The Suffocation of Denim

No, that’s not an emo band.  Today, our second day in Venice, it rained.  A lot.  Oddly enough, this rain is not like Rome rain.  This rain is cold rain.  So I decided to wear jeans for the first time in a long time—and I realized that they are suffocating.  Haha, I am slightly kidding because anyone who knows me knows that I am a jeans kind of girl but, seriously, these things are constricting.

The first day in this gorgeous city we hit up St. Mark’s Square, the Academia Museum, Caffè Florian, and the cliché Venetian gondola ride. We enjoyed Renaissance Italian art for a couple hours at the Academia.  All of the paintings are a window into the past.  The one that I remember the most is of St. Jerome (here is a picture: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/bassano/st-jerome/).  I just realized my favorite painting from Rome is also of St. Jerome (http://rester.us/HistoricalTheoBlogy/?p=8, by the way, these sites are just for the images, I didn’t read the content)—that’s kind of cool.  Maybe I should look into this guy…

Then we went to St. Mark’s square and enjoyed an afternoon snack at Caffé Florian.  This is arguably the oldest continuously running coffee shop in the world, dating to 1720.  It was a little pricey but the orchestra, atmosphere, food, location and company were totally worth it.  After, we went for that gondola ride.  Our guide has been working here for over thirty years.  He spoke very good English and gave us a tour of the city through the canals.  Venice has an extremely rich history and has housed or entertained many famous people including Mozart, Casanova, Marco Polo and Napoleon.  Each has a house or building along the canals that we were able to see.  After the ride and dinner, we made our way back to St. Mark’s square because I had heard it is best at night.  There was a couple taking wedding photos that I stalked.. so adorable.  The lights on the water and the buildings accompanied with beautiful orchestra music from the trattorias paint a stunning picture that I will not soon forget.

Today we shopped for more Murano glass—a Venetian specialty.  Because of the immense amount of rain we took it fairly easy and enjoyed some of the back streets and planned some of our next stops.  I loved seeing the rain fall on the Grand Canal and watching the city come alive with umbrellas.  The afternoon ended with some wonderful coffee and the night ended with gelato.  Goodness, I love Italians.

Tomorrow we’re off to Milan.  To say that I’m excited would be the understatement of the century. 

I'll end with the quote of the day and a song:

Dad: "Lauren, are we hip?" Mom: "Well, at least we have four original hips.."

"What a glorious feelin'…/ I'm laughing at clouds…/The sun's in my heart…/Come on with the rain/ I've a smile on my face/ I walk down the lane/With a happy refrain/ Just singin'/ Singin' in the rain" --Gene Kelly