Two weeks ago we had our first “free weekend” of the semester. Most weekends are packed full of things that SIS plans for us like trips to museums, churches, chocolate factories, cities in Italy, and Carnevale events. The free weekend was a long weekend which was just that, free of anything planned specifically by SIS. The idea is though, that you get to plan your own weekend, and we did just that! A group of us (a rather large group… Owen, Madison, Melissa, Zoe, Conor, Maddie, and myself) decided that we wanted to go to Venice! We found ourselves a hostel, booked our train tickets and left for Venice on Saturday morning.
The trip was probably overall my favorite thing I have done in Italy so far! The minute I set foot onto the island, childhood memories of reading the book “The Thief Lord” by Cornelia Funke washed over me. Now, I don’t actually remember a lot of the plot of the book, but while we were walking through tiny alleyways and on the bridges over the canals, I somehow felt that they were familiar. Almost as if I had walked the streets before. Of course I haven’t, but I have read about them. I’ll have to re-read the book.
I spend most of my time just exploring the city, of course we went to the Piazza San Marco and the Basilica, but we also hit up a lot of the lesser known churches, and I found my favorite church of the trip, the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, usually just called the Basilica de Frari. Owen and I spent probably an hour and a half just in that church. It was stunning. There was some art by Titian and other wonderful works of art, but my favorite by far was the architecture of the ceiling. There was no art on the ceiling to speak of, they had left it plain, as if to say “Look at what a freaking gorgeous building we made, no art necessary.”
My other favorite part of Venice was the tiny island called Burano. The island is known for its handmade lace and its colorful houses, and it did not disappoint. Of course, we had no expectations going in, we had intended to go to Murano that day, and had in fact, just missed the stop. We decided to get off there anyway and see what Burano had to offer. Turns out, quite a lot. The island lives up to its reputation perfectly. EVERY SINGLE HOUSE was brightly painted in an array of different colors, ranging from pastels to neons. I loved it! I think I want to live there (don’t tell my mom). Owen, Melissa and I walked around the island taking pictures, we stopped at a local cafe for lunch, and we bought a lot of souvenirs. Burano was much less touristy than Venice, so much less crowded and we had a lot of opportunities to practice our italian with the store owners, who were very excited that we spoke some Italian. Even though it was raining, we still had the best time.
The final stop on our Venice weekend was the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. It is a chapel entirely frescoed on the inside by Giotto. To get into the chapel it is 6euro (a monday only special!) and you have to spend 20 minutes in a specialized room off the chapel where they dehumidify and bring the atmosphere in the room to the right “setting” so the air doesn’t further deteriorate the frescoes. It was a very cool experience. I especially love Giotto’s signature blue sky/gold star ceilings.
All in all, the weekend was incredible. I hope I get to go back to Venice again sometime.