One of
the most interesting parts of this entire trip is just trying to figure out
exactly what the first thing is to discuss for the blog. That being said, here
we go!
Venice
was one of the strangest beginnings to a trip that I have ever had. Not
only did I only know a couple of people prior to the departure date, the first
thing that stood out was how many of us were all going to be on the same trip
together for two weeks long. Some of my first thoughts were just trying
to figure out what we were going to do while we would be in Italy, but as we
came closer to meeting at the airport, it was really nice to just meet new
people that share the same thought about going to Italy as a May Term class.
When it comes to looking at the first few days of the trip, Venice was
something that was definitely a touristy-like experience, but not like somebody
would usually see it. Even though we did the cheesy gondola ride on the
first day the real night, it is more fun to experience Venice as a place from how
culture is experienced on a different level. To me personally, Venice is
seen more like an outside perspective of culture. For example, the
majority of everything we did in Venice had some kind of outside-esque feeling
to it. Although it was pouring rain for the majority of the time while we
were there, some of my favorite memories include things that were outside.
Oddly enough, walking through St Mark’s Basicila and the plaza
around it was an experience all on its own because it is always advertised in
tour books, but it always seems that Italy is a constantly sunny kind of place.
Without thinking of the weather for this entire blogpost, I also want to
mention how fun it is to do other music-oriented things in Italy. Most
notably, of course, was going to Don Giovanni at La Fenice. Coming from a
musical background and have gone to several operas before in my life with the
UFO, being able to see an opera in Italy was one of the most unique experiences
I have had so far in my near 8 years of European travel. Granted, this
was not my first time seeing Don Giovanni in Europe, this was the first time in
an actual opera house with people around me watching the same opera, but it was
the first time without my family. It was a nice change and made me appreciate
my musical upbringing a lot more because it was my own interest to go to
the opera instead of Mom or Dad asking if I wanted to go and figure out the
opera experience from there.
The second highlight of the Venetian experience for me was going
wine tasting with Michael, Trevor, and Patrick after the opera. It is sad
to realize that this happened on the last night in Venice, but it was a really
pleasant time not being with the big group and just enjoy Venice at night while
being around some great company and, as Michael put it, just “feeling time stop
for a little while”. It was also just a
nice change because it was the first time I could feel not at all rushed to do
something. I think we were only at the
bar/café for about two hours, but it was so calm and peaceful outside, there
was no need to feel like we were in a hurry.
And by default, I took a little bit longer to finish my own glass of
wine. But I didn’t mind that at all
since I prefer it that way instead of finishing it in less than ten minutes or
so and not remembering at all what the taste or the texture was. Overall,
I guess I could say that Venice was just a very nice start to the trip because
it was us going our own pace as a group and being able to do our own thing
based on our own interests and still maintain some type of itinerary for the
day.
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