10.48 PM
Now to recap the last two days.
I woke up very early on Saturday morning — and no, this isn't by my own standards. Six thirty is early to everyone, right? Anyway, the train station is actually fairly close to my house, so it was just a twenty minute walk to get on the train by 8.30. I went to Venice with a group of five other girls: Lyndse, Natalie, Becs, Celi and Tavia. The train ride took three and a bit hours, and with just one transfer in the Bologna station, we were in Venice! And it was one of the more beautiful things I've seen. I couldn't believe that I was actually there. I almost still can't.
The day was pretty high-energy. We got off the train and wandered around for a while to find some food, since none of us had eaten and it was about time for lunch anyway. After lunch, the first order of business was buying masks. It was Carnevale in Venice, which is the time of year when pretty much everyone in the world comes to Venice to see everyone go crazy. Just walking around, I heard French, Spanish, German, eastern European languages and what I think was Arabic, and that was just what I was able to pick out. Most tourists buy masks from one of a thousand stands with mass-produced masks, but we actually found a small shop where the owner handmade all his masks, and the owner was incredibly sweet. He was so fond of us and he actually gave us discounts. I was so fascinated by how personal everyone's choice of masks was; no person's mask would have looked as good on someone else. With the handmade store, we had that option; all the masks at the stands were formulaic. Gorgeous, but formulaic.
So we picked out our masks and then started wandering again. This day was basically made up of walking all over Venice — we looked at beautiful stores with delicate glass pieces or incredibly delicious-looking chocolate or, of course, masks and costumes. Becs and I made a trip to our hotel on the island of Lido, so we got to see the city from the ocean that first day, which was a sight I'm not likely to forget. It's just so beautiful. It was really hard for me to comprehend that I was actually in Venice, which is a place I've wanted to go for a very long time but never thought I would actually get to. We had dinner at a little pizza shop and it was so delicious!
Also during that first afternoon, we all chipped in for a gondola ride. They're fairly expensive, but with six people we were able to get a pretty good deal. It was such a different experience from the ferry and from walking around — so slow and peaceful, and we were in the city itself so we went under bridges and were close to people. We were all wearing our masks and people kept taking pictures of us and it was just so cool. I don't have enough adjectives to describe Venice.
And of course, all of this was interspersed between walking around and seeing the sights. Venice goes crazy for Carnevale, so people were wearing elaborate costumes and the entire city was packed with people. It was insane. Unfortunately the festivities which were supposed to happen on Saturday were postponed until Sunday because two men who were working to set up the Carnevale stuff died, so the city was in mourning. That was a little disappointing, as was the fact that a lot of bars and clubs were closed at night. We walked for hours and hours looking for somewhere to go, but ended up going to the hotel with the intention of freshening up. Of course, once we sat on the beds it was impossible to move again. I was so exhausted by that point that I actually fell asleep in the middle of a conversation with Natalie, with all the lights on.
In the morning, we woke up and explored Lido a little bit before taking a ferry back to Piazza San Marco, which is where everything was centered. We caught the Flight of the Angels, which is traditionally when beautiful women in angel costumes fly on a line down from the top of the belltower in Piazza San Marco to the ground, but we just saw a man, and "Gangster's Paradise" was blasting over the loudspeakers. I found out later that the man was Coolio. Yeah, I'm also confused as to why Coolio was in Venice, but hey, I'll take it in stride.
After the Flight of the Angels, we got back on the ferry and just took it all the way around the city to see the most of it. The whole trip took about an hour, but it was still just relaxing and beautiful. We had seats on the outside of the ferry so we could see everything, but in the back so it wasn't so cold. And it was here that I made my fatal mistake, because I left my purse on the ferry when we got off.
We went back to Piazza San Marco after that, where festivities had started up on a stage that was set up, and at that point, my friend Natalie was certain she saw Celi, another of our friends, holding my purse, but we had gotten separated. So I spent a few hours being nervous but feeling reassured by Natalie's certainty. But when we continued to not hear from that other group, I got anxious and started heading back to the ferry stop at which we had debarked. On the way, I got a call from Celi saying she did not have my purse. Of course that was horrifying. The man at the ferry stop didn't speak much English but I did speak enough Italian to get across the "I lost something" idea, and he pointed me towards the Piazzale Roma, a thirty minute ferry ride. The whole time I was so anxious and sad and nervous. It was absolutely awful. My purse had my money, my passport, my keys to my house in Florence, my iPod... the only things I had in my pockets were my phone and my camera.
And then I got to the main office, and there it was. Completely intact. Everything still inside. I couldn't believe how lucky I was. I still can't. I have been so paranoid about keeping track of it since then — it basically had the same effect on me as if I had lost it for good.
The process of losing, searching for and finding my purse took almost three hours, believe it or not; Venice was so packed that what should have been a five or ten minute walk took twenty minutes to half an hour. By the time I got back to the Piazza San Marco to meet my friends, we had all decided to head over to the train station, which was maybe a forty minute ferry ride. I didn't even meet up with them before turning around and hopping right back on the ferry.
By the train station, we went to a grocery store to get snacks for the train ride home, and sat and watched all the people passing by. We sat for a while by a group of Native American performers who completely enthralled a group of little girls dressed up like Disney princesses, and then headed to the station to get good seats. After another transfer in Bologna, we were back in Florence, and just a twenty minute walk after that, I was home.
This entry does not correctly convey how incredible it was. Other than losing my purse, it was two days where I was entirely in awe at the beauty and grandeur of a place built on water. You don't notice it when you're there, but the fact that there are no cars or mopeds is so strange. Everyone walks, and you don't have to worry about getting run over. The canals add something that is unequalled anywhere else in the world, and being there for Carnevale was something else. It was an incredible trip. I'd love to go back sometime when it's not so packed and see more of what the city has to offer, but even if I don't go back, I'm so satisfied with what I did get to see and do. It was an absolutely fantastic weekend and I'm so thankful I had the chance. I'm pretty sure Venice at Carnevale qualifies as a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
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