Venice

Due to the lack of Wifi since leaving Venice, I have not been able to post anything new in quite some time.  I am currently in Kotor, Montenegro and will add a number of posts on where I have been since then starting where I left off with Venice.  I arrived in Venice on Friday, July 15 and stayed over for 3 nights and 4 days.  The city is unlike any other place I have been since there are no cars (only boats) to get around.

And the canals are so cool that I had to include another picture.

My stay in Venice also coincided with the festival of Redentore.  This holiday dates back to the end of the plague in 1576.  The Doge, the political authority in Venice, ordered the construction of a large church on the island of Giudecca to give thanks for the end of the Black Death.  Once completed, the Doge walked across a bridge of boats to the church every year.  Today the festival is celebrated by amazing fireworks show over the city that lasts over an hour.  Towards the end of the night (and the beginning of the morning), tradition has it that everyone travels to the island of Lido to sit on the beach and watch the sun rise.

During the festival I met up with the Harvard Study Abroad program in Venice which included about 50 students.  They had a party on a rooftop on Giudecca with an excellent view of the fireworks.  The firework show was one of the most stunning and amazing things I have ever witnessed.  After this we went to a number of different parties before making our way to Lido for the sunrise.  The remaining two days were spent visiting the rest of the sites around Venice before catching a train out to Remini, Italy.