Carnevale

Buon giorno. As per ariel's request i'm updating my blog. So the last time I posted i was bound for a weekend in venezia after my prague trip was cancelled : ( Venezia was great. I had such a great time, and the city is really spectacular. We left here at the ass crack of dawn and got there around 11. We were stupid and didnt buy a map before we got there so it took us over an hour and a half to find our hotel. We were literally 10 minutes away from it and we kept walking in circles. Once we got to our hotel we ventured out for lunch and bellinis because we were all starving. We found a cute little place outside called beccafino. I ordered a pizza and a bellini but the guy said not to get a bellini because "bellinis are out." Instead he brought be a variation of a bellini with mango juice instead. It was delicious. So was the pizza. After that we walked around st.mark's square which was decorated with all of this stuff for carnevale. I was very happy about this because there were a not as many pigeons. Except i was still repulsed by people feeding the birds and having the pigeons climb all over them. We walked up to the st.mark's basilica which overlooked the square and had a great view. We stood up there for a while and watched all the people below with their costumes. Then we walked around some more, went to dinner (i had an amazing seafood dish), and then walked back to the square. Back in the square they were having a crazy drag queen contest. It was really funny. These drag queens were all about the diva american music. Their costumes were ridiculous-really elaborate I head a lot of celine and mariah. The next day we went to an island off of venezia called murano where they specialize in glass making. The island was beautiful and not touristy at all. The only thing i did not like about the island was that i had to be a euro to use the bathroom. So ridiculous. The bathroom wasn't even that nice! We saw glass being blown and the guy let me blow glass! Really cool. We stayed there for a while, and then took the train home to florence. I was exhausted. Travelling really takes it out of you. On sunday i hiked up by myself to the piazzale michaelangelo which has some really unbelievable views and then hiked around there to the forte belvedere and the chuch of san miniato. Came home that night and took a 3 hour nap. Yesterday i also went to fiesole by myself, which was nice but i think i was too tired to really enjoy it (I went for an early run in the morning). On a side note, I got paired up with an exchange partner. He's really cool, his name is Fabrizio (nickname, Pizio) and he's really nice. He knows everything about the city and has already taken me to some lesser known florentine food places. And i get to improve my italian! woo. Anyways i've got to head off to class so that's all i'm writing for today. Arrivederci