Charlie and me in our pimp Carnevale masks

An example of some Carnevale costumes


I spent the last three days in Venice with Charlie, Torre, Emily, Kelly, Esin, and Carola. Our hotel was on this island called Lido, a more laid-back resort island about a 10-minute boat ride from San Marco square. It is great: they use boats there like we use cars because they have canals instead of roads.

It was Carnevale there, the big 10-day festival of debauchery before Lent begins. It was absolutely insane. It was hard to move around the islands a lot of the weekend because there were just so many people. Especially in San Marco square.

They treat their Carnevale costumes as serious business...I saw some of the most elaborate costumes of my life this weekend. We bought Venetian masks before we left Milano wore them most of the time walking around. Mine is sweet.

We didn't do too many touristy things while we were there just because everything was so busy and it was more fun just to walk around and see the city. We had a few nice dinners: one night I had gnocchi (pasta-ish potato dumplings) with a roasted pumpkin sauce. It was definitely noteworthy.

On Saturday, we took a boat to the nearby island of Murano. This island used to be the home of the merchant's and glass blowers because their kilns would often start fires. We saw a glass blowing demonstration and walked around the island to see the glass products in the stores.

That afternoon we walked through the Jewish Ghetto portion of Venice: the word ghetto actually originated here. It was a really cool area.

It is impossible to navigate Venice because there are hardly any street signs and the small streets lead to bridges over canals and are quite maze-like. We had fun just getting lost and wandering around.

This is definitely my favorite Italian city I have visited so far. I am going to go back in a few months when it isn't as crazy and then I will do more of the sights.