Milan & Venice

2 weekends ago we took an overnight field trip to Milan...during FASHION WEEK!!!! We got to see a ton of fashion shows, models and stunning clothes. While we were walking around during the day, we passed teh Giorgio Armani store with tons of paparazzi outside of it. When we asked who was in there, they said "it's him, it's him!" So either Giorgio or Armani was in the store, but we didn't feel like waiting to see him and continued on our way. Colleen, Drew, Alec and I stopped for drinks at a cute cafe facing the cathedral and the main fashion tent. It was a great view. Later that day we went to a dress museum, famous for the designer's embroidery. There were about 20 dresses on display and at one point the designer himself walked in! (I didn't catch his name though). We weren't allowed to go out that night so we weren't able to experience Milan nightlife- we were all VERY upset about that. The next morning we walked through a really cool modern art museum, with tons of things to see. Some exhibits were interactive and we were able to take things from them and bring them home with us. I have to say the best part of the museum was the hat exhibit. It took up an entire story and was dedicated to hats in film. They had different rooms showing clips from movies of all the famous characters (Italian, American, French, etc.) wearing hats. It was really neat! After that museum we left for Orvieto.

A bunch of classmates and I went to Venice for the Italian Carnevale celebration. Carnevale is explained as a mix between Mardi Gras and Halloween, and is apparently the BEST in Venice, so of course, we had to go! Well. Getting to Venice that night after our classes was quite a disastor. Our train was running 10 minutes late, so when we had to switch trains in Bologna we literally has 30 seconds to sprint across the station to our new one. And of course, it had to be the furthest one away. I don't know how, but we made it just in time.
Because Carnevale in Venice is the best of the best, hotel room prices are jacked way up for the weekend. We had all decided to get 2 three person rooms but fit 6 people into each of them. We figured since it was a hotel, it would be crowded and not difficult to sneak people in. Well, we were wrong. As half of us waited in the freezing rain for the others to come get us one by one, we realized the hotel was VERY small. There was no way we'd all get to sneak in, especially since it was about 11:30pm and there wasn't anyone else in the lobby to distract the concierge. Drew, Alec, Colleen and I were on the verge of frostbite, so we decided to go into the lobby and tell the front desk we were staying at a different hotel and were coming to get our other friends. He freaked out on us and wouldn't even let us go upstairs. We had to sit in the lobby without speaking and wait for our friends to come get us. That's when we realized we were not going to have any luck sneaking in, at least not that night. Luckily, I had brought my handy-dandy "Let's Go Italy" book with me that had a bunch of hotels and hostels phone numbers in it for the major cities in Italy. We called a hostel and got a room for the four of us for 40 euros a night.
While we were walking around Venice trying to locate this hostel, it started to rain even harder. We looed like fools with no umbrellas and our suitcases trying to stay dry. After about 45 minutes of searching, the man from the hostel came and met up with us and brought us back to the hostel. Thank God he did, because there is no way we would have ever found it. It was impossible to get to. But finally we were inside our room and beginning to dry off. We asked the man if we could stay that night (Thursday) and Friday night, but he said Friday was booked. So when we woke up the next morning, I whipped out my handy-dandy book and we started calling around for a place to stay. Eventually we got a 4 person room at a hotel for 30 euros a night. Score!
We made our way to the hotel, dropped our things off, and went around to sightsee. Venice was absolutely beautiful! The famous Rialto bridge was packed with tourists, as well as the water buses. We went to the Piazza della San Marco to get masks and watch the opera performances on the stage set up there. One thing we weren't expecting was the costumes. Sure, we knew people would be dressed up like Halloween, but these costumes were insane! They were elaborate dresses from the 1800s with masks, hair done up, and tons of makeup. Most of them were so pretty, but there were a few really creepy ones.
For lunch we let ourselves splurge a little and had a sit down meal. My four cheese Gnocchi dish was AMAZING. Words cannot describe. Colleen's shrimp fettucini plate was equally good. Then to top it off Colleen and I split a slice of Tiramasu. It was the best I've ever had, and I'm sure nothing else will ever top it. After that meal we headed back to our hotel to get ready to go out that night.
Our hotel neighbor was a woman by herself, who was sleeping at 4 in the afternoon! We were talking and laughing while getting ready and she decided that she would come to our room and let herself in, yell at us that we were "not the only guests in this hotel" and that we needed to "SHUT UP"! Umm, excuse me, but it was 4pm! We weren't even being overly loud. She put a huge damper on our evening since we had to whisper in our own room just so she could take a nap. Ugh.
Once we were ready to go out we wanted to meet up with the rest of the group, so we took the water bus to their hotel, but they had already left. From there, a girl Allison talked on the phone with me for 30min directing us to where they were. When we finally got the bar they were all at, we were cold and not in very good moods. There is ONE club in Venice (this city is NOT known for their nightlife) and we went with a big group of people to it. Once we got there they were charging a 10 euro cover charge which me and Colleen did not want to pay.
By this point we just wanted to go home. Somewhere along the way we had lost Drew and Alec so we had to venture home on our own. Venice was pretty deserted at this time of night so when we would see people we would just ask them "Rialto?" and they would laugh and point to the direction we needed to go and say "keeeeeeeeeep going". After 45 minutes of walking we finally found the bridge. From there we knew how to actually get back to our hotel but it was so cold outside and we were in such bad moods. When a water taxi guy pulled up and asked if we needed a ride, we asked how much and he said 14 euros, so 7 each. In the situation we were in, it sounded like a good deal because the water bus was about 5 euros to take and we would have to wait in the cold for a long time until it came to get us. Colleen and I jumped in the taxi and 5 minutes later we were at our stop. I handed him a 20 and said "change". He looked at me and laughed. "I said 40 euros, not 14". WHAT?!?!?!?! Colleen and I freaked out on him saying that he definitely said 14, but he kept saying things like "no, I speak good English. This is my living, my work". I asked him to explain to me why a 5 minute ride was worth 40 euros, but he never gave us an explanation. I told him the 20 was all I had (I actually had 35 total, but I didn't want to give it to him). He said that it was ok and he would just walk us to our hotel, tell the concierge not to let us check out before he came back the next morning for the rest, or he could just call the police. Well after he said that, I gave him 15 more and showed him that it was literally all I had. He had 35, why would he need more? He snatched it out of my hand and told us to leave. We left early the next morning to catch our train home.
Carnevale is NOT like Mardi Gras. It is not a big party in the streets, it is just people dressed up in costumes who go to sleep at 10:00. It was nothing like what we were expecting, and got completely ripped off. All in all, it was not a successful trip. The only up side is that we got to see the beautiful city and ended up paying less than the other people despite our troubles the first night. I have also learned a VERY important lesson: always take public transportation over taxis.
Tomorrow is my last midterm and then Colleen and I are off to Rome, London, and Paris with her friend Brittany for Spring Break! I can't imagine all the fun we will have. Until then, Ciao!