A Wonderful Final Day in Venice

The last day of any trip is always the saddest, though it’s often the day that the best activities take place. Today certainly followed that trend; in fact, today was far better than any other “last day” I’ve had in the past.

First of all, we had a free morning today. It was wonderful to sleep in, relax, and have a nice breakfast in the café before leaving for the day. After breakfast, my roommates and I went to the island to do the final souvenir shopping and experience some things we had missed. We took a traghetto (a gondola ferry with two drivers) across the Grand Canal, which was quite the experience! Interestingly, tourists pay almost triple the price of Venetians (2 euros vs. 0.70) to take this 2-minute long ferry across the Grand Canal. It is definitely worth the 2 euros, though, since a traghetto ride gives the same general experience of a gondola ride for a tiny fraction of the price. Usually, Venetians stand up on the traghetti as it makes its short trek across the canal. Tourists, who don’t quite have their sea legs, sit on the ferry. We decided to stand like true Venetians. This terrified my roommates, who were on the outside and came close to falling off the boat due to the waves in the canal. I, on the other hand, was in the middle and felt perfectly safe the entire time. It was a short ride, but it was enough for us.

Coins (from both tourists and locals) on the traghetto

We rode the traghetto to get to the Rialto fish market, which was very interesting to see. We had been hearing about the market all week, but because of having class in the mornings we were unable to see it in action. We had passed by the market area one evening earlier this week, but the area was empty (though it still smelled strongly of fish). This morning, though, we saw the fish market in full force. We walked past stall after stall of fresh seafood, some of which was still moving! We saw fresh crab, shrimp, squid, and a wide variety of fish. We had been told earlier that we were eating fresh fish for dinner tonight, so we tried to guess which of the little animals we would be eating later as we strolled from stall to stall.

A small fraction of the wide selection available at the Rialto fish market

After our lovely free morning, we had a short lecture followed by a trip to the Guggenheim Museum of Modern Art. This was an interesting trip, as modern art is very far out of my (and likely all the other engineers’/scientists’) comfort zone. However, I enjoyed having the guide explain the different modern art movements and the meanings behind the artworks. It was a very interesting change of pace.

After the museum trip, we had a wonderful Venetian surprise. The professors had arranged for my classmates and I to take a gondola ride! I spent the entire week convincing myself that a gondola trip wasn’t worth the price…and then we all ended up going on a gondola ride together! It was wonderful to see the same sights that I had seen all week from a different vantage point. I got to see sides and parts of buildings that I had never seen before, and I loved it! We all enjoyed seeing these sights and experiencing Venice in a new and different way. Though gondola rides are a very touristy thing to do, they are still very fun. I think we all enjoyed it more because we had already seen most of Venice in a different way; this ride just tied it all together.

The view from my seat in the gondola...I didn't think I would end up doing this!

After our fantastic surprise, we were treated to a seafood feast followed by delicious gelato. Even after seeing all the available seafood at the fish market, I could not have guessed all of the different things we ate; we may have had every type of seafood that was for sale!

Check out the variety of seafood on this plate!

The dinner was delicious, but the company was also fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed not only this final day but also the entire trip. I am sad that I have to leave this wonderful city tomorrow to head back to America (and school). It has been an amazing week, and I would not trade it for anything!