hooray relaxation

i had a fantastic weekend in which i followed my own itinerary and took lots of pictures.

on friday i went to venice and walked around for hours. i was lost more often than not, but that just meant i happened upon cool things i wasn't looking for. i went to the basilica of saint mark but didn't go inside because it was so crowded, i went into a little music museum, i went into a little museum of da vinci's inventions, i saw the glass bridge and walked by the galleria accademica (wanted to go inside, but again too crowded), and went to about a billion souvenir kiosks just to look. i ducked into a gucci store briefly, but felt so intimidated that i left. at one point i walked by the discoteca i had gone to, and i was like oh cool it's il piccolo mondo! wait...how did i get to the OTHER side of the main canal without crossing it...
fear not, eventually i figured out where i was, stopped for a bite to eat at a really nice restaurant with extremely polite and fun waiters.

on saturday i stayed in padova. i went to the basilica of saint anthony again, and took more time to look around and pray and whatnot. then i went to the botanical garden, which is the oldest in all of europe! it was GORGEOUS and i found an extremely affectionate black cat, which is incredibly unlucky in italy, but oh well he was cute. there were a lot of nifty plants and flowers, and a huge collection of cacti. there were also a lot of secluded areas with benches and fountains, so i may go back with a book later. after that i wandered through the markets in the piazzas and ate a lot. in the evening, la notte dei saldi (the night of sales!) officially began! there were people EVERYwhere and music was blasting from all the open stores, and around 9:30pm the miss italia contest for padova was going on. it was pretty intense.

on sunday my friends got back from their various excursions, so a couple of us went out for lunch and got AMAZING ravioli. then we got the supposed best gelato in padova at grom. i finished up my homework in the afternoon and even got a little ahead, and then got dinner and MORE gelato. i took a twenty minute run after that. :P it was weird though. i'm pretty sure people don't run in the streets here...

photobucket is acting strangely today, so i'm afraid the pictures are going to have to wait.

today i WOULD be going to venice to meet friends for dinner, but the various modes of transportation are on strike (sciopero).

i think tomorrow i'm going on some sort of optional field trip after my petrarch class, but i didn't fully understand what my teacher was saying so we'll see.

a domani!