Venice, Italy, a city that is one of it’s kind.  As The New York Times would say, “undoubtedly the most beautiful city built by man”
Personally I don’t have a lot to say about this city, but it’s beauty.  It’s history is vague, and it’s hard to make out why the city was built.  It was assumed that it was a refuge for people from nearby cities fled from the German invasions and Huns, and there were fishermen on the islands in the marshy lagoons.  So the city came about when a collection of lagoon communities banded together in defense from the Byzantine empire in Northern Italy in the late 17th century.

Today Venice is famous for it’s setting (of course) and its glasswork, shopping, and music.  It’s a huge tourist attraction.  I hear more people there talking English than any other European cities I’ve been to (excluding cities in the UK and Ireland). There were many odd shops I thought, but they were great.  Here a few photos of the specific shops.  A major part to visiting Venice is to do lots of shopping!

Unfortunately since I’m a poor college student, I spent most of my money on food.  They had a lot of shops that sold masks.  It is because Venice has many festivals, and one of the big ones is the Carnival of Venice.  This celebration starts on Ash Wednesday and ends on Mardi Gras.  It’s a celebration of classes, where everyone wears a mask, to hide their identity between social classes.
Also a notable festival is the Venice Film Festival September 1-11, which I was there during the festival.  I wasn’t able to watch any movies, but they set up a huge screen in the middle of a square and projected a movie for the public to see for one of the nights I was there.  The festival was probably the reason why there were so many tourists present in the city!

As you know, the city is sinking… water is coming up from the canal under the city as you see in these photos.

I didn’t stay in a hostel in Venice, my travel buddy met someone in his lab group who was from Venice, and he allowed us to stay at his parents’ house, so we got to have a real Italian family dinner.  They were lovely people! I believed the dinner I had at their home was the best meal I’ve had in my life. (home made gelato and Tiramisu) ^_^

The food in Venice was so excellent. I had (real) pizza like everyday, and their gelato was to die for!  It was so cheap for a cone in Venice, like €1.30, where as in the US, gelato is like $6 a scoop.  I had a addiction to gelato when I was in Venice.  I had it 3 times a day! When I got to Rome, I had a new addiction.  Italian food is so good.