Carnival Venice!

As soon as you come out of the train station you know that Venice is exceptionally beautiful. We were lucky and had gorgeous weather the entire time; the water was bright aqua, buildings were old and charming and (I said this a hundred times) there is beautiful light. Pink hazy light I can under stand why so many artists go there to study the light.

On our first day we (Amanda, Chelsea. Rosie, Zach and I) arrived mid-morning and went to our hostel- which was in an old building that looked to have been someone’s house a long time ago. It was managed my a couple of bohemian individual which I just loved. The hostel usually has about 10 guests at a time; it had 50 on Friday night. We went to San Marco square first but in Venice all the paths weave in and back and forth among the foot bridges and canals, so it was an adventure. On our way we found our masks (mine is bright pink to match my hair) and saw Rialto a famous bridge in Venice.

San Marco is a huge piazza in Venice, it has a multi domed church and the other three sides have shops and cafes, but for Carnival it had a stage for all of the activities.
We walked along the water and neighborhoods and made our way to San Giorgio the domed church that Monet and many other artists have painted. It was beautiful…of course. We returned to San Marco to catch the costume fashion show and the Giant Insect Parade- so cool!

Later that night we saw the Carnivale Drag Queen show! It was fabulous! I had so much see those men strut their stuff in insane costumes and then to perform outrageous acts! And this all happened while the Piazza we were standing in was flooding! We all had to keep backing further and further away from the stage.