Venice and Ravenna

Ciao,

How’s everyone doing? This weekend was a packed one, with trips to Venice and Ravenna. It was also filled with much time spent utilizing public transportation. Oh how fond I am of the transit system in Italy! Especially when they go on strike. It’s not a random and spontaneous strike, however. They post fliers and inform you when exactly you should expect to be inconvenienced. Isn’t that nice?!

On Thursday night, Shan, Jess, Erik, Kendel, Emily, and I met Shannon’s mom for wine and cheese at a restaurant next to the Duomo named B Gallo. It was fun to see Ms. Nancy Green, and she paid for our 56 EURO bottle of wine that Shan had nonchalantly ordered without specifying a price range. Apparently, “Vorrei un bottiglie di vino rosso,” translates into, “I would like your 2nd most expensive wine on the menu.” It was very nice of Nancy and we thanked her profusely. Afterwards, we went to a nifty little bar named Joshua Tree, and had a fun Mater Dei reunion with Frank and Malia who are also studying in Florence through Gonzaga University. It is so great to see familiar faces abroad! It was a fun night, but a long night, and I got close to 3 hours of sleep.

The next morning, Meg, Jess, Erik, Kendel, Emily, and I took the train to Venice. Well, we attempted to take the 6:30am train, and then the 8:35am train, but then ended up taking the 9:10am train. On the train, Jess, Erik, and I were in a separate cabin than Meg, Kendel, and Emily. I have no idea what those guys did to pass the 3 hour train ride, but we definitely laughed till our stomachs ached taking turns doing MadLibs. We finally got there, a bit discombobulated but ready for an adventure. It was a beautiful day, and I unintentionally wore a stripped shirt (how very tourist of me). We spent the day exploring the city, ambling down narrow streets, and taking in the window displays of colored blown glass, jewelry, art galleries, and chic designers. We were enlightened in Peggy Guggenheim museum, and nearly attacked by sickly, diseased pigeons in Piazza San Marco.

The Peggy Guggenheim was really neat. Her home was converted into a museum and then opened to the public so that we may enjoy her personal art collection. Her collection is amazing, and my most favorite part was that much of the artwork was hung in the same place as when she lived there. I pretended I was her, breezing through my dining room (glancing at Max Ernst), traipsing down the hall (saying hello to Dali on my right), and settling down in the parlor, sipping tea and taking in the beautiful Venetian view (and not forgetting to give notice to Picasso). And Jess told me not to forget about Jackson Pollock, because he made an appearance serveral times. We were planning on going to another exhibit, one featuring Jeff Koons, that Erik and Jess were most excited about, but it had closed a few days before. We did get to see the GIANT fusia balloon animal, made from aluminum and placed on a platform on the water. It looked extremely out of place - that was the most interesting part!

Piazza San Marco was probably the funniest thing about this weekend. Tears were falling I was laughing so hard. The pigeons were so disgusting, I can’t even begin to describe them. Ok, I’ll try. Picture one pigeon. Multiple that by 50 thousand. There you go. And the worst part was, they weren’t scared of anything! Jess has this great video of a pigeon bobbing up to her camera with it’s big orange eye – I would describe it as “curious,” but I really doubt they are smart enough to be anything, one way or the other. There were several people who thought they’d take advantage of the opportunity to pose with hundreds of pigeons perching and pooping all over them – I took advantage of them taking advantage and snapped a few photos. All in all, it was pretty gross.

We took the train back, and arrived at the station around 12:30am. Yes, you guessed it, the buses were on strike and the taxis were few and far between. It took us forever to get home, and when we finally did, we crashed, eager to get every minute of sleep before our Ravenna adventure the next morning.

Waking up early and getting to school by 7:30am, we boarded the buses and headed to Ravenna, where we visited the breathtaking San Apollinaris cathedrals, the Galla Placidia, and San Vitale. Ravenna is famous for their mosaics. I really really really recommend visiting Ravenna if you can. The mosaics are so intrinsic and so detailed and so beautiful. Most of the mosaics were used as propaganda for the emperor at the time, as well as for religious purposes. The most shocking mosaics were those completed in gold and midnight blue. I tried to take a few pictures, but the lighting isn’t that great – look closely if you can. We breaked for lunch, ate at a great restaurant down one of Ravenna's darling streets, and then got back on the bus and headed home. An accident on the autostrade resulted in a bit of a detour, but I got to see more of the beautiful Italian countryside – something I don’t object to.

We made pasta at Jess and Erik’s apartment, looked at pictures from the weekend, and headed home determined to sleep in.

Lucky for us, Matteo was up and about and screaming his lungs out at around 8:40am. Isn’t that sweet? Anyways, I’m at school right now, trying to figure out if it’s worth downloading the entire second season of Grey’s Anatomy. I’ve also got a bit of Art History and Italian homework to get done. I’d better be going.

Next weekend, I may just stick around Florence, do a bit of exploring, maybe head over to Boboli Gardens, maybe buy a coat or something, I’m not sure yet. On Sunday, I’m thinking about taking the train to Perugia, as the Chocolate Festival is in full swing!

Miss you all,

Genevieve