venice from the ground up (6/23/11)

(Sorry, I'm not too creative with my post titles, as you can tell. That's actually the name of one of the books we had to read for class...it was our least favorite, by far.)

Today was our first full day in Venice together (not my first time, but first time with friends), and what a fun and full (and pricey =\) day it was! It's so different being here with family instead of friends, and I wish my family would have gotten to do some of the things we're doing, but I had a lot of fun with them, too :) what a blessing to be able to come here twice in one month...I'm well aware of it.
Paying for the hotel this morning was like going to the ATM, haha--I paid for all five of us that booked in a group, and everyone paid me cash. Whoo! It was well-needed, too, since we all spent a decent amount of money today. Oh, Venice. Thankfully, there is a shuttle that takes us to the island (since we're staying on the mainland), and it's included in the 3-day transportation pass we bought. We got to Piazzale Roma, split up, and the group I was with (Apeksha, Josh, Grace, and Sachin) walked to the Rialto Market and Bridge (and got gelato on the way! :) I tried walnut and fig...pretty tasty, actually), and then we got to St. Mark's Square not long after. The basilica was pretty the second time around, with all of its gold mosaics, and then we visited the Doge's Palace. It really is pretty awesome to see in person paintings and buildings that you've been learning about in class for the past month :) I especially enjoyed seeing Tintoretto's "Paradise" (which is giant!), which was in the Hall of the Grand Council, one of the largest meeting rooms in Europe--beast! I also liked these globes that would be in pairs--one depicting earth, one depicting the heavens--those were pretty interesting. Apeksha and I lost the other three somewhere along the way and just stuck together. We crossed the Bridge of Sighs and saw the prisons on the other side. Nifty stuff! It reminded me of when I went to visit Alcatraz with my mom and sister back in high school. It was kinda eerie but cool.
So, I got to spend the whole afternoon with Apeksha :) which was awesome. We visited the Correr Museum, which had some cool artwork, and wandered away from the plaza on a quest to find La Fenice, the opera house that we read about in one of our books. We ended up seeing the back side first, and it was just so peaceful and pretty and quiet. Soon after, we saw a whole bunch of gondolas pass through (and one of the gondoliers called out to us, "Ciao, baby!" to our amusement), and then we went around to find the front. We were debating for a little while whether or not to go in, but we decided to in the end--probably one of the best decisions we made today. It is such a beautifully decorated opera house (and keep in mind, this is after two fires), and as we were walking around, listening to the audio tour, we stumbled upon a group rehearsal in the theater, and we got to sit in and listen (in the royal box! So awesome). It was a choir rehearsal, accompanied by piano and harpsichord, and it was really pretty--the music fit the mood perfectly. It was funny, too, because everyone on stage was just in their normal clothes, so they weren't matching. It reminded me of my choir days. Good times :) The Apollo Rooms (used for socializing before, during, and after the operas) were really pretty as well, especially the ballroom. We walked down the red carpet stairs like rock stars. :)
Afterwards, we wandered into Dorsoduro, passed by the Accademia (which, after hearing from Sachin, I'm glad we opted not to visit), and we found San Trevaso, the only remaining gondola repair shop in the city. Too bad it was already closed for the day. By then, it was almost dinner time, so we went on another quest to find Al Cugnai, which had been recommended to me by Mary, for dinner. We found it, but it wasn't open yet, so then we went to try and find gelato for Apeksha, which failed because Dorsoduro really is a very residential area of Venice. Once it opened for dinner, we went back and ate (it was kinda pricey, but worth it!). I ordered monkfish (again on Mary's recommendation), which was really tasty. You can only eat the tail (which I didn't know), since the rest of the body is poisonous. Crazy!
Then it was time to head back to St. Mark's, where we had bought tickets for a Vivaldi concert at 8:30. On the way, we saw the Music Museum (how fitting, right?), and it had a lot of string instruments, and even a violin-making exhibit :) cool stuff! The concert was really good--Vivaldi/the Four Seasons live is so much better than iTunes. I think because I'm more of a visual person than aural, seeing and listening to music helps me absorb and experience it a lot better than just listening. The solo violinist for the "Four Seasons" was really good, and he was super into the performance. His energy really drove the performance, even though he looked like a snob sometimes with this big grin he'd get on his face after a really hard solo part, haha.
By the time the concert ended (after two encores!), the sky was dark, so we hung out for a bit in St. Mark's before taking a crowded vaporetto back to Piazzale Roma, from where we took the bus back to our hotel. Apeksha bought profiteroles from the pizzeria, which are pretty tasty. Bedtime!