, it's called the Castelvecchio. Attached to the Castelvecchio is the original defense system bridge the Ponte Scaligero. The bridge was actually bombed out in WWII and the city of Verona loved the bridge so much they went to enormous lengths to rebuild it.

We headed down the river and back across to see Verona's Duomo. The outside is beautiful but we didn't go in because there was an entrance fee. This is the first I've seen of an entrance fee to get into a church. We walked through the town some more (stopping for some gelato of course) and headed to the Piazza Erba which is a market place area and just down from the Casa de Guilietta (Juliet's House). We of course headed there next.

All I can say about Juliet's house is that a lot of people were there. I got some pictures in but we all decided it was nice but we wanted out.

We headed to the center of the city to see the Arena which is like a mini-Colosseum. Unfortunately they'd just stopped selling admittance tickets because they were having a concert there (they often stage operas and have concerts) so they were closing down early. There was a festival going on the area and we listened to some drummers and walked around. I went with two girls back before the rest of the group because we wanted to save money by eating at home and have time to shower and relax before going to bed.

The weekend was wonderful and I can't wait for more like it!