Venezia - Night One

Oh Venice, Venice, Venice. It usually takes me quite some time to put these detailed blogs together, but if my description of Venezia is as intricate as the things I've seen today, you'd never finish reading. In the past 14 hours I have observed an overwhelming amount of art and sculpture, set foot on the streets of a historic city, and witnessed a watery metropolis. In short, I really like that place.

Yesterday started off with an Italian exam that I believe I passed. I used a portion of my writing section to woo Signora Maraschio, declaring my appreciation for her intelligence and beauty. Since it was the last class and I will likely never see her again, I figured I'd go out on a high note. She then gave the whole class her email address, but I'm pretty sure it was just for me (you think?).   

Everyone who was going brought their packed bags to the test, and at around 12:45 PM, started walking for Stazione Centrale. In preparation for the 3 hour ride, many of us bought bread, wine and cheese. There were 13 of us total for the ride there, with 3 joining later (basically going as a separate group much later in the day). 

On the train, finding our seats was sort of chaos. You get assigned to a car with a seat number, but only half of the local people seem to strictly adhere to the seat / seated guidelines. This leads to movement within the crammed compartment, confusion, and aggravation. Eventually though it worked itself out, and I found myself seated with 3 of the girls on the trip (Tracie - Hawaii, Alisa - California, and Kim - California) at a table for four (the seats are set up with pairs of 2 facing each other with a table divider). As the train moved our party from Milan to Venice, we drank wine, talked, and chowed down on bread and cheese. If you've never travelled in this manner (surrounded by women in a beautiful country drinking wine and eating), I highly recommend it. 

When we got to Stazione Mestre (the mainland train station in Venice) we bought tickets for the bus that was to take us to our campground. Even though the bus ride was only around 15 minutes, we were consistently moving at around 50 MPH, so as the time passed everyone began to wonder where in the world we were staying. I'd suggested Camping Fusina, mainly because of the price (15 euro a night) and the positive online reviews. It got a 75% approval on Hostelworld.com (which for all practical purposes is pretty good), the only downside was that it was far. When we got there, it reminded me more of a camping trip to South Dakota than a hostel in Venice. But we got our keys, got to our cabins (2 rooms in each "cabin" / trailer with a paper thin divider - still though, Camping Fusina = clean sheets, cheap cost, bathrooms and restaurant within the grounds, my 100% approval) and got ready to go out.

Binoy and John (both Boston College) had scoped out a casino long in advance for this trip. It's true, there is a small casino on the island, so for Saturday night, that was our eventual destination. It's important to note that I only brought out 50 euro with no intention of gambling, but this will be of importance later. We took one of the last ferries across the water from Fusina to Venice (a 20 minute trip) and snapped some pictures as the sun set.

When we got onto the island, we did what everyone does in Venice - we got lost. Although Venice is famous for it's waterways, what I found much more interesting, and hadn't expected, were the endless narrow pathways that seem like American alleys, but are rich with restaurants, hotels, shops and the like. We started to walk down these like rats in a maze, but everyone was happy and no one really worried about the importance of our destination. More pictures, wandering, and an eventual arrival in Piazza San Marco - the most well known Piazza in Venice. 

Most guidebooks recommend seeing Venice at night, or at least late in the afternoon - reason being that during the day cruise ships pour in tourists, flooding the streets and plazas with congestion. At night however, everything calms down (this was when we arrived). When we got to Piazza San Marco, the area was quiet, and all 13 of us appreciated the Basilica di San Marco (a huge church in the piazza, decked in Mosaic art), the bell tower, the clock tower and the plaza to the sound of an orchestra playing at a nearby fancy restaurant. Very nice. More pictures, many of which turned out kind of badly because of the difficult lighting. 

We kept on walking, drinking, talking, and I'll admit stopped at McDonald's for a quick meal. Soon enough, we got to the water taxi area (think of a local bus, but on water) and found out the next one (bound for Casino Divenzia) was to leave in only a few minutes. In a rush, everyone tried to buy tickets. I was the 4th last to buy my ticket, a point of critical haste with the boat set to depart, and while I could have made it, I would have abandoned three girls on their own. I stayed. The four of us (me, Tracie, Rori - Philadelphia and Stefany - New York) stopped in at a local restaurant and waited for the next one.

When we got to the casino, everyone was ahead of us in a painfully long line (an Italian line). It was 10 euro to get in, but that 10 euro buys a chip to begin playing with. Since Binoy and John were the only ones really up for gambling, we were to pay our 10 and then give our chips to them in exchange for our money back. Simple. When we got to the front however, I found out I wasn't up to par with the dress code; I was wearing dress pants, a dress shirt, but, no coat. With only 10 euro left in my pocket (transportation + food + wine in Venice = 40 euro) I went to apply for a jacket.

"Cinquanta euro," says the lady at the desk. Although I'd passed my italian exam earlier in the day, for some reason I was completely caught off-guard by this number, and believed it to be 5 euro. I handed her 5 euro as a deposit and she looked at me funny.

"No. Cinquanta euro." Oh, I thought, fifteeeen euro. I walked out and asked Tracie for a 5 euro loan. Back to the lady.

"No. Cinquanta... fif....fif-tee euro." I don't know why it didn't occur to me that there could be a 50 euro deposit for a sport coat, but there was. Tracie, I'm going to need a bigger loan.

After some embarrassment at my inability to count in Italian and my failure to bring sufficient funds, I eventually got the navy sport coat and it tastefully accented my black dress pants and blue shirt (I looked like a fool). I got into the casino though and made some self-depricating jokes about my outfit to my friends. A snobbish bystander overheard my private comment and jumped in, "Yes, that outfit looks terrible." Seriously? I don't even know you buddy. Ann-alise, a very cool girl in our party laughed, and the gentlemen took that as an opportunity. She gambled with his money all night, while I watched in disbelief.

I hung out for a little bit, but later when Anthony (Boston College) played his one game of blackjack and lost his 10 euro chip (I was really pulling for him), we left the casino with Rori and Stef to walk around. After a drink and stroll we came back and found out how successful the night was for those who danced with Lady Luck. Everybody was up. John, who had never gambled before, made 200 euro. Total, the group collectively earned 450 euro at the casino. I was really happy for everyone, but what made me exceptionally joyous was when I found out how Ann-alise did with the random jerk's money. She lost 700 euro, refused to give him her number, and turned down his date proposition. What a night. Back to the campground and bed.