John Mark’s Study Abroad

Venice Video

Venice Day 1

The first night we got to Venice we went to an Opera.  Although it sounds really cool going to an opera in Venice, the theater reminded me of a middle school gym.  It was a cool experience, but not really my cup of tea.

Venice Day 2

The next day we took a day trip to Vicenza, and visited the Villa Rotunda by Palladio. It was a beautiful building, we also saw some of the other sites, like the Teatro Olimpico.  The stage is designed so it looks like a long street, but in reality it is only a few feet deep.

On the ride back Burson and myself dominated in some spades.

Venice Day 3

The next day we visited St. Marks Cathedral.  It was cool, but i didn’t like it as much as other Cathedrals.  It was really gaudy, and too much decoration going on.

That afternoon we went to two of the islands off venice, called Murano and Burano.  Murano is famous for its silk, and it has very colorful houses lining the canals.

Burano is famous for its glass, and we got to see a glass blowing demonstration. We also got to see them loading the “Fragile” glass into the boats to ship.  As you can see in the video, they were not careful at all.

Venice Day 4

Our last day in Venice we got to go on a construction site tour of a Venice canal.  It was pretty interesting how much work they have to do to keep the city afloat.  The only problem was they use the canals as their sewage system, so when it is drained you are standing in a giant toilet.  What was remarkable is the Engineer that took us on the tour was wearing about a $1,000 dollar suit.  

That afternoon we headed to the beach.  We rented tandem bikes and cruised along the coast until we found a nice beach.  We got to play volleyball, and soccer.  We also spent plenty of time just relaxing on the beach.

That night when we got back to the main island of venice we took a group shoot at St. Mark’s… afterwards we had alot of fun playing with the pigeons that swarm the square.