The Fun Faces of Carnivale!

We had no idea that we were leaving Mardi Gras and walking into Carnivale!  We heard rumors that Italy was in the throes of it, but we saw no evidence of it in our trip to Verona, so we brushed off the warnings of crowds and chaos and blissfully headed off to Venice.  HOLY MOLEY!  It was packed, wall to wall with people.  I hate crowds.  I detest them with a fiery, burning passion.  And yet...... This was not so bad!  It was actually.... dare I say.... fun?!

We had a marvelous time wandering the streets working our way through the crowds to see the sights.  Everyone was dressed up for Carnivale and the atmosphere was a cheerful one.  Everyone was there to have a good time and it was fun!  Lots and lots and lots of people were dressed up.  It was kind of like Halloween, but I have no clue where so many grown ups got their awesome costumes. I need to google it to learn more, but there were lots and lots of regular folks dressed up.  Then there were incredible, ornate costumed couples walking grandly around.  They would stop for photos and give a regal nod to you after you snapped their picture.  It was pretty cool.  We got to St Mark's Square and it was jam packed with people, and sprinkled all throughout were more incredibly costumed people posing for photos.  I could not figure out if they are Carnival Royalty or some such thing to do this, or just folks who like to dress up and get attention.  (That's what I need to google!)

So, there were some regular folks we saw strolling around, and some fabulously costumed folks strolling or standing. I loved it when there were whole families dressed up!  I'll get to the other (AMAZING) pictures of Venice in a bit, but for now, here are some of the great costumes we saw there!

Great Adventure: Sunday: Vicenza

Sunday morning we slept in! We did not have to leave for church till 9. It was a good thing we left with plenty of time to get there.  The map makes it look easy, but it is not!  The map makes the roads look straight, but they are not! The gps did take us to the address, but it was on the wrong side of an alley and it took us a bit to realize we were within sight of our destination, but not by car.  We did get to church in time and it was delightful.  Especially since I got to see my friend from High School who I haven't seen since I left Okinawa.... many many moons ago!

After church and a little nap, we headed out to see some sights in  Vicenza, since that's where we were staying. 

 Dad is checking out the map.

 We went to this cool church.

It was huge and less ancient looking than some of the others.

Yep, that's me!  I'm in front of a cool church!

Hmmm... me again, only this time you can see the dome top.  Extra cool.

Even more cool from inside!  It was gorgeous!

This doesn't do justice to the beautiful stained glass windows.

 Long view down the middle.  It was so pretty inside.  It was worth going out and getting lost to see it.

We went here too.  It was neat to see.  I have no idea what it was, but it was pretty!

I love all the architecture in the cities!  So ornate and lovely to look at.

And I love all the old buildings everywhere.  Just sitting there, everywhere.

Grand Adventure: Saturday: Verona

Saturday we headed out to Verona.  I was kind of excited, because I had watched a recent remake of Romeo and Juliette.  Not may favorite story because they were idiots, but I watched it because I was going to be in Italy!  And it was fun to go somewhere I saw on a movie. 

 We drove by some pretty scenery.  Some city stuff, but some really pretty stuff too.

So fun to see these spectacular castles on the hillsides.

Lots of cool buildings on hillsides that are impressive.

Yep, we're headed the right direction!  Which is impressive because between the roads and the gps's schizophrenic issues, we spent a lot of time getting unlost.

Our parking garage was under the Burger King!  We did not eat there.  But it was a great parking location.

For all my friends who enjoy a bit of wine, this is for you!

 We went to the Arena, which is Roman and looks just like a Roman Colosseum!  That is behind us and the fountain.

Yep, it is me in front of the Arena!

Look how cool it is!  Mom and Dad spent the $$ to go inside and they said it was neat, and looked just like in the movies!

Mom and Dad coming out.  I loved the Roman Soldiers there.  For a few Euros, they'd pose for photos with you.  Maybe if I weren't on a trip with Dan.....!

The cool arches that separate the old city and new city.  But all the city looks "old" and nifty.

Isn't it beautiful?! The architecture was so different and so pretty!

We found the Castle.

 Dan on the drawbridge over the moat.

There were some great sculptures inside the castle grounds.

 The art inside the castle was prolific and interesting.  Lots of carvings like this.  Mom mentioned that because people 100s of years ago didn't know how to read, so the art depicts biblical scenes and people.

Me and another cool sculpture.

If you look closely at this you can see it shows the bible stories.  How cool is this?!

There was a lot of art, and then there was the really fun stuff!

 From the top of the castle walls you could see pretty far.  And it was fabulous!

It's me!  On top of a castle!  In Italy!

 What the castle looked like from the inside courtyard.

Fun building you could see from the other side of the castle.

Well, it was so pretty, how could I help but take pictures of everything?!

I want to swoon with delight at the views.  And I'm running out of adjectives to adequately describe it all.

Yep, here I am!

Hey, this is the bathroom in the parking garage! The funny thing was, the bathroom was for men and women together.  So you walk in and may be next to a man or a woman.  Odd, and a little disconcerting.  On the plus side, there was toilet paper and a sink with running water!

After the Arena and castle, we went back to the car for lunch.  It started raining while we were noshing on our sandwiches, but we were happy, because it was suppose to have rained all day and we'd had a rain free morning!  We busted out the poncho and umbrellas and headed back out.

 It took a bit of walking, but we eventually found the church we were looking for.  We did not want to spend the euros to go inside though.  So we admired it from afar.

Me and my poncho in the rain in front of the church.

It was this church.  I don't know why it was special, but it was. Google it if you don't believe me!

Wet Verona. Did I mention we spent about 2.5 hours walking in the rain?  We got a little lost.

I might have gotten a little crabby.

 We eventually found the Duomo and there was much rejoicing.  I'm not a fan of walking around in the rain while lost, but this was worth the wait!  The outside was pretty, but everything here is.  The inside....oh!  The inside!

It was ornate and beautiful and detailed and awesome and I was impressed and humbled to be there.

A happy me, checking out all the amazing things in the Duomo.

The pictures cannot truly show how amazing it it.

Look at this glorious domed roof!

One of the endless alleys we trudged through in the rain.
It was still awesome to look at.

This is how I felt when we left the Duomo to head back to the car.

This is how I felt after wandering around lost in the rain for too long.

Aside from my grumpy ending, it was a glorious day!  Verona was so amazing!  The architecture and the buildings and the everything were so neat to see, and the mix of old buildings and new buildings was .... rats, I am all out of adjectives.  I am speechless to try to describe it all!  I'll just say it was spectacular!