A day in Venice and a night in Florence

current location: Roma, Italia
former location: Venezia, Italia
next destination: Napoli, Italia

We arrived only a bit ago in our hostel in Roma (Legends), and were welcomed with the nightly free pasta ritual while Gladiator played in the background- what an appropriate choice of film.

Our last night in Florence was a sequence of unexpected, fun adventures. The evening before, after watching TOSCA, an Italian opera, in an intimate setting, we had noticed groups of people sitting over the ledge of one of the many bridges, chilling on a traingular bridge support. We brought with us a caprese picnic and a bottle of wine, and sat to watch the sun set and the dusk turn to evening. A bit later, two other travelers joined us and we exchanged travel stories. On our way back to our hostel (Emerald Fields), we stopped to use a watercloset at an Irish Pub. A lively session of karaoke was mid-fun, and once we heard the music, there was no leaving until we dominated the song-fest. After a few excellent renditions of Shania Twain, Smashmouth and the all-time fav: Summer Nights from Grease, we had made friends with a group of equally musically inclined Americans and Italians. In the end, we stayed until close and had a fabulous time chatting. After only 3.5 hours of sleep, we had to board our train to Venice.

We spent roughly 24 hours in Venice, and instead of walking past all the plazas and churches, we chose to nap in the sun on the edge of the Grand Canal and check out free art exhibitions. We then stumbled onto a fascinating social center called SALE-DOCKS, http://sale-docks.org/gui/ and learned a ton about their movement to create social change and promote community and the rethinking of our society. It reminded Marissa a lot of her thesis on El Kilombo (elkilombo.org). They seemed to be setting up for an event, so we asked one of the people there what was going on. Apparently, Redentore, is a huge festival that celebrates the end of the plauge, which they attribute to an answer to their prayers to Mary. Talk about a laaaaaaaaaaaaaaarge festival. Probably all of Venice and more was in attendance. Most boat owners were cruising around the canals with their balloons attached and music pumping. Yes, before we knew about the festival, we thought it was someone's rockin' b-day party. Ha ha. As time went on that evening, locals set up their own picnics and tables and HUGE and delicious looking meals as we stared on in envy. The culminating event of the night is an hour-long fireworks display over the Grand Canal across from the cathedral erected in honor of Saint Mary, who they believe saved them. By the end of the night, there were so many people packed in that at one point we were completely stuck on a bridge, and by that I mean totally immobile, at the whim of the mob and considering jumping into the canal to escape... if only we could reach the side of the bridge. Nonetheless... it was quite the experience, and we were lucky to have been in attendance. After we escaped the throng of people, we retreated to a point farther from the immediate action to wait for the fireworks. Tied next to our spot, was a large, double layered boat (which we so wanted to be on, if not for the security men) which, like all the boats, was pumping the music. (All American Pop). So, to keep ourselves awake... (our late-night karaoke and early train had worn us out) we line danced to Enrique Iglesias. We think the crowds loved it.