This past weekend we went to Venezia, or Venice. We stayed about thirty minutes by train outside of the city (because it was cheaper) in this super nice hotel. It's the biggest one we've stayed in so far and is about the size of an american hotel but it typically has twin beds. I have yet to see a double bed here. I don't think they exist except in America. I digress, though.
Venezia was amazing. I've never seen anything like it. It was supposed to rain but the weather was actually quite beautiful. There are no roads but there are canals everywhere. The Grand Canal is the big one that cuts through the middle of the city in a backward S shape but there are several smaller canals that trail off the Grand Canal. Since the only traffic is either by foot or boats, the sidewalks and streets are very small. Why do you need cars when you can either walk the whole island and take a boat? And since there aren't any cars, the main public transportation system are the vaporetto, which are kind of like really big houseboats. There were people reading the newspaper on these things too, like they saw Venezia everyday and just couldn't bothered to be impressed by it. I was astounded! How can you not continue to be awe-struck by that city constantly? I guess if you live there you get over it, but come on!
We went to San Marco's and tried our hardest to find the way in, but I'm pretty sure you just need to strap on some plastic boots and wade through the foot of water flooding the piazza. No kidding, this place had water in the shops while they were closed for siesta. And not like a couple of inches of water, more like a foot. They were selling these plastic boots for ten euros that went up to your knee so you could wade through the water. Since I'm cheap and I didn't want to catch some kind of nastiness from the water, I didn't jump in like most of the people. Call me crazy. It was really neat though.
We took a bus tour of Padova on Friday and learned a whole slew of information. We were also able to go inside the Church of St. Anthony during Friday night mass. I'll just say, most beautiful chuch I've ever seen. They had his tomb there and so many relics. They even had his teeth and tongue on display! Ugh! And as strange as this sounds, the relics and all that were really well organized so that everything flowed together really well. It wasn't super dark like some churches are either. Very nicely lit and overall tastefully done. I know it sounds strange to say that, but it just flowed easily and led the crowd where they needed to go. We also saw the "Grassless Meadow" which is the largest piazza in all of Europe. It's a tiny island surrounded by a moat. A MOAT. Surrounding the island are also seventy-eight statues and four bridges leading into the "island."
Overall, this trip was very interesting and educational. It just goes to show the adaptation abilities of mankind. Pretty impressive when you think about it.
