Venezia: Canals and Carnevale

On with the travel reports! I was having internet problems with my laptop, but thankfully the tech people here are magical and fixed it in about 20 seconds. So much for being computer literate, eh? :)

On March 5th we took a Bus2Alps tour to Venice for Carnevale- basically the Italian form of Mardi Gras. There's a huge party and music in Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square), and everybody dresses up in costumes- kind of like American Halloween. Of course, it's quite a trek from Rome to Venice, so we got to the train station to catch our bus before 7 a.m. and commenced to spend just about eight hours on said coach bus. We stopped at a couple of rest stops for bathroom breaks and lunch, and they played movies, so it was definitely bearable, but eight hours on a bus still isn't the most fun thing in the entire world. When we got to Venice, we hopped on the water bus and headed off to Piazza San Marco!

The sun was shining, and the canals were so amazing.

People were just kind of hanging out wherever they could find a spot, waiting for the evening's festivities to begin.

The grand canal was full of gondolas- they look really cool, but it's supposed to be really expensive. We were content with the water bus, but maybe next time.....

Finally we got closer to Piazza San Marco. It was probably about a half hour's trip from where the bus left us to the piazza. The tower in the picture below is where we were headed!

When we got off the water bus, it was absolutely packed! 

Our first order of business, however, was to find some masks. Venetian masks are huge for Carnevale, so we wanted to be sure to get some cool ones! They were relatively inexpensive (I think mine was 8 or 10 euro?), but there were so many to choose from! Martin ended up getting one with a big nose, which is one type of traditional mask, but the rest of us just got plain half-face masks. They were pretty exciting!

We took in the atmosphere in Piazza San Marco for a while before attempting to find a restaurant for dinner. There were so many cool costumes- some people really go all out!

The piazza itself is really cool too- there's a cathedral, which was unfortunately under restoration while we were there, and of course the big tower we saw from the water.

The kids get dressed up for Carnevale too- this little one drew a HUGE crowd of picture-takers! So adorable!

Then we headed off to find food- always an adventure! The canals and little side streets were really cool- it's just such an interesting place to have a city.

We did some browsing in the shops and looked at all the Venetian glass, which was, of course, beautiful, and we finally found a suitable restaurant. I had the spinach and cheese tortellini- yum!!!

After dinner we headed back to Piazza San Marco, where the evening's party had started to get underway. There were a ton of people just hanging out- dancing and drinking, of course- and a video DJ, which is basically exactly what it sounds like. We took in the atmosphere and had a great time just soaking it all up!

And Martin perfected the art of drinking from a can while wearing a mask with an enormous nose. It's the little things in life.

Eventually we headed back to the bus via water taxi and commenced to spend the following 7-8 hours on said bus. We rolled into Rome around 6 a.m. and grabbed the H bus back to Trastevere. I'm pretty sure I fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow and then slept all day! It was such a whirlwind trip, but it was definitely worth it.

Venice is such a cool city- especially for someone who loves water as much as I do, the canals are so beautiful and the idea of living via boats instead of cars is so fascinating. I wish we had had a little more time to visit some of the other islands in the city, but even just the little taste of Venice that we had was amazing. I would definitely go back given the chance! I'm glad we got to be there for Carnevale, too. The masks and costumes and party attitude really gave it such a fun atmosphere and made it an unforgettable experience!

Next up, a blog of our art-filled trip to Florence!