Carnivale in Venezia!

This weekend was incredible, definitely one I will never forget.  On Thursday Meg and I went out with Jamie, Jenna and Shania to celebrate our Italian midterms being over.  Lupi had a magic show at Shamrock so we just chilled there.  Yes, if I haven’t mentioned this before, my friend Lupi is a magician by profession.

 

Friday I just laid low because I was getting up early Saturday.  So I did laundry, went for a run (I know, it’s shocking), cleaned the apartment, and did some studying for midterms.  Nothing exciting, I just went bed early.  I know, I'm boring.  Haha.

 

So Saturday is where the real weekend started.  We (Megan, Lupi,

John and myself) all decided to go to Venice for Carnivale.  Carnivale is essentially a much classier Mardi Gras.  We arrived in Venice around 11:30.  As soon as we got off the train it was clear this was going to be a weekend to remember.  EVERYONE was in costume.  At the very least everyone was wearing a mask, had their face painted, or was wearing a hat.  However a lot of people were all out, top to bottom, over the top, in extremely elaborate costumes.  I saw Smirf’s, men dressed as ballerina’s (more on them later) and dominatrix’s.  The majority of people, however, were dressed in full out ball gowns with themes from the 1800’s.  For example there was my favorite costume, the “rose couple.”  Both wearing really elaborate dresses and suits from the 1800’s covered in roses, complete with gloves, wigs, masks, etc.  Masks are a huge part of Carnivale, everyone wears them.  I bought a really beautiful black and silver one with feathers.  Megan, Jamie and Jenna got their faces painted.  And Lupi got a cape and a wizard’s hat (because he’s a magician of course).

 

So after arriving at the train station we had to take a waterbus to get to our bed and breakfast.  It was SO COOL!!  I knew that the city was all water, but actually seeing it is pretty incredible.  Apparently gondolas are crazy expensive (like 30 euro a person) so we just took a bus.  They have water taxis too.  It was a really unique experience.  (FYI to anyone visiting Venice, they don’t check for your tickets on the waterbus ever.  And the tickets are really expensive.  So if you catch my drift…)

 

We stayed at a really cute bed and breakfast that was owned by an adorable woman.  She told us all about the best places to go and helped us figure out the city.  Now Carnivale is pretty much city wide, but the place to be is in Saint Marco’s Square.  So we of course made our way down to there, walking along the pier of the main waterfront.  The experience was unbelievable.  Every trip I’ve taken so far on weekends have been cool, but super busy.  Packed with wanting to see a hundred things, we end up constantly running around.  This was the first time we just wandered around and people watched, taking in the city and the craziness.

 

So there were some really funny stories from this weekend.  Back to the ballerina’s I mentioned.  It was like 5 or 6 guys dressed in tutus, tights, leotards, and bright pink lipstick.  We of course had to take a picture with them.  So they come over to us and right before they take the picture, one of them kisses Jenna!!!  It’s so funny, she was just like “Ahhhh?!” but cracking up.  I don’t think it would have been possible to stop him if she wanted too.  Check out my pictures on shutterfly if you want to see them!   Later in the night we saw them again, and I went to give them a high five.  Instead of just high fiving me back, he picked me up fireman style (over the shoulder) and ran away!  My friends just kind of stopped and stared, not exactly sure what to do.  Hahahahaha.  He only ran like 10 feet or so but it was so funny.  Apparently that’s what they do: kiss people, dance, and kidnap/run away with people.

 

That night we all went out to dinner then headed back to Saint Marco’s Square to keep celebrating.  It was a really fun night of dancing in the streets, drinking wine, and looking at all the crazy costumes.  It was essentially a big competition where everyone wanted to get his or her picture taken.  I got my picture taken once also, it was pretty flattering.  I didn’t know why at first, because it was just wearing a mask.  But he showed me the picture and the way the light was hitting my hair, the silver in my mask, and my eyes it looked like I was glowing.  My hair looked like it was on fire and my eyes were crazy bright.  I wish I could get a copy of the picture, but oh well.

 

The next day we just slept in, walked around a bit more, got food and headed back.  Venice is kind of far from Perugia and we had to transfer trains so we wanted to head out early.  Especially because all the girls had to study and Lupi and was throwing himself a birthday party.

 

This week I’m just studying for midterms and getting ready for Nora and Mischa’s arrival!  YAY!  So I doubt I’ll have any more interesting updates until after spring break.