Venice

The final stop on our trip was a day in Venice. We took a bus from Florence and arrived late at night, so we checked in to our Airbnb and then ate dinner at the restaurant with the highest reviews. We knew that the restaurant would be a little bit more expensive, but our Airbnb host told us that the food there was definitely worth it because it was both authentic and delicious. We decided to split an order of risotto as well as a platter of lightly fried seafood. I really enjoyed the risotto, but didn’t like the seafood as much – there were small fish with eyes and tails that were to be eaten whole. I don’t think I had ever eaten a whole fish before (much less fifteen of them), but overall we enjoyed the meal and were glad to try seafood while we were in Venice. After the meal, the waiter brought out small dishes of a green sorbet and told us to guess the main ingredient. I thought it was parsley, but Katie correctly identified it as celery, so our “prize” was that he poured a small amount of tequila over the sorbet and explained that the mixture of celery sorbet with tequila was a traditional dessert in Venice. I didn’t mind the celery sorbet, but once he poured the tequila in it I thought it was terrible. We all finished our portions and spent the rest of the evening walking around the city.

Venice stands apart from all the other cities I have visited because all of the roads are canals – it is impossible to drive around the city, so people have to travel either by foot or by boat. In the morning, we took a free walking tour around the city, and learned that everyone has barriers for the doors as well as walkways on stilts for when the city floods. Our tour guide also explained that the city is built on a man-made island, and that they discovered that wood exposed to only the air was fine, wood exposed to both air and water would decay, but wood that was fully submerged in the salty water turned as hard as stone, so that is what they used for the foundation of the city.

In the afternoon, we took a boat tour to three islands in the Venetian lagoon. At the first island, we saw a glassblowing demonstration, which I absolutely loved. I have trouble drawing stick figures sometimes, so watching someone make a horse out of hot glass in under a minute was fascinating. At the second island, we saw a church and walked by a canal full of people speed boating through it, but the third island was my favorite. Every house was painted a different color, so the whole island was very colorful and cheerful. After we walked through the streets and stopped in a couple of shops, we took the boat back to the main part of Venice.

One of my favorite drinks is a peach Bellini, which were first created in Venice at Harry’s Bar. I originally wanted to order one from Harry’s Bar, but they are 21 dollars so I figured a peach Bellini for 7 dollars in Venice would be just as good. We stopped in a bar and each ordered one, and they were delicious. After we spent a few hours talking about our trip and life in Spain so far, we headed back to the Airbnb to sleep. The next morning, we woke up and flew back to Spain. Although it was a little sad to return to everyday life after two amazing weeks, I am so grateful that I was able to see five countries in such a short time with two of my closest friends!