A dream come true, Venice.

Shannon Wood
Mar 10, 2015
4 min read

Venice was overall an amazing weekend well for the most part. The weather was absolutely perfect! It was sunny the whole time we were there. It was a bit windy, but we had the best weather you could ask for. Our professor even said the weather is never like this.

Anyways, we began our trip from the Santa Maria Novella train station. Bright and early! I started out by buying a new phone charger, since well mine for some reason was not working. The new charger made my day! After, we hopped on the train to board Venice. Unfortunately the train was about an hour late due to the heavy wind in Florence. We were all very excited. I sat next to my roommate Eva on the train. I somehow managed to study for my Art History midterm, which is going to be a killer. By the time I had gotten through most of my notes, we arrived in Venice. We could see out the window of the train the beautiful water. Finally, we stepped out into the beautiful sunshine.

I can speak for all of us when I say we were all in love with the city. We saw the beautiful canals, which when the sunlight hit them casted amazing shadows and reflections on the water. The different colored buildings and houses were just so perfect.

After taking a second to admire what we could, we were off to finding our hotel. Well this was the interesting part. Our guides got a little lost… It took us about an hour to find our hotel. Mind you all of us are carrying our luggage, and the streets are not very wide. It was exhausting to say the least. We got our room assignments, threw our stuff down, and we were off to lunch.

The group I was with decided to get lunch on the water. It was beautiful. I sat in the warm sun, and watched the many boats pass by while I ate my pizza. I didn’t want to leave, but we had to go to the Guggenheim Museum. This museum was interesting; the view of the canal behind us was beautiful. Other than that, art is really not my thing. There were some cool works of art, and it was nice to see something other than religious painting. However, I could have done without it. Anyways, we then headed back to the hotel to relax for a bit.

After just relaxing in our room, a huge group of us went to dinner. We ate in this square. I don’t remember the name of it. It was only a short walk from our hotel. After dinner, we were headed out for a night of fun. We grabbed a couple bottles of wine for the way home. Five of us almost split a 5-liter bottle of wine, but it was too heavy for us to carry. Anyways, we enjoyed the night going to a few bars. It was a fun night getting to hangout and have a good time with everyone.

The next morning was just a tiny bit rough. I woke up well not feeling so hot. Attempted to eat breakfast, that didn’t go so well. I couldn’t even take a bite. Then there is nothing like getting sick ten minutes before you have to leave. This made the day very challenging to pay attention, and enjoy my professor lecturing on art. Antways maybe the tequila wasn’t the best idea the night before. We visited the Academia, School of San Rocco, and the Church of Friar. As soon as I was able, I was at the hotel taking a nap. It was the best part of the day.

After waking up, feeling much better, my roommate and I decided to go on a gondola ride. The boat ride was so peaceful on the water. We also got to see the sun set, which made it even better. After a long day, it was very relaxing. Our gondola driver was so sweet. He didn’t sing for us, but gave us some history as he took us around. He asked us where we were from and told us a little bit about himself too. All in all it was amazing being on the water, and a great experience.

After we headed back to the hotel. A small group of us headed out for dinner. At dinner we splurged at little. We did the four course traditional meal. I had vegetable soup. It is very hard to find soup in Italy. This soup was amazing. Next were french fries. Then the best part was the steak. However my friend and I split the steak and she got fried shrimp and calamari. So I really had the best of all worlds. Dinner was finished with a cappuccino. We then headed back to the hotel for a girls night. We stayed in, did hair, and just all bonded. It was a blast.

On Sunday we were off to San Marco. It was a beautiful day, plus I actually ate a huge breakfast. San Marco was beautiful right by the water. We went in the Palazzo Ducale and the Basilica of San Marco. This Basilica over looked the square and the water. It was beautiful. Our day finished by some light souvenir shopping. I did manage to go in the Dior store in Venice. Man was that pricey. The bag I admired from a far, which wasn’t very big, was 2900 euros. The shoes were 650 euros. Hey but they were nice to look at. Way out of my budget. After I went on a second gondola ride. It was just a peaceful and beautiful in the daytime as it was at night. I suggest doing one of each. Anyways our day ended with heading back to Florence. The water and countryside was beautiful on our way home.

Venice is definitely one of the most beautiful places I have been too. Maybe it was because I missed being on the water. Being on the water was very peaceful. Venice is a very romantic place. All in all I could be perfectly happy waking up and seeing the beautiful canals everyday.