This week I went on a day trip to Venice, which turned out to be a really cool adventure. The train took me right into the heart of Venice. I got off and saw the canals right away! For this trip I packed everything I needed but my tour book! So I had a fun time navigating and trying to find out what is good to see! It was like going on a treasure hunt without a map!
Venice is a marble empire built on a lagoon on the north-east side of the Italian coast. The lagoon is composed of many tiny islands that are connected with bridges. Venice is known for being the gateway between eastern and western Europe. It was really neat to see Islamic influence on the buildings there even though I was in Italy! If you look at the picture below you can see the Islamic architecture on the outside of the building. It doesn’t look Italian, does it?
I loved seeing San Marco’s Piazza. The church has a golden mosaic covering the ceiling. It is the cities main piazzas are known for having concerts there and festivals. When I went inside the church my mouth just dropped from all of the gold that was above me. Every inch of ceiling was composed of millions of tiny gold tiles. I had to just stand under it and stare for about ten minutes. Then I would walk a few more steps and do the same thing again. Unfortunately I could not take pictures inside to show you.
It’s Sinking!
The tides of Venice are very high at night during Autumn to Spring. I heard stories about people that stayed out late and had to walk through the water to get home. The tides flood the streets of Venice because of the gravitational pull of the moon on the Adriatic sea. There is speculation that Venice is sinking and will not be around for much longer because it is built on a lagoon. Recent research as shown that it stopped sinking for a few years however it has continued to sink again. Lucky for you it is sinking at very slow rate scientists predict it will sink 3.2 inches by 2032. But I would not wait around to plan your trip to Venice!!
Unfortunately this is my last blog post! I hope you guys enjoyed reading my blog as much as I enjoyed sharing my stories and pictures with you! I would love to hear what you guys thought of this experience! My last final is May 10th and from there I will be leaving for Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague and back to Florence again to say a final good bye. It will be a grand adventure that I can’t wait to embark on! I hope I inspired you all to feel the adventurer inside of you! Maybe one day you will be in my shoes in a different country studying abroad!
Lauren Wederich
Classmates Connecting Cultures
Florence, Italy
Spring 2012
I loved reading your posts!