Carnevale de Venezia: When in Italy...Drink Limoncello!

Okay, so obviously we've all learned that I suck at blogging since I'm about three weekend trips behind in my posts. I also suck at corresponding with friends, so here is my shout-out to Maureen to make up for the fact that I still have not e-mailed her back. Oops..


So anyway, February 12-14 (yes, that was a while ago) I spent an absolutely amazing weekend in Venice for Carvevale. I was so excited to be returning to Venice since it had been my favorite city after Siena when I had spent two weeks traveling in Italy with a friend's family two summers ago.  One of the best parts of the trip was that my friend from NYU, Mallory, who is studying at NYU in Florence met us there and it was really great to see her. Maria and Lisa came as well. So we arrived in Venice on Friday afternoon after a pretty seamless journey and took an 80 minute boat ride to Dorsoduro, the district where our adorable hotel was located. The ride was long, but we saw beautiful scenery along the way. And the greatest thing was how warm and sunny it was, so different from Prague!

After arriving and basking in the warmth, we checked into our hotel, and after a few mishaps located Mallory. We wandered around a bit and saw a gorgeous sunset on our way to the Rialto Bridge. The bridge and the Grand Canal at night are just as amazing as when I saw them during the day a few years ago.

For dinner we went to a restaurant recommended to us by our hotel's owner. It was really hard to find and filled with locals, which was quite a feat since Carnevale was swarmed with tourists. This restaurant works where you pay for a drink (about €3-8) and then eat all you want at the buffet for free. Pretty good deal!

We all spent a long time trying to find the perfect masks for the night and some of us didn't even find one until the next day; they were all so beautiful, but also a bit expensive. In the end I purchased two, the one I wear in these pictures and another small orange eye mask. After dinner, we headed to San Marco for the main event. When we arrived there was a drag costume show going on and the mobs of costumed people were crazy. Everyone was so drunk and happy! We tried our first Bellinis, which ended up getting us free drink coupons for a nearby club.

We somehow managed to get up early the next morning and went to see the Galleria dell'Accademia, an art museum with mostly religious works. Our original plan was to head over to the Basillica next, but instead we wandered through the districts of Venice and ended up circling the entire island! We were exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel, but it had been well worth it. Along the way we had delicious pizza, yummy pastries, saw spectacular views, and got our faces painted for free!

By the time we made it to San Marco, it was quite late and the crowds had arrived. There were even more people than the night before if that's possible! We were starving so we tried to find a restaurant, but everything was so crowded. Eventually we decided to go into the first affordable place we saw and it ended up being delicious. We brought along a bottle of Limoncello and spiked out drinks in the restaurant, classy I know. 

We went back to San Marco, but unfortunately everything was ending. We still got to see lots of crazy costumes though, everything from traditional gowns to Facebook to the Ghostbusters. We then headed to Campo Santa Margherita where a huge street party was going on with hundreds of younger people. We went into a bar and tried a shot that was vodka, grenadine, and Bailey's; it was interesting to say the least.

We were all sad to leave the next morning, our trip had been amazing and we all promised to go back soon!

So that's Venice Carnevale in a nutshell! Check back later today for a recap of my weekend in Budapest! And coming this weekend...Berlin!