Italia Adventures!!: A Whirlwind Week

I really have no idea how to begin explaining my first official travel week, it still feels a little like a dream that I can't believe actually happened. It all starts in Venice where we went for the first weekend of Carnival. We thought this would be a great way to experience one of the most well-known celebrations in Italy as well as a fantastic way to kick off our 9-day trip that also included Rome, Pompeii, and Paris.

I was crazy excited about this trip especially because we were meeting up and traveling with two of my best friends from back home, Aaron and Nickie. Because I knew I would get to see Aaron for the first time in a few months the Friday we left, it was absolutely terrible to sit through an entire day of class! However, somehow I managed to survive and before I knew it I was waking up from my nap on the train from Bassano to Venice completely freaking out because I realized I had told Aaron to meet us at the wrong train station in Venice! It was just the perfect start to the trip and I couldn't believe that two hours into our journey I had already messed up!! (Trust me - it wasn't the greatest confidence booster to kick things off!) Nonetheless, two train station slices of pizza, a Diet Coke, and an hour later we found Aaron (finally!) and were able to get on our way! Thankfully we were able to check into the apartment we were staying in and meet up with a few other people we knew who had come for Carnival without any other problems...probably because I wasn't in charge of any of it!

When we woke up the next morning we realized something very quickly...it was COLD in Venice! Walking out the door was brutal and I'm from Minnesota - I should be used to it! Apparently, we had somehow managed to visit Venice during one of the coldest periods in 30 years and got to spend the weekend walking around and ducking into random stores whenever we got too cold to keep going! Thankfully, Carnival was exciting enough that it made up for the temperatures, but I will tell you that (sadly) my most successful purchase up to this point is the €10 stocking hat I bought in Venice that weekend!

But, beyond that the weather, it was a fantastic experience to see all of the unique and intricate costumes as well as all of the really goofy ones like the 3 Little Pigs, the Teletubbies, and the Mask. People were obviously having a lot of fun with it and the whole experience reminded me a little bit of the classier version of Halloween! One of the best things we did happened while we were walking around shopping for our own souvenir masks as we managed to wander into a shop where a man and his wife were hand-making the famous masks right in front of you. Watching them work and having them explain the whole process was so interesting and it helped me understand much more about just how serious people take this celebration. Other than the mask hunting, we got to see a parade of costumes, live entertainment in San Marco Square, and a fountain filled with wine! Needless to say, we never had any problems finding things to do!

The cold definitely made the Venice stop of the trip a little more uncomfortable but everything we did during our time there without a doubt made up for any of the unpleasantness. Thinking back on it now, I'm really glad I got to see the city and Carnival under such unique circumstances - it made our visit there much more memorable and special. I will never forget how pretty it was walking to the train station on Sunday morning over the famous Venice waterways with the canal water frozen and the snow falling. Watching all of the locals take pictures and just stand outside their shops in awe made me realize how rare and truly beautiful what we were experiencing was. All and all I'm guessing you can tell from this post that Venice was an amazing first stop on our week-long adventure but I'm excited to say it only got better when we headed off to Rome. I think I'll break it up here though - Rome more than deserves its own post!!