Venezia

Venice the Menace: gondolas; me and my wifey Hannah; the entrance to La Fenice and a picture inside... where no pictures are allowed; San Marco exterior and icons of Sts. Matthew and Mark.

So almost a week later, I'm finally getting around to talk about it. Venice was wonderful. I can't believe I wasn't going to go... it was the perfect day. We started off just wandering around, got coffee, and the most amazing pastries. I don't know why the rest of Italy's been holding out on us, but Venice certainly didn't. Think of a cinnamon bun, but flakey instead of gooey, and then squish it, fill it with chocolate and top it with powdered sugar and chocolate chips. Fantastic.

Eventually we found our way to San Marco, the local Basilica. The majority of the artwork is Byzantine, and mysteriously found it's way to Venice. That's the nice way of putting it. The other way, is to say that it was savagely pillaged from an Orthodox church in Constantinople by the heinous crusaders. I was really excited to see the icons of Sts. Matthew and Mark next to each other. It both warmed my heart and made me miss my brother.

After San Marco, we made it to Il Teatro La Fenice, the Venetian opera house. Some crazy person burnt it down in 1999, so they had to rebuild it. The nice thing is that they got to restore everything to the condition when it the theater was first built! Plus electricity! You weren't supposed to take pictures, but since when have signs and people in ill-fitting vests ever stopped me? Never. That's when. Also, the whole rebuilding of La Fenice was such a big deal that last week it was referenced in a mock funeral for the city of Venice. Apparently the locals are leaving in droves (only 60,000 people live in the city proper). So they gave the city a funeral. And then set the casket on fire...? Inside was a flag with a phoenix on it. Symbolism. Performance art mingled with political protest. Lame and confusing? You decide.

Before I go, I'd like to let you know that I have some really good stuff planned for you while I'm gone. Now that I'm starting to take advantage of all the little tools embedded in my blog, you get posts even when I'm without internet access for the weekend! I promise to figure out other cool stuff too. But let's be real: it took me over 5 months just to figure out delayed posting. Don't expect too much more by next week.

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Thessaloniki-bound" Yazge