July 14^th, 2012

Day 56: Florence & Venice, Italy

This morning, we got up pretty early to get up and out of our hotel to catch our train to Venice! Our train left Florence at 8:25 and we were in Venice around 10:30! After getting our bearings and walking out of the train station, we quickly found that a map was utterly useless in this city.

There aren’t really streets, just alleyways and bridges over canals. Only about 50% of all of the streets are labeled on the map anyway, so we set out blindly to try to find the location of the apartment we’d be staying in! This time, we’d used airbnb.com to book a space- most of the hostels in Venice aren’t on the main island and are overpriced, so for less money and more convenience, we rented out the spare room of a young couple’s apartment. It worked out perfectly! After about an hour of aimless wandering, Stephen found wireless and was able to get us a bit closer to their apartment location (apparently the whole block we were circling was their address- each apartment had the same number with only letters to distinguish them apart from each other. We didn’t have the letter, haha). Eventually, after going back and forth down the same street a few times, an older man stopped us and tried to ask us who we were looking for. He did’t speak a word of English and we don’t know a lick of Italian, so we relied on technology (a.k.a. Stephen showing the guy his email with the couples’ names) to help us out. Luckily, it worked and the man pointed to one of the entrances and to the ‘quattro piano,’ the fourth floor.

view from the window of our room!

He was right and soon we were in Nico and Matilde’s apartment, exchanging pleasantries and being shown to our room. They were absolutely fantastic, giving us a brief rundown of the area and things that were happening, and circling all of the hot spots on our map. Nico’s best advice?: get lost. Get lost and try to find your way out- that’s the best way to experience Venice. We were also informed that at night, we’d be witness to one of Venice’s biggest parties- the Festival de Rendatore. It’s an annual celebration marking the end of the black plague back in the 16^th century, celebrated by an endless night of parties and an incredible fireworks display. A great coincidence, if I do say so myself!

After we got settled in an headed out, our first stop was back to the train station to try to figure out how we were going to get to Barcelona. Unfortunatley, we had no luck with the schedulers there, but we continued on and did exactly what Nico told us- got lost. We found a place to eat lunch and I enjoyed a heaping plate of spaghetti carbonara while Stephen had veal and chips! After lunch, we continued to just wander the streets, stumbling upon some of Venice’s biggest sights like St. Marco’s square and the Rialto bridge.

After stopping into a shop to pick up some water, we also scooped up some wine coolers and found a seat along the Grand Canal to relax and enjoy them! It was another gorgeous day out, and we really enjoyed sitting with our feet in the water looking out at the canal with a drink in our hand.

After a while along the canal, we headed back to the apartment to try to do some planning for both Monaco/Nice and Barcelona. We were successful with hostels and thought we had the trains down, so ended up joining Nico and Matilde for a little bit with 2 of their friends in the kitchen. They were having a small dinner party but we had some appetizers and prosecco with them before they sat down to eat! Their guests were lovely, and we chatted about the States and our travels a bit.

When we finally made our way out of the apartment, we went into the nearby Santa Margarita’s square, only to find that the party had already apparently started at 8pm! There were people everywhere in the square, drinking in public, sitting on blankets to claim their spot for the fireworks, and even a boy who had been coated in head to toe with eggs and what looked like whipped cream. There was no explanation to be had. We tried to find a wine shop that Nico had mentioned but failed, instead stumbling upon a store that Stephen had seen earlier in the night where they put house wine into 1.5 liter bottles for only 5 euro. What a steal! After we got some wine, we made our way down to the Grand Canal and across the temporary bridge that was set up there. The bridge is set up for only 2 days for this celebration and connects the main island with an island just off the coast, where the festival’s namesake church sits. There were tens of thousands of people there, going back and forth over the bridge, floating alongside the bridge on their boats partying up a storm, and even some groups who had tied several boats together to make a pseudo-dock. Crazy! It was an incredible sight to witness.

Stephen and I wandered down as far as you could go on the island to try to find seats and ended up having to turn back when hotel staff had shut down the very end for their clients. No bother though, we made our way back down the island and found a place along the canal.

We sat for a while just chatting until the fireworks display started at around 11:30. And what a show it was! The fireworks were incredible and lasted a good 45 minutes. It was a great night overall and we were really lucky that we happened to choose this day to be there to enjoy such a great party!

Favorite part of the day: The fireworks/general atmosphere in celebration of the Festival of XXX. I felt like I was really a part it and was excited that we got to witness such a lively and fun atmosphere even if we were only here for one night!