Venezia

As I learned, but did not know before our trip, Venice is known as Venezia in Italy. This is something I don't understand. Why does the entire world not use the same names for places. Where did the word Germany or German come from and why can't everyone around the globe call this country I am living in Deutschland where they speak Deutsch? I just don't get it.

While in Venezia we did a lot of walking around. Neither of us are that into doing the typical tourist routes by going to museum after museum followed by churches and paying way to much for admissions to everything. We figure seeing things from the outside is good enough and just being there and trying to embrace the area is what means the most to us. And to use our money instead to eat our way through where we are as I think you might have gathered from my last post we did. And it was great!

On Wednesday when we headed out we just started walking. We didn't know where, we just went. It turned out where we were staying was close to Rialto where the famous Rialto bridge is. If you have already looked at Ryan's blog (or if not your should ryanforbes.blogspot.com) the time lapse photo he posted was when we were standing on the Rialto Bridge Wednesday night. We stumbled upon the market area with many vendors selling fresh fruit and veggies and then another area with lots of seafood vendors. Oh how I wish I lived in Venice for the day and could buy all these wonderful things to take home and prepare a scrumptious meal.

From Rialto we took a waterbus to the outer island of Murano. Murano is known for their blown glass and as soon as we got off the bus there were people pointing us in the direction of a glass studio offering a free demonstration. Of course these people's real goal was to get us to visit their shop and purchase their glass. Ryan and I listened to the short spiel saw the glass artists at work walked through the store and left. During our time on Murano we saw more glass than I've ever seen in my entire life. Store after store after store packed full of very beautiful pieces, but everything was extremely expensive. We did not bring any home with us. We also went into a church while we were here. Venice has churches everywhere. Actually all of Europe has churches everywhere. I personally do not like when they charge admission to enter a church. I believe God's house should be free for anyone to enter no matter if they are coming in to worship the Lord or to admire the history or art within the walls. I have no problem donating, but I don't want a house of God to become one more place on a map that you have to pay to go inside. What I was going to say about the church on Murano and really every church is that I love being inside a building where I know people have been worshiping the same God that I do for hundreds of years. Walking on the same stone tiles on the floor. Looking to the ceiling and often seeing masterpieces displayed above our head. I honestly have not gotten tired of walking into churches everywhere we have been because each time feels like a spiritual experience for me and I hope during the time I am here each I will continue to feel the spirit in each one I come across.

From Murano we headed to San Marco which is where the Piazza is along with the Bascillica of St. Marco and the Bell Tower. Although it would have been cool we did not want to pay the 8 euro to go up the bell tower (next time maybe). We did walk through the Bascillica which was quite a sight. The Piazza is just an open square. This is the area where Ryan posted a picture covered with water. That photo is from the Thursday morning when the water came up from high tide and everyone walked on the raised walk ways. While we were around San Marcon on Wednesday we had wondered what the platforms all over were for, but though maybe they were left from the Carnival festivities a few weeks ago because during the day they aren't all hooked together. We loved looking at all the art that vendors displayed along the waterfront each depicting Venice in their own ways using various mediums. It was wonderful.

We spent a long time trying to find the location of a film that was supposed to educate us on the history of Venice. When we finally found it we learned that instead of being every hour as the flier we had advertised they only were playing it at 6. And that did not fit our plan for dinner. So now we will just need to research on our own. Which we have yet to do. At this point we headed back to get ready for dinner, but on our way we stumbled upon the venue of the concerts and opera we had been handed fliers for. This is when we decided we wanted to come back at 8:30 for the Vivaldi Four Seasons concert, but as I mentioned did not make it because dinner was so long. But that is okay because if I did not emphasize enough before dinner was SO good!

And I believe that brings me to the end of our day. I want to share about Thursday because it includes my favorite part of the whole trip, but I need to do so in a new post because I need to get to bed so I have energy for cleaning rooms tomorrow. I promise I will keep writing though. Hopefully this gives people something to read in the mean time.