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There wasn't anything else particularly large or grand that we saw, but there were a few extras that just added to the experience of visiting Venice. Above is a picture of our hotel on the small island Lido, just off the main island of Venice. It is a lovely suburb, and from what the locals say, a lot of Venecians have moved there because of costs and conveniences. I really liked that little neighborhood with lots of great local and cheap shops and cafes and parks and just lots of activity with all the locals. It was really quite nice, and only a few minute boat ride from Venice.
One thing that was in Venice, like a lot of the towns, were open air markets. But I'd never seen such massive food markets until now. It stretched on for what seemed like miles, several blocks long completely filling more than one public square. The produce looked amazing and had such variety. You could find anything...
... and I mean anything. It also had a very large section dedicated to fish and seafood, fittingly for a city so attached economically and literally to the water. And yes, that pictured above is whole octopi. ... ew. It was a little sickening passing rows and rows of fish vendors with giant whole fish, fish heads, large shrimps, oysters, squids, eels, octopi, and a whole slew of other sea creatures I couldn't name... or worse, when passing the vendors that were cutting up and cleaning them very quickly in large quantities... fish guts, yuck. ... I suppose one could get used to, as the locals sure didn't seem to mind and in fact seemed to swarm over creatures that didn't even look edible to us...
Another thing that was prevalant in Venice was shopping. Every street you turn on seemed to have several shops and restaurants with more vendors in the streets. And nearly every other vendor or shop seemed to be selling masks. They are very important and traditional to Venice and you can even have custom ones made in front of you. They range from the small basic cheap ones to very large ornate ones that can cost hundreds of dollars. While masks are sold everywhere, one unique characteristic that came from Venice is the long beak-like noses. Historically, masks were used during Carnivale so that everyone could be in the big mascarade parties and no one would know who you were or what your status was, and you could get away with doing a lot of risque things too. By creating the long noses, it also changed their voices so they could disguise themselves even better. Cool, huh?
One of our afternoons, as always, was spent by my teacher giving us a modern tour of the town. This is a store built by Carlo Scarpa, a Venetian architect of the 1900's who was quite prevalant in the area. Above shows the secret door he built into the wall. We also saw a few other of his buildings, as well as briefly visited the College of Architecture in Venice.
...we also went to the Peggy Guggenheim museum, a collection of modern art and scultpures (Grace and I are standing in front of one of the outdoor pieces on the back balcony). ... not my favorite by far, but everyone else seemed to fall in love with it... whatever.
I also had the chance to visit another small island in the lagoon called Murano, famous for its glass. I got to watch a short presentation of glass blowing as well, that was pretty neat as they did some unique techniques to give a Murano flair, such as creating a bubbly texture inside the glass.
But by far, my favorite part of the trip was going to listen to an Antonio Vivaldi classical concert at a local church. It was simply beautiful and we even got to hear an encore. Plus, the cello player was really into and was funny to watch. 
...sunset on the water. pretty, no?
There wasn't anything else particularly large or grand that we saw, but there were a few extras that just added to the experience of visiting Venice. Above is a picture of our hotel on the small island Lido, just off the main island of Venice. It is a lovely suburb, and from what the locals say, a lot of Venecians have moved there because of costs and conveniences. I really liked that little neighborhood with lots of great local and cheap shops and cafes and parks and just lots of activity with all the locals. It was really quite nice, and only a few minute boat ride from Venice.
... and I mean anything. It also had a very large section dedicated to fish and seafood, fittingly for a city so attached economically and literally to the water. And yes, that pictured above is whole octopi. ... ew. It was a little sickening passing rows and rows of fish vendors with giant whole fish, fish heads, large shrimps, oysters, squids, eels, octopi, and a whole slew of other sea creatures I couldn't name... or worse, when passing the vendors that were cutting up and cleaning them very quickly in large quantities... fish guts, yuck. ... I suppose one could get used to, as the locals sure didn't seem to mind and in fact seemed to swarm over creatures that didn't even look edible to us...
Another thing that was prevalant in Venice was shopping. Every street you turn on seemed to have several shops and restaurants with more vendors in the streets. And nearly every other vendor or shop seemed to be selling masks. They are very important and traditional to Venice and you can even have custom ones made in front of you. They range from the small basic cheap ones to very large ornate ones that can cost hundreds of dollars. While masks are sold everywhere, one unique characteristic that came from Venice is the long beak-like noses. Historically, masks were used during Carnivale so that everyone could be in the big mascarade parties and no one would know who you were or what your status was, and you could get away with doing a lot of risque things too. By creating the long noses, it also changed their voices so they could disguise themselves even better. Cool, huh?
One of our afternoons, as always, was spent by my teacher giving us a modern tour of the town. This is a store built by Carlo Scarpa, a Venetian architect of the 1900's who was quite prevalant in the area. Above shows the secret door he built into the wall. We also saw a few other of his buildings, as well as briefly visited the College of Architecture in Venice.
I also had the chance to visit another small island in the lagoon called Murano, famous for its glass. I got to watch a short presentation of glass blowing as well, that was pretty neat as they did some unique techniques to give a Murano flair, such as creating a bubbly texture inside the glass.
But by far, my favorite part of the trip was going to listen to an Antonio Vivaldi classical concert at a local church. It was simply beautiful and we even got to hear an encore. Plus, the cello player was really into and was funny to watch. 
...sunset on the water. pretty, no?
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