Venice and Milan

Well I'm officially back home and lying on the couch, but my work on this blog is not finished! I have a real difficulty with keeping a legitimate journal, so other than my little list of things I've seen, this blog has officially taken the place of the way I will remember the fall semester of 2009.

In the middle of November, Elise and I embarked on a weekend trip to Italy. Both of us have been fortunate to have taken recent trips with our families to Rome, Florence, and a couple of other major Italian cities, so we decided that Venice deserved our full attention. To make things even better, our good friend, Miss Meghan Tilley, was studying in Venice and offered to host us in the spare beds in her dorm. Very generous and very very appreciated! We flew from Madrid to Milan late on Thursday night after class. After a bus to our hostel near the main train station, we grabbed a snack and then headed to bed. On Friday, we woke up early to have one of the best European breakfasts I've ever had. The best part may have been the cost (free aka included in the hostel price), but it was full of pastries, meats, breads, juices, hot drinks...quite a treat compared to the usual clementine and toast that I have been eating in Spain. From there, we took a train to Venice. I have really fallen in love with train travel--I guess it never hurts to ride through Romeo and Juliet's Verona, with the Italian Alps in the distance for the entire 2.5 hour train ride.

We met up with Meghan at the Venice train station. What a city that is! I had my own mental pictures of what it would look like, but it truly is a collection of islands way out in the middle of a big lagoon. We took a vaporetto (water bus/metro) to Meghan's dorm at the Venice International University on San Servolo island, put our stuff down then headed back to walk around St. Mark's Square and get a brief tour of Venice before the sun set. From there, we walked around a less-touristy area (very difficult to find on one of the main islands) and ate dinner. We got some great gelato at Grom's and then ate it in a piazza called Santa Margarita (where we even encountered some other Dukies!). Saturday, we went to San Marco (St. Mark's) to tour St. Mark's Basilica. It's amazing to see the water/flood damage that has occurred over the years, but it's fascinating to learn about the history that Venice has with the Middle East and Asia (much like how learned about Spain's history with Muslims from North Africa). The Basilica was gorgeous inside with a lesson in art history on the ceilings and a magnificent altar of gold and hundreds of precious jewels. Next, we went into the Doge's Palace (the Doge was a regional ruler, but lived and ruled like a king). The palace is right next to St. Marks...we saw some beautiful, giant rooms full of classic art by masters like Titian. We went downstairs into the prison/dungeon, crossing the Bridge of Sighs (a prisoner's last look at Venice) along the way. A trip up the famous tower (Camponile), a walk, a quick lunch, and more walking and shopping later (Murano glass, silk, Venetian leather and stationery), it was time for one of the highlights of my time in Venice. We went to the Accademia to see da Vinci's drawing of the Vitruvian Man (couldn't take pictures, but it's the drawing of a nude man inside of a square and a circle). It's smaller than a sheet of notebook paper, but it's one of the most famous drawings in history, so I loved seeing it.

Meghan had a few other friends coming in that evening, so we took a boat ride around the Grand Canal and under the Rialto bridge before a good Italian pasta dinner. Meghan, to our surprise, had bought chocolate, marshmallows, and some sort of cookie, so we took a candle outside and we had a little smore party to remind us all of home. It was tame, but a really fun night and I had to keep reminding myself that I was actually in Venice, Italy! The next morning, we took a train back to Milan where we saw the gargantuan Duomo, tried to see da Vinci's The Last Supper (but it was sold out until December!), and finally got to our hostel, found a good pizza place (as is tradition on my trips with Elise on the last night), then flew on back to Madrid the next morning!

Very very fun trip. Meghan was so kind to host us and show us around. It wasn't quite as exciting as Paris, but Venice was a city that I definitely wanted to see and it was a fun and memorable trip!