Florence and Venice

Better late than never! About a month ago, I went on a trip to Florence and Venice. Unfortunately, I had midterms and then spring break right after, so I never got around to posting.

I had a fantastic time during the weekend trip! Florence is a beautiful city that is so rich in art and history. Of course, we did the normal tour around, exploring some of the major sites.

Make a wish!

While I was there, I visited the Uffici and the Accademia. Both house some of the most famous pieces of art in the world, and I managed to take some sneaky shots of a couple I am sure you all will recognize. 

Leaving high culture all together, we also made a stop at the pizza shop where the cast of Jersey Shore worked. Even though none of us are fans of the show, someone who lived in Florence said it was the best pizza he had ever had, so we decided to give it a try. In my opinion, it was nothing special. 



The markets of Florence are rich with Italian leather. I was in search of a nice messenger bag, but I did not find one that really loved. There is also a jewelry market where the shops are built into an old bridge called Ponte Vecchio. Moving into the jewelry market was a big step up for this bridge, as it used to be occupied by butchers. There is a historical rumor that this bridge was saved from WWII bombings due to explicit orders from Hitler who was supposedly quite fond of the bridge and Florence in general. While this would be an interesting story, it seems to untrue. Hours of painstaking research on Wikipedia suggest that the bridge was spared simply because access to the bridge was obstructed at the time. 

Much to my excitement, we were in town during a 10 day chocolate festival. This was actually one of the best parts of the trips. The chocolate was not only delicious (they were not stingy with samples), but also presented very nicely! My favorite stand was Cioccolateria Marino. Their display contained random chocolate flavors, including everything from rice to cannabis! They also had some more traditional pairings like melon and other fruits. However, what made it so distinct was that the each thing tasted like its flavor with a hint of chocolate, rather than chocolate with a hint of the flavor.

I was craving fruit, so I went for chocolate covered strawberries. Delicious!

Ever since I discovered the floating city of Venice in 2^nd grade, I have wanted to visit. It was just as beautiful as 2^nd grade Marlena thought! Sadly, there did not seem to be much else beyond beauty. Unlike other cities which have monument after monument to visit, Venice was not as site oriented. When we researched what things to do while there, everyone told us “just get lost and explore.” For the most part that is exactly what we did. The gondola ride was also a lot of fun, although it felt somewhat unfulfilling without someone playing the accordion haha.

We went to Venice during Carnival festivities. I thought this would make the trip even more fun, but honestly, it was more of a hassle. While I loved admiring the beautiful costumes and masks, The streets were packed! Some smaller main streets were so trafficked that it took abut 5 minutes to walk down them and police had to patrol the sides and keep order.

I hope all is well in the US! I have so much more to post (including political rallies, the Colosseum and Forum, and spring break). I will try my hardest to catch up on these posts!