Carnevale de Venezia 2013

    Venice was a much shorter train ride away than Munich, just 4 hours with only 1 connection.   We left Lugano a little before 2:00 and arrived in Venice around 6:00.  Not knowing how close our apartment would be, we were anxious to meet Marisol who was to meet us outside of the train station when we arrived and guide us to our home for the weekend.  As we’re walking to our meeting point Michael says: “am I the only person who didn’t know this was a city on water??” … a statement which I’m sure he immediately regretted because we all died laughing.  Our first glimpses of this city on water sure were beautiful though, I already knew it would be my favorite city so far.  Once Marisol arrived, we found out our apartment was a short 2 minute walk from the train station, an absolutely perfect location!  The apartment itself was absolutely wonderful. 

We had three bedrooms and two couches, plenty of room for the 10 of us and even some space  to spare for the stragglers we picked up throughout the weekend who found out their hostels/hotels were 15 minute train rides away from the island or in very sketchy areas of town.  Interestingly enough there was a bidet in our apartment…. and two people in our group worked up the courage to try it…. Cannot say I was one of them, but it sure was an funny story to hear.

            After settling in we walked around to find a restaurant.  Almost every one we passed had the owners or managers standing outside trying to lure you in with “no cover” or “free spritz!” … apparently they charge a “cover” for you to come in and sit down at restaurants in Venice!  In some places it can be an extra 4 euro per person! We ended up at Ristorante Al Brindisi for dinner which lured us in with the free cover and spritz for all of us.

I was pretty hungry so I decided my best bet was to order some sort of pasta as pasta dishes are typically overwhelmingly big and filling.  Too my surprise the lasagna I ordered was quite small, but it did taste phenomenal.   

After dinner I relieved the rest of my hunger with a delicious scoop of nutella gelato from a vendor on the way back home.  We stopped in a couple of shops and I probably made one shop owner’s night when as we were leaving they say “Ciao!” and I respond with “Buongiorno!” (aka good morning) I regretted it as soon as I said it, I meant to say buonasera (good evening) but it was too late… the shop owner and everyone in the store started laughing hysterically.  I like to think I’d react the same way if a foreigner walked into my shop late at night at said “good morning!” smiling and completely serious.  At least they got a laugh out of it.  After dinner we went back to the apartment and got ready to go to the only Venice night club- Piccolo Mundo.  For the 12 euro cover it cost to get in the place was rather disappointing.  We didn’t stay too long before heading home, but little did we know that apparently the streets of Venice flood at night! High tide causes the canals to rise above the sidewalk and we had to jump into less flooded areas to avoid the bigger puddles all the way home.  If anyone saw us I’m sure they thought we looked ridiculous.  Carter ended up getting a little too close to the edge when trying to avoid a bigger puddle and ended up falling into the canal! (a dirty, sewage water canal) It certainly was funny!  We eventually made it home and it felt nice to sink into our comfortable beds in an apartment compared to the hostels we’ve been getting used to.

            Much to our disappointment we woke up to a monsoon outside.  However, it didn’t sway us from attending the free walking tour we had scheduled for 10 am.  When we met Catherine, our tour guide, she asked us how long we had been in Venice and what we had done so far.  When we mentioned Piccolo Mundo she laughed and said “no one goes there, it’s the only club in Venice for a reason… the only people to go are grungy Italian men trying to pick up foreigners.”  So that explained it… she said that everyone in Venice just takes a train about 30 minutes away for the nightlife.  The tour was okay, but I think our expectations were very high from the amazing tour we had in Munich that we weren’t too satisfied towards the end.  I don’t think the pouring rain and crowds helped the situation much either as we could barely hear her as we squeezed through alleyways and people with umbrellas pointing every which way, it was quite the maze.

Prisoners who could walk around the edge without falling off were set free waaay back when

 

 When we got back to the apartment just about everyone who had ventured to Venice for the weekend was already at our apartment hanging out and trying to stay out of the rain.  We learned that everyone else was either far away from the main part of town or their hostel was not in the best condition, the more the merrier right?  No one was really willing to go back out in the rain but I wasn’t about to let it stop me from my only opportunity to see Venice for who knows how long so Emily, Reed, and I ventured back out into the rain after drying off a bit.  With no destination in mind we just kind of let ourselves get lost in the backstreets and it was SOO much fun.  We didn’t mind the rain so much because we kept going in and out of stores so for the most part we kept pretty dry and didn’t even notice.  One of the first shops we stopped in was filled with handmade masks. 

The shopkeeper loved us, he must have had a boring day with all the rain, that he had us try on his most exquisite masks and gowns and had us pose and take lots of pictures.

Unfortunately because all of the masks were handmade they were upwards of 100 euro so we couldn’t afford to buy one as a souvenir but it was amazing that he had made all of them himself.  He told us if we had time to come by again he would show us how he makes them, but with Carnevale we knew it would be unlikely.  Perhaps one day.

            We continued meandering through the streets and alleyways, stopping all along the way to look in various stores and even enjoy a crepe!

Eventually we wound up at the Rialto bridge right after the sun had gone down and it was absolutely beautiful. 

 Shortly after we arrived in San Marco Square and found another group of study abroad students from a college in Washington.  They were studying in Florence and had just come for the day.  We talked about where we had been and they shared their stories with us and then we walked into a bar in the square and tried a shot of “grappa.”  I knew I probably wouldn’t like it so I didn’t order one for myself and I took the tiniest of sips from Emily’s and confirmed that it was indeed disgusting.  At least I tried it!  It was getting pretty dark and the pouring rain had since turned into what felt like a hurricane so we decided to head back home.  On the way home from the tour I’d taken earlier we got home by following the signs “Alle Ferrovia” which means “to the train station” all the way home from San Marco…. They were everywhere… so, we thought it would be just as easy this time. Wrong. I don’t know if the combination of our rain blurred vision and the darkness made it hard to see but we only saw ONE sign directing us home the entire way.  What should have been about a twenty minute walk turned into about an hour walk in the hurricane-ish weather and by the time we finally made it home we were drenched.  I don’t think I’ve ever been more soaked in my life, but I have no regrets because exploring the city had been so much fun.

            We dried off yet again and then the whole group headed out to dinner at Pier Dickens.

  We all ordered the 3-course meal with a variety of options.  I chose the spaghetti with clams (absolutely AMAZING) followed by breaded chicken and a salad.  Emily and I ordered a traditional drink, the Venetian Spritz. 

 Dinner was delicious but the Italians (and most European restaurants) don’t split checks…. So that turned into a debacle of the sorts but once we got it all figured out we headed out for the rest of the night.  After dinner we headed to a bar and had quite the talented bartender.  We just let him make his own concoctions for us, which were delicious and then headed to a concert nearby that our waiter had told us about.  It had interesting music but there wasn’t too much to do so we stuck around for a little while and then headed home.

             Sunday was absolutely beautiful in Venice.  We had to check out at 10 am so we stored our stuff in the lockers at the train station and then went out on the town.  Every corner in Venice was absolutely beautiful with all of the canals and small alleyways.

On the way to the main square we stopped to try a dessert that only comes around during Carnevale season—frittelle.  Oh my gosh. It was delicious. It was like a monkey bread, donut, chocolate cream combination in one little bite.   

 I wish I had bought a whole box to bring back to the Montarina!  The opening ceremonies of Carnevale were also starting on Sunday so you couldn’t walk ten feet without seeing a group dressed in brilliant costumes.  These are some of my favorites.

Venice is already a mostly touristy city but Carnevale made it absolutely crazy.  The whole day we were only inches from the person in front of us as we walked.

Most of the crowd was in San Marco Square, where a lot of the activity was going on around town.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the city and admiring all the amazing views.

When we were getting a little tired we headed down the back alleys in search of a restaurant for dinner.  We stumbled upon this place that was absolutely perfect.   

 We were just about the only ones in the restaurant and it had a nice, quiet atmosphere to it.  I ordered the pasta carbonara and it was absolutely delicious.  After dinner we headed back in the direction of the train station and did a little more exploring before catching our 8 pm train home to Lugano. 

 Venice was absolutely beautiful.  Although the rain was a downer on the trip, it was still an amazing experience.  I would love to go back another time for Carnevale but first I would like to go when it is not so crowded and maybe visit some of the islands.  I would have loved to visit Burano and Murano the islands of lace and glass, but those are a few trips I’ll have to save for next time.  This coming weekend is my first 10-day trip to London, Edinburgh, and Dublin.  I’m very much looking forward to high tea, castles, harry potter tours, and everything else that the UK has to offer.

Interesting Fact about Venice: these people love their dogs….every dog we passed was dressed up and groomed, they were often in the restaurant with their owner just sitting by the table. On Sunday there were also many dogs dressed up for Carnevale, I saw one person who’s costume matched their dog!