Ok, it’s official! Venice is by far the coolest place in the world! Where in the world are the streets water, cars are gondolas and other small boats, and it’s all Italian?!?! We spent our three day weekend in Venice experiencing Carnevale! Things just seemed to happen to go our way too this weekend, it was great! We scored a much better hostel, the rain never came, and free admission to a Carnevale Party. Now Carnevale can be compared to our Mardi Gras. However, it isn’t as “wild” as Mardi Gras. It is more elegant for Carnevale and people dress up with elaborate masks and costumes. Confetti is thrown, parades, dancing, just an awesome experience! I don’t know how else to describe it!

The afternoon we got to our hostel, we were pleasantly surprised at having better conditions than in Florence. We also met about 8 girls from around the world, so of course I wasn’t complaining! This made for an awesome cultural experience. The people we met in our hostel came from places such as Austria, France, Quebec-Canada, England, Texas, and Belgrade. We explained our American lifestyles and tryed to explain that we weren’t the stereotypical American. We also got into debates about politics with somebody from England, learned about flogging in Austria, Rodeos in Texas and just lots of random things! However, it was so cool to hear first hand about other parts of the world. We all went out as a group that night and ended up getting free VIP passes to a Carnevale party that went late into the night. Definetely an interesting time, especially walking back with a vague idea of the area and a map (NO STRUCTURE to the canals and infastructure of this city!!).

The next day we headed out throughout the city and did most of our siteseeing. We got some great pictures of canals, the Grande Canal, a few churches, and San Marcos Piazza. Carnevale was primarily located in this piazza so it was awesome to walk right through the action. However, everywhere in the city, Carnevale was flowing. There were street performers of all kinds and types, costumes, vendors selling their hand-crafted masks, food and drinks, music, parades, and everything else that comes with a huge festival! But once we got to the piazza, we saw the Campinale Bell Tower and knew we needed to go to the top (just like in Florence at the Duomo)! We were able to get such a beautiful view of Venice, some of the major canals and see many of the people below getting the opportunity to experience Carnevale and the awesomeness that comes with Venice! Check out the videos that I clipped together from all the angles at the top of the Bell Tower and of course you need to look at the pictures!

Like I said, we lucked out with our hostel and it was located in Campo San Margherita. This campo reminded all of us of Campo di Fiori in Roma. Lots of Americans and/or college-aged kids at night. And since it was Carnevale, there was a stage with different bands playing music, people out dancing, the pubs and cafe’s open, lots of action! So needless to say, we didn’t have to go far at night once we came back from touring during the day.

Once again, you need to see the video’s of one of the Carnevale Parades, the Grande Canal, and the Arial view of Venice! Hopefully you’ll understand why this is my most favorite city I’ve ever been to!