Venezia

Last weekend I was in Venice for the annual Carnevale celebration. The celebration was not strictly in Venice, though it was where most of the maddness happened. I was wondering why there were so many costume shops here in Rome... and it was because everyone needed costumes for Carnevale but it was mostly young children who wore costumes. We stayed in Mestre-Venice, which was on the mainland and only about a 15 minute bus ride onto the island. As soon as we got there everyone had masks and costumes on, there was music playing everywhere.. it was literally Carnevale! Well, we needed to fit so we bought masks too! We took a boat to get to St. Mark's Sqaure. It was like a water taxi. St. Mark's Square was packed with people in costume, there was a huge stage where there was a concert later on in the afternoon. St. Mark's Basilica was really pretty, but I didn't get a chance to go inside due to the massive amounts of people. After we took in the beautiful sights of the square and the view of the water, we decided to get lost in the alleys and ran into a gandola lot. Of course we had to take a ride on the gondola! It was very relaxing and we rode through the Grand Canal and under the Rialto Bridge. It was probably my favorite part of the trip to Venice.
When night time rolled around, practically any square we went to there was a party. Live music, people dancing on stage still wearing their masks. It was so odd but fun!
Venice was a beautiful city, and I'll probably go back to see it just as a city without the maddness of Carnevale. Great weekend!

The first picture one of the several costumes I saw while walking around the square, they were dressed up as sunflowers.
The next picture is a view of San Marco's Sqaure from the boat taxi thing.
The third picture is of St. Mark's Basilica, and next is Derick, Me, and Elyse in our Venetian Masks!
Lastly is a photo of the Rialto Bridge that I captured while on the gondola riding through the Grand Canal, beautiful!