Ah, Venice! March 26th, 2011

Maci, Jan and Jill enjoying their water taxi to Murano

The Murano artisan admiring his work

Brooke and Colleen enjoying the views

The beautiful canals of Venice

Classic fares in Venice

The Hals enjoying St. Mark's Square

The beautiful spires of St. Mark's

Some of our ladies enjoying a relaxing gondola ride

The MCC chaperones enjoying their blissfully quiet gondola ride (we let the kids ride in the gondolas in front of us) :)

Ah, Venice...

Kate and Erin in front of St. Mark's

Maci in the Doge's prison...

As we cross through the Apennines on a winding mountain road, the students are reading guidebooks about where we are headed next, dozing, enjoying the scenary, or reading a good book.


Yesterday was a true success and some even decided Venice was their new favorite European city!

We started out early with a water taxi to Murano island where the students marveled at the Murano glass demonstration as the artisan created a beautiful green vase an watched him sculpt a horse in front of our eyes. It all seemed effortless and it was amazing to see the creature take form.

Once we finished in Murano we took the water taxi to Venice - as we neared the city, the water taxi was a bustle of students leaning out to take pictures of the entire city as we approached and saw the spires and domes of the Church of Good Health and St. Mark’s take form.

We enjoyed a walking tour that ended in St. Mark’s square where the replicas of the four horses the Venetians stole when they sacked Constantinople in the fourth crusade in 1202 are perched! After this, they all dispersed for lunch. The students stick with adults – but we do take them in different directions so that we can have faster service and give the students a break from the group.

The students who ate lunch with me got lessons in “how not to get ripped off” 101 and 102… I was not once rude or cross, I just asked the key questions. So at lunch, some of the girls wanted Panini’s or toasted sandwiches. We found a café that had them on the sidewalk posted menu and were quickly seated. They handed us menus that included only the expensive items on the menu – the ones without the Paninis. I had to specifically ask for the Panini menu and when I did, they pulled out a separate menu. Once we ordered the much cheaper items they took away our placemats, silverware and nice napkins. After that, one of my students was interested in the jewelry they had across the street. The stand full of glittering glass bracelets that were very inexpensively priced compared to what we saw on the island read “Real Murano Glass.” As my student became more intent on purchasing the bracelet I asked the shop keeper if he had a certification card for the bracelet (that would certify that it was in fact Murano glass). He became quite indignant and said “for a 100 euro item yes, for a 300 euro item, yes, but for bracelets? Look at the prices in St. Mark’s square and then look at these!”…he said that over and over again, insistently until I looked at him and said “I understand.” He said, ”oh, you understand?!” and pushed me out of the store in front of the girls. It was quite an experience. I apologized to the students for “breaking” their bracelet deal but they quickly realized that the man had ejected me from the store before other people could hear me “busting” the legitimacy of his wares.

Next were the gondola rides – I think the only word for the gondola rides and for the Venice overall is enchanting. We enjoyed a nice long, beautiful, peaceful, quiet trip as we glided along the water in between the many adorable Venetian homes that were often brightly colored, boasting window boxes of cheerful flowers or brightly painted shutters. We slid under bridges full of people who waved at us and passed people gently hanging their laundry from their window. Our gondolier showed us the tide level and explained that most people live on the first floor of their home because of flooding issues. They also playfully bantered back and forth with the other gondoliers we narrowly passed as each boat each man skillfully maneuvered the boats around sharp turns, tight winds, and other gondoliers.

After the gondola ride we were given tickets to check out Doges Palace. The Doge was the Duke and main leader of the kingdom of Venice, which was an extremely wealthy and dominant trading capital of the Mediterranean for centuries. Favorites from this palace where the outdated maps of various points in the world, the gorgeous glass chandeliers, and the prison – which included the opportunity to cross over the Bridge of Sighs.

From here we all have about two more hours of free time, so we split up and went in different directions…so no one group has the same story – but they include things like: *introducing students to their first true European church and watching their jaws drop in awe as they walked into St. Mark’s and gaped at the golden mosaics *the boys walking into a Ferrari store and using the cologne to make themselves smell like Ferrari so that the Italian women would flock to them *warming up with real hot chocolate and strolling through St. Mark’s square *going to the top of campanile and taking panoramic pictures of the entire city *dropping into shop after shop until the girls found exactly what Murano glass jewelry they were hoping for *watching some of the ladies show off the exotic carnival masks they bought from a woman who makes each one by hand *enjoying the views from the Rialto bridge and…pretty much every single group has stories of their multiple gelato stops :-)

Ciao!