Europe with Ali, May 2018-Part I: Venice, Italy

May 17, 2018--This is Laura reporting on my magical, geological, friendship tour of Europe with Ali.  She is one of my best friends from way back and has been living in Italy for a few years.  I finally saved up my airline miles in order to visit her.  The best news is that her newest job will be back in the USA, only a couple of hours drive from my home in Southern Illinois, so I am sure she will be featured on many more blog posts! 

You might notice that these posts are from from back in May, 2018.  I am not nearly as quick at photo editing as John, so apologize for the delay.  This was my first trip using the new camera without John's guidance, so there was a steep learning curve over the course of the week in Europe.  Ali is excellent at photography as an art form, so we made a good team, as we both learned the technical side of how to shoot with this particular camera. 

It was a flurry at the end of the semester, as I graded exams, turned in attendance records, and entered final grades for all of my students and then frantically packed for this trip.  I could not believe it was actually happening until I landed in Venice, got my bags, and headed through customs.  The Venice airport was quiet and customs was a breeze.  I was surprised that there seemed to be no effort to inspect anyone's luggage for produce, etc.  As I exited the customs area, however, it was chaos, with hoards of people.  Luckily, I spotted Ali out of the corner of my eye and we hugged and hugged!!  We got to her car, where she was listening to the new Taylor Swift album, Reputation, which I am equally obsessed with! 

Ali had met me around noon, so we decided to see Venice for the day, before heading to her house.  She explained that Venice is an adventure that takes an entire day and she was not wrong.  First you must find a place to park near the train station (our spot was about a 20-minute walk).  Then, you must take a train across to Venice, since it is on an island.  In the train terminal, you will find yourself getting gelato and then, when you get off the train in Venice, there will be more gelato!  Then, when you exit the train station in Venice, you will be thrown into the hustle and bustle of all the selfies being taken by all of the tourists on very narrow streets.  The pathways in Venice are winding and it is easy to feel lost right away, but I think that was part of the fun.  I thought Venice was absolutely beautiful, which is surprising because there were no natural spaces in sight.  But, the sea is nearby and the canal water is a lovely turquoise color and all of the buildings layer together to look picturesque.

This is what the side streets look like.  

Here is a main canal, with boat traffic.

Ali is good at finding creative angles for photos, like this one.

Limestone paver stones needed to be inspected for fossils.

Ali also captured our reflections in these doorbells.

I did not know much about Venice except that it had a lot of canals with boats and gondolas.  I learned a lot that day: 1. There are no cars in Venice, just walkers, bikes, and boats (including ferries that act as busses on the large canals).  2. A lot of people live there, in apartments above businesses, etc.  3. Many people have small dogs, but we did not see any grass, just cobblestone streets.  Could you imagine being a dog who never saw grass?

We strolled around and got lost and found beautiful shops full of Murano glass and some authentic Italian food.  I had the best gnocchi I have ever had with a rich salmon sauce.  It was divine!  We also bought some fresh cherries from the farmers' market.  

Here is the view from where we ate our lunch.

Before we left the island, Ali wanted to show me a cathedral, St. Mark's Basilica.  Having not done any research, I was not sure that was really my thing, but took her word for it.  I soon found out that she was showing it to me for the geology!  The whole thing, inside and out, was made of a spectacular diversity of rocks.  Amazingly, most of it was built in the 11th century, so it's sobering to think of how they transported these magnificent rocks from all around Europe.  The inside was huge and the floor was completely covered by intricate mosaics.

My favorite stones were, of course, the ones with fossils.  I am pretty sure that these large bivalve fossils are rudists, the major reef-building animals of the Jurassic and Cretaceous seas.

After our geology tour of the cathedral, it was time to get back on a ferry bus back to the train station to head back to Ali's house and see Sean and the kitties. Ciao, Venice! 

-Laura and Ali

Part II here...