"Amanda's Weekend in Venice" by Rod Sterling: Fin

Sun 22 Feb 2009

******Saturday*******
When I got back to the hostel Friday night, the Arizona girls were already asleep. By the time I got up in the morning, they were gone. So I changed out of my "I came. I saw. I crawled" shirt that I got for free from prior Roma weekend festivities, called up Amy and that group, and wound my way back towards San Marco to meet them.

Venezia on a Carnivale day is not Venezia at 5 a.m. the day before a Carnivale day. Every awkward, hidden side street we had quietly and serenely wound our way through the day before was sardine-packed with people. I couldn't even tell I was on a bridge as I crossed the Ponte Rialto; it looked like just another packed street lined with tiny shops filled with vendors and Murano glass jewelry. I watched the price tags in the store windows roll up and down like a wave, depending how close they were to populated areas and how high a cost they figured they could get away with. It was sunny, warm and gorgeous out, but it was hardly the Venezia I fell in love with the morning before. The island certainly has it's beauty, but Fiorenze quickly regained it's position as my number one city so far.

I couldn't stand the crowds everywhere. It took five minutes to walk through a street that took me half the time the day before. I was looking forward to visiting Murano, if for nothing else than a hope to get away from the ridiculous masses.

San Marco was no better. The ground of the piazza was no longer visible, instead covered with thousands of sneaker-footed tourists. The line to get inside the basilica must've been at least a quarter-mile long, no joke. And yet, the line at the tourist office to buy a ticket for the water taxi, that took me at least 20 minutes the day before, took less than five today. Go figure.

The ride to Murano on the water was beautiful, but the boat was just as packed as the land had been. Our legs, that had adjusted to the sea surprisingly quickly, struggled to learn the land again as we had them follow a mass of people we hoped would lead us to a glass-making demonstration. And exactly that they did.

We figured we'd just follow the large group that seemed to be headed down the road to the right of the water bus and found ourselves herded into a small room with risers on one side and a giant kiln roped off on the other. I had just pictured the glass-making demo as everyone taking their turn looking through a window as some guys on the other side formed glass necklaces and plates. Instead, we got a real five-minute tour. One Italiano lectured and explained as another, the "master," formed a vase and then a horse from a lump of 600-degree Fahrenheit glass. It actually was truly masterful and really impressive, especially done right in front of us. Then, of course, we were herded into the rooms of the purchasable glass, with tons of "special Carnivale sales."

Rob was the only one to buy glass in Murano–more or less the same things were available for way cheaper in Venezia–but I came pretty close to purchasing a few glass jewelry pieces that were unlike what I'd seen on the island. Instead, we enjoyed the sun and warmth that had become pretty foreign to Viterbo, bought some panini, and had ourselves a picnic-y lunch with our legs dangling over the water.

Back in Venezia, we did our shopping from the street vendors next to the Grand Canal by San Marco. I broke down and paid 10 euro for a painting, but I still love the one I got and don't regret it so I'd say it was worth it. Then the rest went back to their rented apartment to cook some dinner and I met up with Hana, who had stayed in Venezia while the group she had been with went over to Murano to take a tour of the glass-making as well.

At this point, as men on stilts wearing giant silver costumes, walking through the crowd to sounds of squawking and performing a dinosaur parade (and nearly knocking people over if they didn't get out of the way fast enough, myself included), I was reminded by Alex Simone that it was Valentine's Day. Through being in Venezia and all the crazyness of opening celebrations for Carnivale, I had completely forgotten. In true girl fashion, Hana and I decided to be eachothers Valentines and proceeded to shell out of big bucks and buy two scoops of gelato for two euro each. Totally worth it.

After we walked around for a bit, Hana went to meet up with the others back from Murano for dinner and I headed back to the hostel to change for the night. In the end, it's kind of a shame that I did–I kept my sweatshirt on basically the whole time and my pirate-y. gypsy-y Carnivale shirt was pretty much constantly covered up anyway. Still, getting ready is half the fun.

I returned back to the room to find my roommates from Viterbo just returning as well. They had been down by San Marco, decided not enough was going on, and figured they'd turn in for the night. I tried to encourage them to head out a bit later since it was still pretty early, but I guess they were pretty decked out from the day. I headed out, met with Simone, Derek, Nick, Aaron and Katia for some dinner that took quite longer than it should've, and by about the 22.5th hour, we headed towards San Marco.

We must've taken a long way around, because we picked up Alex and Coreen on the way and ended up passing Santa Margarita, which isn't really in the vicinity of on the way to San Marco from where we'd come from. We stopped for a beer and a toast at the big stand in the middle of the piazza and ventured onwards. By the time we got to San Marco there were few people and even less of a celebration. But our group was still there, all masked, dressed and confettied, and I had my own can of Silly String I'd picked up at Ipercoop before we left. We later found out Carnivale didn't technically start until noon on Sunday, so that explained the lack of celebration and crazyness we all expected. But it was still a Saturday night, confetti was everywhere, it was Venezia! Onwards we went, back towards Santa Margarita, searching for, as Simone put it, "Dov'e woo-woo?!"

Though it lacked the insanity and mystery we all hoped for from Carnivale, it was still an excellent night out. Kally and Seul had joined up with the group who had spun fire in San Marco (a demonstration that I had missed, but wanted to see). The group had made their way to Santa Margarita, towards a new group to spin fire for. But they weren't the only ones who did it–Kally had some experience with it herself and took her turn spinning fire around. Mad impressive, and the makings for some pretty good photos.

Though we didn't really meet any Italians or really anyone outside our USAC group that night, it was still an excellent night made even better by glittery masks. Sunday was uneventful, consisting mostly of waiting for trains and then sleeping on them on the way back to Viterbo, content with a good Carnivale weekend.