It was bright and sunny in Venice when I opened the curtain of the hotel room. After breakfast, Alex and I set off to St. Mark’s Square because we wanted to see St. Marks Basilica. We only had to wait in line for about 20 minutes, which I thought was kind of shocking. I brought a cover up since I was wearing a sleeveless shirt and Alex and I didn’t have backpacks so we were allowed to enter, I felt so prepared. St. Mark’s Basilica is often referred to as the Chisea d’Oro (church of gold) and the inside of the church was richly decorated. The entire ceiling had figures with a gold background made of individual mosaics, it was phenomenal to even think of how long it took to construct and how they even completed the basilica. Its had a Byzantine style and it is decorated iwith gold or mosaics in every corner. We paid extra to see the Pala d’Oro, a golden altar screen, that is located behind the altar. On the screen it has emeralds, sapphires, garnets, amethysts, rubies and pearls. It was absolutely beautiful; it is a rare treasure in my opinion. We also paid to go into the treasury which houses skulls and bones underneath glass, pkus there is chalices, goblets and Gothic candelabra. The floor of the church was immaculately designed as well. The mosaic combinations were beautifully combined, each very unique and different. Out next stop was Museum Correr that was located just across the square. It was a very diverse museum, it had a Civic/army exhibit, an antique exhibit, an archeological exhibit, a historic exhibit and a contemporary exhibit. It has paintings and the history of Venice from the 14th and 16th centuries. There was even a place with sculptures and robes once worn by the doges (chief leader of Venice). The museum was very nice. Next, we rode the ferry over to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. When we arrived at the boat stop, Alex and I got a slice of a coconut and the fruit juice had been dripping on it for hours, it was yummy. The museum was very comprehensive, yet a brilliant modern art museum. I have never been to a museum quite like it. The collection of art was located in the former house of Peggy. She loved contemporary art and was given and collected a number of paintings and sculptures throughout her life. Once her collection was large enough, she wanted to showcase it and she decided on Venice. My favorite artists were Pollock, Picasso, Dali and Ernst =). We then wandered the streets around the museum. We found a traghetto stop and decided to ride the gondola across the canal, it only cost 50 euro cents. We then wandered our way back through the small alley ways of Venice, we had lunch on the go as we were ‘window shopping.’ It was time to go back to the hotel to get our bags and head to the train station. We got on the infamous ferry boat and 40 minutes later, we arrived to the St. Lucia train station. We grabbed dinner to go, since we were not arriving to Switzerland until after 9pm and train food is very expensive. I got my last piece of pizza before we finally departed from Italy. We made it to our train on time and we were off toward Switzerland. We stopped in Brig and Alex stayed in a hotel their and I went back to the chalet. The chalet was not taking visitors that night because the next day is staff day out. Horray, I made it back to the chalet around midnight and I was so tired I went straight to bed.
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