Venice! Feb 17-19

This weekend we went to Venice for the big Carnevale celebration! I was very excited to go because we learned all about this festival in my Italian class. Before going to Venice, I heard many mixed reviews on the city. Upon arrival into the city I was taken back by the beauty and uniqueness of it. We only went into the city for dinner on Friday because our train arrived fairly late, after many delays. We found this cute little café and had wonderful pesto pizza! It is a growing trend on how much pizza we all get because it is so delicious and so cheap! Early Saturday morning we go back into the city and this time I was so overwhelmed by how many people were there! The streets were flooded with people, many of which all dressed up in fancy outfits and masks. There were people of all ages dressed up- some in traditional Carnevale outfits while others were in outfits such as the Mario Kart characters! In the main square, San Marco, there was a huge stage set up as well as numerous vendors selling masks. On the stage, there was a few performers singing songs ranging from the chicken dance to pop songs.
There was not much else to do in Venice other than walk around the streets, but that was fine by me! I thought it was so cool how no cars are allowed in the city (for good reason- the alley ways are so narrow and there are bridges everywhere!). The weather on Saturday was absolutely beautiful- we really could not have gotten luckier! It was probably in the mid 50’s and not a cloud in the sky! And since it was not too hot, it was not smelly because of the water like I hear it is during summer. I wish I could have gone on a gondola ride, but they were at least 50 euro… so there went that idea! It is so funny how easy it has become to spot the Americans- if they are wearing a north face jacket, there is like a 95% probability that they are from the states haha! Over the past day we all have done so much planning on what we are doing for the rest of the weekends/week long breaks. Reality is hitting in on how fast time is flying by over here and how we really don’t have too much longer here! It is official that I am going to Munich this weekend and I could not be more excited! A bunch of people from my trip already went there and most of them said that Munich has been their favorite city thus far!