a weekend in venice.

famous for the streets made of water, carnavale celebrations, glass blowing, and gondola rides, it is the breathtaking city of love, venezia. the whorl wind weekend was quick but absolutely stunning and oh so hopelessly romantic. with a budget of a traveling college student and the expenses of venice one weekend was the perfect amount of time for a weekend getaway. we stayed in an old orphanage which transformed into a jesuit convent which was then restored into our hotel for the weekend.

i was captivated by the 127 small islands that made up the remarkable city of venice. st. mark's basilica contained a different kind of beauty all its own. real gold mosaics line the ceilings and walls of the basilica. the complexity of the mosaics were perplexing and left me studying them in awe. the patience and precision that went into each of these masterpieces in unimaginable. each individual gold tile is lined with a layer of glass to protect the gold. our time in venice was filled with visiting various churches, museums, and galleries while appreciating the vast collections of renaissance art. our afternoons were free from the organized scheduling of tours and sight seeing. wandering purposelessly  through the narrow streets and over bounding bridges we figured what better way to spend a sunny day in venice than to embark on a gondola ride!! it was everything i had hoped for and maybe a little extra. tommaso, our gondolier  took on us a ride through the grand canal and amongst the narrow streets of venice's water-which by the way is extremely contaminated and i would highly discourage the act of swimming. throughout our ride we switched up the roles on tommoso  and serenaded him with some frank sinatra classics. needless to say, he probably should have tipped us. his skill of rowing and crafty maneuvering led is back to the gondola port where we let ourselves get lost withing the streets of venice.

our last day in venice we went to peggy guggenheim's gallery of modern art. her collection ranged form her own daughter's work to kandinsky and pollock. the collection remains in the house in which she used to reside before she passed away. along with these famous works the museum also acts as the burial site of peggy guggenheim herself along with her beloved dogs. my favorite work at this exhibit was the empire of light by rene magritte. after the extensive display of modern art we got gelato and sat by the water of the grand canal and soaked up the last few moments of the  sunlight venice had to offer us before making the journey back to florence where the responsibilities of research papers were tugging on our minds.
ciao venezia!!

the empire of light

the wishing tree