Venice, Italy

Staying in Venice for a weekend turned out to be an excellent idea. It was so nice to get out of class on Friday and not have to run off to the train station. After relaxing all afternoon Friday (hint: wine and naps), we got ready for our dinner reservations. One of our professors suggested a restaurant that he took his wife to for their anniversary. It's called La Zucca, and it turned out to be fantastic. The food was delicious and it was actually very inexpensive. If you've never had pumpkin flan, you haven't fully experienced life. After dinner, we headed to Madigan's of course. It decided to monsoon, so we had to move inside and then bolt for home when it let up a little bit. It was . . . fun.

On Saturday, we slept in for once (which was awesome) and then headed out to the St. Mark's area. The line to get into the St. Mark's basilica was outrageous, so we decided to go to the Doge's Palace instead. The Palace is where the Doge lived in ancient Venice times. It was really neat to see the inside, it reminded me of Versailles. The artwork and craftmanship was amazing. The palace was originally linked to the Venice jail, so we got to see that as well. We walked over the famous “Bridge of Sighs” on our way. They call it that because it was the last time prisoners got to see sunlight, so it was rumored that they sighed as they crossed it. A little depressing, actually. And let me tell you, jail in ancient Venice times was not cushy. After spending a couple of hours at the Palace, Annie and I went shopping. There are lots of fancy stores around St. Mark's, but we also walked down to the open air market by the Rialto bridge. It was fun and we got some cool stuff.

Saturday night we were planning on going to the beach party on Lido (thanks to all of you who prayed for good weather!). We were so tired, that we just ended up going to the boys place to drink wine and play cards. I learned how to play Hearts for the first time, and although it's not as good as Spades, I'm down with it.

Sunday morning we got up early and took the vaperetto to Murano. Murano is an island right off of Venice and is world famous for its glass. We got to see a glass-blowing demonstration which was really cool. It's amazing what the artists can do in such a short amount of time. We also walked through the Murano glass museum, and I was impressed that such delicate pieces of glass have survived such a long time. After lunch, we spent hours shopping because there are about a million shops on the island.

On Monday, we had another school-sponsored field trip. It was a day long adventure to the town of Padua. We first went to the Padua courthouse and meet with a lawyer and judge. The lawyer had actually done his LLM at Vanderbilt. It was really interesting to learn about their legal system. Parts of it are very similar but parts are very different (judges don't have to go to law school!). After getting a tour of the courthouse, we set off for a private tour of the Scrovegni chapel. I wasn't necessarily looking forward to touring another old church, but I'm SO glad we went. It was incredible. The Last Judgment fresco covering one whole wall of the church was one of the most impressive pieces of art I've seen since being in Europe. If you're ever in this part of the world, it's a must-see.

After the tour, we went to have lunch at a sort of Italian version of cafeteria style eating. Something pretty funny happened: I went through the drink line and the manager asked if I would like a beer. So I said sure, why not. He asked what kind and I said something light. After a few sips, I was informed that the man had given me a nonalcoholic beer. Do I look like an alcoholic or something?!?!?!

This week has been uneventful so far. We are headed to Florence in about 10 minutes. I've heard it's the best city in Italy, so I'm excited!

Loves-Ally

P.S. I have one week left in Europe! Crazy!