GL 350/venice week 2

Our second week is over and I can't believe how much we have already seen!  The first week went slow and I think it was because of the jet lag, but this week went a lot faster.  Even though we will be here for eight weeks, which feels like a long time, it is hard to believe that we are still not going to see everything that Italy has to offer in that period of time.  There are so many churches and other historical sights that all have such meaning and it is hard to believe that Italy is home to all of it.  During the first week we learned that Italy was just about the size of Arizona, and I find that hard to wrap my head around! 

During this second week, we got to venture around the Spanish Steps, take an amazing and bumpy bike ride on the Appian Way, and travel to Venice! Venice was definitely my favorite city so far.  When we arrived at Lido we were all expecting to swim to our hotel, but we got a very pleasant surprise with warm weather and sunshine on Friday and Saturday. 

I loved everything about the Island.  When we arrived, we grabbed lunch and walked a short way to the Adriatic Sea where we walked on the beach and collected sea shells.  I wasn't expecting such a great view.  Barzini states when inquiring about the fatal charm of Italy, "Is it spectacular landscapes, majestic mountains, iridescent bays, waterfalls, coquettish lakes, pretty islands that travellers think they cannot do without?  Of course, natural beauty and famous are abundant in Italy.  Such things, however, are not unknown elsewhere."  Barzini has a great point, there are beaches in the United States, so what made Venice so special?  I'm not sure, maybe because everything was surrounded by water and the number of cars were few and added to the overall view and experience.

We visited the Murano and watched glass being blown and shaped into amazing forms.  It was an amazing art form.  My dad used to bend glass and had his own shop, so seeing it done a different way was really interesting and something that I'm very excited to tell him about when I get home.  Walking down the streets I noticed that it was different than Rome in the way that there was water surrounding everything, there were little to no cars, hardly any beggars, and it was cleaner.  Riding on a gondola was pretty as well.  It was definitely a part of the trip I won't forget. 

On Sunday we were able to visit St. Marcs and had a great mass.  The choir was absolutely amazing, I would love to be in a choir like that.  Even though it was in Italian, it still was breathtaking to be there in that amazing church.  All in all, week two was amazing!