September 23, 2011

September 23, 2011

This morning, Franzi and I woke up at 6:00 and caught the bus a little before 7:00. Our entire group left for Venice at 7:30 on a private coach. We drove for about two hours before we stopped at an Autogrill (basically rest stops plus a restaurant-we stopped at them all the time when we were in Italy on choir tour) to go to the bathroom. We drove the last hour and arrived in Venice around 11:00. We got off the bus and walked over to our private boat that was taking us to Murano, an island across from Venice, known for their blown glass. Being on a boat and on the water was really refreshing for me; I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed it! Feeling the spray of the water, the sunshine glimmering on the water and the wind in my hair—I was really on vacation! On the boat, we ate the bag lunches that our host families had packed for us. It took us about half an hour to get to Murano via the boat. It dropped us off right in front of the glass blowing factory we were visiting as a group. We had a glass blowing demonstration, which was very cool and then we could look around the showroom and explore Murano for about another hour. I bought some glass and explored Murano and all of the cute shops with some friends and, after an hour, headed to the lighthouse where we were meeting our boat. From Murano, our boat took us right to our hotel, Hotel Messner. We checked into our rooms and got to kind of get situated. I am in a room with Franzi, Becca and Nikki. The room has one set of bunk beds and two twin beds right next to each other. It was not a bad hotel at all! We all really liked it.

After getting settled, our group walked together to Palazzo Ducale, the living quarters for the Doge and the center for government. It was very interesting and the artwork incorporated into that building is simply incredible. We toured the palazzo for about an hour and a half and then had a little free time before we needed to meet up again. I wandered around with Katie and Leah. We wandered through the back streets, window shopping and got some gelato. We also went down to the water and sat for a while, taking it all in. We met up with the group again around 7:15 where we joined together with a group from Duke, University of Michigan and Wisconsin to rent out the Basilica of San Marco. While we were waiting, the piazza began to light up, as it got darker outside. Before it got too dark, I looked toward the water from the piazza and saw a huge cruise ship, all lit up, passing by, towering over all of the buildings; it was so surreal, but beautiful! A professor from Duke began by telling us a quick history of Venetian government. Once inside, Jodie gave a talk on the art history of the basilica that was very interesting. When we walked into the basilica, all of the lights were off. We sat down in the pews and the organist started playing a twenty-minute concert. As he played, the stunning mosaics on the walls and the ceiling of the basilica were revealed as the lights were slowly raised. It was really an incredible experience. Once the basilica had been revealed and the concert was over, we walked around and Jodie explained more about the different artwork. It was a truly incredible place; he mosaics really were absolutely breathtaking.

After that, we headed back to the Hotel Messner for dinner a little after 9:00. Our first course was cannelloni stuffed with cheese and spinach, which was really delicious (especially since we were so hungry because it was so late…). The second course was chicken and I had a capresi salad and, for dessert, we had some very delicious chocolate cake. After dinner, a few of us took a walk to walk off some of our huge dinner and then we all went straight to bed, for the most part.