Venice! Day 2

Friday 2/12
Today was amazing. :) We slept in a bit but that was ok because we were exhausted and kind of sick. We enjoyed a nice hostel breakfast (nutella toast and jam toast – simple but I love it) and muesli cereal. Ali and I set off and considered taking the Vaporetti (water bus) down part of the Grand Canal, since Gondolas are crazy-expensive! Haha but we are frugal travelers (and future backpackers!) and a €7 short one-way trip was still too expensive for us. And it’s more fun to get lost in the streets of Venice (and see more!) on foot.

We tried to stay close to the Grand Canal so we could reach Piazza San Marco, but that was a challenge (more like a pretty maze). We got a bit lost and took lots of long-cuts and u-turns (just like if I was driving! ha). We eventually reached stop #1, the Accademia Galleria, an old Venetian art museum. Sadly it was kind of a disappointment… I think the amazing museums of London have spoiled me. And I’m not a fan of medieval Christian art (which filled the entire museum) because it all looks very similar and it bores me. The museum was small, disorganized, and kind of drab and dull. We saw it all in half an hour and then left to meander towards San Marco. I took hundreds of pictures (literally) of everything. I love it all! Streets, canals, bridges, people, people in costumes, houses, churches, beautiful architecture, gondolas, laundry hanging from high windows, even graffiti (it was all about love haha).

 

We reached the Rialto Bridge and eventually San Marco. I bought my first Venetian mask! It’s black/gold, Ali’s is purple/pink/gold. So exciting! I put it on immediately and felt like I was finally joining Carnival :) I got a super cheap one (€4) because I’d rather spend the money on gelato! Haha. At Piazza San Marco we took pictures of the pigeons and enjoyed the nice weather. It was supposed to be cold and rainy (maybe even snowy) but it’s just cold and sunny, blue skies! Lovely. We went inside St. Mark's Basilica (Basilica di San Marco), which was gorgeous of course. Big and dark inside with plenty of statues, crosses, arches, domes, golden and colorful mosaics and art covering the walls and ceiling. I snuck a few pictures. We didn’t see the Tesoro (treasure) rooms (too much €). So beautiful!

 

Next Ali and I went next door to Doge’s Palace (aka Palazzo Ducale), which was also amazing! Huge. It’s about 700ish years old, and includes the courtyard and buildings of the Duke’s palace, ballrooms, courts, the center of government, and prisons. Gorgeous and very ornate inside, lots of art. No pictures allowed though. We walked over the famous Bridge of Sighs but it was inside the building and didn’t seem like a bridge (Ali and I sighed over it). After we left, we devoted ourselves to finding food (it was afternoon and we were starving) and soon found delicious crepes (chocolate and strawberries)! We wandered San Marco found more masks (One pair is for you mom!) I got a red/gold one, Ali’s is black with a flower and feather. I'm wearing it tomorrow.. 

Doge's Palace

^ i like this picture ^

We headed to Rialto Bridge and found glorious scrumptious pizza (finally)! I drool thinking about it. It was very cheap for a big slice of a simple pizza – just thick bread, marinara sauce, and basil. Yum. We continued wandering Venice and got gelato, I got “After Eight” mint flavor. :) We returned to San Marco to photograph and people-watch, which are the best things to do in Venice! It was getting late so we stopped at a cute little café, where I had my first Italian hot chocolate and my first (real) tiramisu! *side note: today may have been the best ‘food day’ in my life (although it was condensed into like 5ish hours..)! Ok so Italian hot chocolate is not only the BEST hot chocolate in the world, but it’s one of my favorite drinks ever! Technically called ‘Cioccolata densa.’ AKA heaven for a chocoholic. It’s like hot chocolate soup, very thick, rich, and purely chocolate (I think this is how the Mayans originally made chocolate. It's better) I was moaning, literally. Poor Ali haha. I love it! *sigh… The tiramisu was good too but not nearly as delicious.

^ here's another :)

Afterwards we returned to San Marco and waited at the square awhile until (drumroll please…) the start of the European 2010 Drag Queen Beauty Pageant!! It was hilarious and crazy haha. Definitely entertaining but a little creepy at the same time. I definitely saw a different side of Venice tonight. It started with drag queen announcers (all in Italian) and then a parade of the drag queens on stage, all dolled-up and flamboyant of course.

After the parade they performed (usually a song or dance) though it was more about their crazy costumes then watching them lip-synch. My camera died early on so luckily Ali had her nice camera to capture the spectacle :)

As the show ended and we started leaving, we realized that the square had flooded! Which is normal for Venice but still weird. Except for a small pathway, the entire square was surrounded by water. Some drunk people danced and splashed through it (adding to the night’s entertainment). The rest of the crowd squeezed through and we made our way through Venice. Our feet felt like frozen bloody stumps as we walked home so, obviously, I needed another hot chocolate (which definitely helped). Amazing again. Took awhile to walk home so we got back to the hostel around 2 am..

Today was one of the most fun, exciting, delicious-food-filled days of my life :)