Chapter Nine: 27 Hours: The Story of Venice

For those of you who don't know, my time here in Italy is happening all thanks to my college, Niagara University. About fifteen years ago, our dean reached out to Luca Leone, the owner of the hotel DuLac, proposing this program where students from Niagara come to the Como area and work for the summer, and then students from the University of Insubria in Como come to Niagara to study in the fall. In exchange for working forty hours a week for ten weeks, we receive a semester worth of class credits. There was a hotel association in Como that decided to sponsor some trips for us while here, in addition to a private donor who gave us $15,000 to be used towards everyone's flights to and from Italy. All in all, for about $200, I got a roundtrip flight, a trip to Florence, and a trip to Venice. As if simply being able to come to Italy wasn't good enough!!

Because we went to Florence the first weekend we were here, we still had Professor Scarcelli, everyone's favorite teacher, to take us on a tour around the city. Because he was gone, the university had to provide someone to accompany us to Venice and make sure no one got lost, or fell in a canal. Our guide, Professor Arianna Grasso, was absolutely wonderful. More on her later...but first...

During my last seven weeks in Italy, I had heard two things about Venice: It is crowded with tourists, and smells awful.

Much to my surprise, I found that during the Fourth of July weekend in the US, Venice proved to be a calm and enjoyable getaway. The only fishy smell we encountered was on an occasional walk across some of the smaller canals. The streets and shops were all quite empty on Saturday and Sunday, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

So, you've all heard the popular saying "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." But, when in Venice, you go on a gondola ride. This was the one thing that everyone was set on doing. We actually found out that Professor Grasso, our guide, although having already visited Venice three times, had never been on a gondola. At an extra cost of about two euros for each of us, we decided to pay for her spot on the boat...partly because we found it hilarious that this native Italian, on her third trip to Venice, was going on her first gondola ride with a group of rowdy Americans.

The gondola itself was a lot more relaxing and photogenic than it was a thrill ride through the narrow canals of Venice. We had a lot of fun listening to the "drivers" for lack of a better word, speak in the Venetian dialect which none of us could understand, and watching them take the tight turns and ducking under the low bridges. When we laughed at the sight of it, our driver said,

"Duck or die."

That evening, after an exhausting and expensive shopping trip, we were ready for dinner. Although the majority of the group, on their first and perhaps only trip to Venice, chose to eat dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, my small group (Jeff, Emily, myself, and prof. Grasso) decided to find a good local restaurant and try some of the dishes native to Venice.

Now, I understood going in what I was getting myself into. Venice is right on the water. It's a fishing village. Dinner would most certainly be fish. But I'm brave and I will try anything.

Professor Grasso told us about this native Venice dish called Sarde in Saor. She explained what it was, but I didn't really listen because I had decided I was going to try it no matter what....the best way I could describe it to you would be this: the largest whole sardines I have ever laid eyes on, covered in sauerkraut. And holy vinegar! I'm still cringing just thinking about it. Luckily. Jeff and I split that as an appetizer, and I still had my entree coming. My entree, however, turned out to be a bunch of fried something's, mixed with fried fish, heads still attached, and plain polenta. After the sardine incident, I did not have a strong stomach for whole, tiny fish, and ate very little. How fortunate I was that there were free refills on bread and plenty of wine.

Probably the best part about dinner was that we were sitting at a table outside facing the canal, and a boat rode by, filled with musicians playing live music all the way down the canal. They weren't begging for money, or overly seeking attention. Honestly they just looked like they were having the time of their lives. We loved it, and, as Emily said, "I want to throw money at them!!"

The next day we had a walking tour guided by a very nice woman who knew a lot about the city and made our two hour hike to St. Marks square interesting and fun. My only complaint was that there were a lot of things that she started telling us about, like the shape of gondolas, that she said she would tell us more about later and never did. We did learn how they built the entire city on the water though! It had something to do with thick clay, wooden boards, and seven layers of really strong rocks. See, I was listening!

St. Marks square was without a doubt the single most crowded place in all of Venice. Very pretty, and very crazy.

We had a few hours left to shop and then it was time to go home. Although by the time we got on the train we had only been in the city for twenty seven hours, it was some of the most fun I've had so far. I probably say that a lot, but the great thing about being here is that every day brings a new adventure that is better than the one before it. How beautiful this life is! 

Anyway, after getting off the train in Milan, prof. Grasso left us, and I found out that everyone who lives in Bellagio was planning on foregoing their free train ticket to Como, and instead buying a ticket to Verenna, and taking a boat to Bellagio. Because it would have cost me more money, and because it meant another hour waiting at the Milan train station, I decided to take the route that was already paid for. The shitty part was that I had to take the hour and ten minute bus ride, fearing for my life the whole time, on my own. While riding into Bellagio, I heard from my Italian friends who were at the beach, San Giovanni, so I got of the bus one stop early and went to meet them. Upon arriving I realized that there was a full blown festival going on with hundreds of people, live music, and food everywhere. Turned out to be an amazing night with great friends. 

Who would have thought that one night without my American friends would have led to these amazing friendships and networks of Italians that I have been getting to know. I can hardly wait to tell you more about my adventures with these italian friends, but that will have to wait, in the interest of time!

That being said, with all of this time I've been spending with the Italians, my language skills have been getting better and better. Today at work I had a twenty minute conversation with the tennis instructor in only Italian. There is no better compliment than when I meet someone knew, and after talking for a while they ask me where I'm from and I say Ohio...their response is always the same. With a very quizzical look, they say "Ma...parli ben italiano!" With a question in their voice, it's easy to tell what they're really asking...why the hell does a girl from Ohio speak (near) fluent Italian?

The answer to that lies here.