Carnevale di Venezia

Got the chance to go back to Venice for a second time for Carnevale!! Carnevale is a huge two week party before Fat Tuesday. I got to see many different costumes and masks. It was really neat! It was unbelievably crowded though. There were times when I wasn't even walking because there were too many people in the alley! We (my roommates and I) booked our trip to Venice through Florence for Fun again. There were about 200 other study abroad students from Florence that went as well. We took 4 coach buses. It was about a 3 hour bus ride from Florence. We got to Venice port and had to take a boat from the mainland to Venice. The boatride was about 30 min or so. Then we got off the boat and walked towards the glass blowing demonstration. We took so many turns and were winding down all these alleys. I had no idea where I was. Then all of a sudden there was the glass blowing shop! We got to see a glass blowing demo which was really neat. They showed us different types of glass and how purple and red glass is the most expensive. My roommate, Kelsey, bought a glass ornament which was really pretty. The glass was really expensive so I didn't get any.

After the glass blowing demo we were free until 6:30PM. Two of my roommates (Kelsey & Nissa) and Josh (roommate's boyfriend) decided to go exploring on our own. We walked around and went into a ton of different mask shops. The masks are very delicate and they don't like you to put them on your face especially if you have makeup on. I found a paper mache mask that I really liked. So I went ahead and got it. The lady at the store tied it on my face right then! My roommates and Josh also each got masks and we all wore them around. There were lots of tourists wearing masks too and some people were dressed in full costume. 

We walked to San Marco's square to see some of the festivities. There was a stage with live music and people dancing. There were people dressed in costumes and masks all around the stage. The square was very crowded with tourists. We got pizza for lunch at a pizzeria that was really good. Then we went to get some gelato! We walked around and went on some of the back streets. I really enjoyed going on the back streets because it was so quiet. Most of the tourists tend to stay on the street surrounding San Marco's square. Nissa and Kelsey got their faces painted.

Then we wanted to get a quick bite to eat before heading home. So we decided to go to a sit down restaurant and split a few pizzas. So we all 4 go in and sit down. We start to order... I ordered a pizza and kelsey just got a drink since we are splitting a pizza. Then the waiter says we can't split pizzas so I just said that it was for me. Then Nissa orders a pizza and Josh orders just a drink. Then the waiter said you couldn't order just a drink! So after he took our order we got up and WALKED OUT! Showed him! We walked down the street to another pizzeria instead. The people at this pizzeria were so kind!! We sat down and split 2 cheese pizzas and all had delicious hot chocolate :) Boarded our boat and headed back to Florence. Despite the crummy weather and Florence for Fun making us wait around a few times it was fun!