Discovering Venice...Again! (From my written, but never published, blog collection 2012)

I just found this post from last year about this time about my experience on my first overseas Discovery Week in Venice.  After inserting a few photos from the trip, it's finally finished...just in time for several of the lovely students who went on the trip with me to graduate!  What a wonderful experience this turned out to be and how lucky am I to be going back to Venice AGAIN this summer to spend a few days at the end of this year's European vacation?!  No matter how many times I look over pictures from the same sights, they never seem to get old!  Enjoy!

What can I say, I am one very LUCKY girl!  After returning from my first trip to Venice, I just knew that I had to go back and what better way to do this than to propose a Discovery Week trip for students this spring.  It took months of planning, preparation, phone calls, STRESS, and collaboration with my friend Alice to put this trip together and before I knew it, May 18th arrived.  We met our 12 students and their families at the airport and by midnight we were up in the air and on our way.  First stop, Dubai, second stop, Venice!  Here's a quick overview of how the week went down...

Friday night--check in and fly!

Saturday--We arrived at Dubai Airport at 3:45 am and it was about 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside.  Our next flight didn't leave until 9:30 am so we spent 5 hours roaming through the airport.  I know what you're thinking, wasn't everything closed?  Um, no!  Every single shop and restaurant are open 24 hours and there are more than enough people in the airport in the middle of the night to patronize them.  We chose to chill at Starbucks because they had tasty treats and cushy chairs!  Our second flight was a bit more eventful.  We had to make an emergency landing to offload a sick passenger in Ankara, Turkey.  Thankfully nurse Alice was on board to help take care of him.  An hour and a half on the ground and we were on our way...again.  We arrived in Venice around 4 pm, took the bus into the city, checked into our hotel, ate dinner, walked through the Cannaregio for an hour or so, and went to bed! Walking through familiar streets was so wonderful....I couldn't wait to see what the rest of the week would hold.

A lively campo in the Cannareggio

Sunday--San Marco day!  We taught the kids how to ride the water bus and took a scenic tour down the Grand Canal.  This main waterway through Venice is absolutely stunning and to see it again after a year made my heart very happy.  First order of business, a trip up the Campanile for a bird's eye view of Venice.  While up the bell tower we were both blessed and cursed by the ringing bells.  Yikes!  After a quick lunch and a bit of time to wander around, we took the Secret Itineraries Tour at the Doge's Palace and it was fabulous!  Not many pictures here, but we got to see the torture room, office where all of the secret documents were stored, Cassanova's prison cell, and much more than a regular tourist sees!  The rest of the palace was fantastic too.  From there, we spent an hour or so in St. Mark's Basilica, had gelato (of course), watched the parade of boats from the America's Cup race in Venice, and took the vaporetto back to our hotel.  A couple hours of free time, dinner, more free time, and bed!

The Grand Canal

Piazza San Marco

View from the Campanile

In the courtyard of the Doge's Palace!

Monday--A terribly rainy day and a trip to Murano and Burano filled our time.  We got to see two types of glass work in Murano, a more industrial process in which pieces are produced on a massive scale for sale all over the world and traditional glass blowing.  Both very cool and I bought a few fun things!  We all ate lunch together at a nice little restaurant before breaking up into groups to go shopping.  I scored and found the hour glass I've been looking for!  Before long we were off to Burano.  The boat ride is about 30 minutes long, but well worth it, even in the rain.  The colorful houses are so beautiful--I can imagine how nice it will be to visit again when the weather is good.  By the time we made it back to the hotel, we were all pretty beat.  Early to bed tonight!

Burano is beautiful, even in the pouring rain

Tuesday--Scavenger Hunt Day!  The rain was gone, the sun was out, and team Mighty Spinaci was ready to take on the city!  We started at the hotel, then grabbed the vaporetto to Piazza San Marco.  We tracked down several different sights in the vicinity of the Piazza, then walked all the way to the Rialto market.  The fruits and Veggies were so beautiful and the fish market was bustling.  It was a perfect place to take a break and eat lunch.  From there, the other two teams caught up to us and we all ended up meeting again at the Frari Church.  Together we all ate gelato, visited a cool paper shop, and found Salizzada Giusto, a tiny street, before heading back to the hotel.  The kids enjoyed spending the sunny afternoon in the Cannaregio and we went for a cappuccino.  Yum!  It was really fun to find our way around the city and I got to see all of the fun sights that I missed during my first trip!

Harry's American Bar

Looking for the next stop on the Scavenger Hunt!

Mercato Rialto! 

Finding the smallest fish!

Campo San Silvestro 

The whole group on the Twisted Bridge

The narrowest street in Venice

Whew!  One tired teacher after chasing a group of high schoolers through Venice!

Wednesday--Off to Verona!  We took an hour long train ride to Verona to spend the day meandering through the streets and contemplating Shakespeare's story of Romeo and Juliet.  The sun was shining and I really enjoyed being back in some familiar spots like Piazza Erbe.  I coaxed the kids up the hill to Castel San Pietro for a stunning overlook of the city, then into a few churches.  Our final stop was at a lovely little gelato store where I had my best gelato of the week--Vaniglia and Pesca-Mango.  Heaven in a cup!  We met back in Piazza Bra, stopped at a grocery store for snacks (one of the highlights for several of the kids), and headed back to the train station for our ride back to Venice.  All in all, it was a wonderful day and we still had the evening to hang out in the Cannaregio!

The Amphitheater

Juliet's famous balcony

Love graffiti

Piazza Erbe, one of my favorite spots in Verona

Verona from above

Gelato!

Thursday--Today appealed to the creative types!  We started the morning off with a mask painting class at Ca' Macana in the Dorsoduro.  Nancy, our wonderful teacher, gave a great lesson on how masks are made and what they had been used for in the past.  Fascinating stuff!  Essentially, the mask was the great equalizer in Venice and by wearing one a commoner could cavort with those of a higher class!  Everyone's mask was certainly a unique creation!  We spent our lunch time roaming through back alleys and found a restaurant with an inside garden, which was lovely.  Some of the students took this opportunity to go to the Accademia before we met again to visit the Peggy Guggenheim collection.  The kids had mixed reactions to this excursion, but Mandarin was a happy girl as she figured out what to do with her broken piece of pottery:).  At the end of our visit, we sat and listened to a student give a talk about Peggy's life...what fun!  We ended our time in the Dorsoduro with a gondola ride--it took 2 gondolas to fit all 12 students and off they went for a float, er paddle?, on the Grand Canal while the teachers sat at a canal-side cafe and awaited their safe return and excited rendition of being nearly capsized by their mischievous, singing gondoliers.

Learning the history of masks in Venice

Painting time

Capturing creativity!

Even the teachers participated

Finished creation 

Off they go on a gondola ride!

Boating on the Grand Canal!

Friday--Our last day in Venice was left as a free day.  I took the students to the post office to mail their postcards home and then we walked over to Orsoni.  Sadly, we couldn't afford a class there, but it was nice to take a tour through the furnace, color library, cutting room, and studio.  Thanks to Mirta for showing us around!  I'm really excited that I get to go back in July for a three day class!  After that, the group decided to head back to San Marco.  We hopped off at the Rialto Market to pick up fruit and sandwiches for a picnic, then found a little garden area just behind St. Mark's Square to eat.  Everyone broke up and headed off for one last exploration of the area and most were very happy to find H&M and some other familiar shops.  The rest of the afternoon was spent hanging out in our neighborhood near the hotel.  We all met up for dinner at a pizza restaurant and finished the night with a quiz game to see how much our students had learned about Venice and each other!  Team spicy pepperoni was victorious and enjoyed their chocolate prizes.

The color library at Orsoni

One last visit to San Marco and the lagoon

Saturday--We enjoyed our last breakfast at the hotel, packed our bags, and by 11 we were checked out.  After hauling our bags back to Piazzale Roma, we caught the bus back to the airport and waved good-bye to the beautiful city built on the water.  At one point I had worried that we wouldn't have enough to do in this small city, but boy was I wrong!  The only good part about leaving for me was knowing I'd be back very soon with a long list of things to see and do!  Check-in took awhile at the airport, but we made it with a bit of time for lunch and to shop around the airport before our flight.  The first leg of the flight was terrifying at best as we hit a lot of turbulence and at one point dropped several feet.  

Sunday--Thankfully the layover in Dubai from 11:45pm until 3:30am passed quickly and the second part of the flight wasn't nearly as bad.  When we walked out of baggage claim and greeted the waiting parents, it was such a relief that we had actually made it!  The kids were all smiles, making all of the work and stress entirely worthwhile.

I've been back just over a week now and I'm still on Venice time, which makes getting to bed at a decent time nearly impossible.  Perhaps I'll adjust faster to Pacific time when I fly home in a week!  We're meeting with the kids this week for a little reunion where we'll eat pasta together and reminisce about the only SFS trip to Venice in the 100 year history!  See, we really are lucky!