Update! Venice

No wifi in Venice meant no new postings or pictures from me.  Here's the update for Venice, Florence will be later. 

Venice was amazing! It truly is a city unlike any other.  of course this is nothing new; people have known that for centuries, as evidenced by the many opulent palaces that have been built along the grand canal since the city was founded.  Anybody who was anybody wanted a place there.  Of course we had no such mansion to live in.  It was 11 girls to one apartment (with one shower)!  Luckily everyone got along rather well and there was no major drama.  

Just a short account of some of our adventures: 

After we dragged our luggage up and down the bridges of the many canals from the train station to our apartment, we had a walking tour of the city.  St. Mark's Basilica, the Rialto Bridge and our first (of many!) taste of gelato.  The next day provided no rest for us.  We woke up early for our boat ride down the grand canal to St. Mark's square, then after a quick history of the architecture in the area we transferred boats to take us across the port to the Basilica di San Giorgio to see an art installation by Anish Kapoor that is a part of the Biennale.  (The Biennale is one of the world's largest international art exhibitions.  It's an enormous and completely overwhelming display of some of the most significant art at this moment.  Most of it is contained in two locations, but there are other pieces of art, like this one, peppered throughout the city.)   It was quite breathtaking to see work by such a contemporary artist interacting with a 16th century church.  After contemplating that we hopped on yet another boat to take us over to the Lido and read Shelly's Julian and Maddolo: A Conversation, a poem about Shelly's discussion with Byron that took place on the spot where we were sitting.  We finished the day off with a nighttime ride down the Grand Canal while the lights were sparkling on the water, definitely an amazing experience.  All of that in only the first two days there.  The rest of the week was spent in classes, going to church at St. Mark's, viewing art (the Biennale, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, and the Academia), eating gelato, and not really trying to not get lost in a city that it's impossible to not get lost in (if that makes any sense at all). 

As for the city itself, I loved it (aside, of course, from the heat, humidity, and abundant mosquitos).  I can only imagine what it was like before all of the tourists, when the artists and writers and thinkers looked to the city for their inspiration.  It's still amazing, only now it feels a little like Disneyland, like no one lives there except for the tourists.  Still, my general impression of Venice is that it is a very cool, very old, and very inspiring city.  I was definitely a little sad to say goodbye.

Some pictures:

The view of the Grand Canal from the boat:

 Ascension by Anish Kapoor, an installation in a 16th century cathedral:

 The view across from Venice:

 The Campinale and Doge's palace from across the water:

Rialto bridge at night:

 The Piazza San Marco:

 Another view of the Grand Canale:

Our apartment's door was across from the back door of McDonalds.  Since there are no cars in Venice this is how they received their daily deliveries: