January 23, 2000

Venice and our last day in Italy. Angela and I decided last night to go to breakfast and then decide what to do (i.e. whether or not to go to Venice). We decided to go since there were a few other students going. I'm really glad we went. First was mass at St. Marco, which we couldn't' understand, but the music was good and we actually got to see the church. Afterwards we went to the museums on the other side of S. Marco's square. It was really diverse. We saw paintings and sculptures of course, but also weapons (daggers, swords, lances, shields, dirks), maps of Venice and other cities (huge maps like a whole wall) as well as a stamp (?metal cutting) used to print the maps and a lot of books, some open some decorated with metal (a copy of Euclid). There were coins, dishes (with pagan myths on them) and a lot of household implements. It was probably the best museum we've been in yet. After that we went for lunch and a little shopping. We walked over the Rialto bridge and back, saw some of our friends taking off in a gondola. I wanted to go to the church across from San Marco, so we figured out how to get there and made out way across. It was actually pretty small (San Maria della Salute) but the floor was really cool and it was really tall. We got there 20 minutes before it opened so we just sat there in the sun for a while. After visiting the church we walked back to the Rialto bridge and took the boat back. It was a really fun day and it helped that the sun was shining and the air was calm.