Un Po di Aqua Alta

This weekend I did some interesting stuff but I'm going to be super lazy and summarize very briefly. On Friday after school I met Meg, her mom, and Wendy at the train station. The city was CRAZY packed with tourists which made me quite upset because in them I was able to see "man's" truly careless and destructive nature. Despite the overload of tourists, Wendy and Kelly got what I would consider a pretty good tour of the city. First thing first, we took the #1 vaporetto down the entire length of the Grand Canal to Piazza San Marco. It's actually a good way to see the city's "main street"... if you can find a seat on the boat. After checking into their hotel, we had lunch. After lunch we were able to get into the Basilica because the mass for Good Friday was just about to begin. This was great for two reasons. First, we didn't have to wait on line to get into the church, and second, the lights were not turned on until after we were inside. This always has a spectacular effect because the mosaics are gradually lit up, slowly revealing the intricacy and magnificence of what can barely be seen in the dark. After church we roamed around for a bit, chilled at the hotel, then went to dinner. On the walk to dinner the waters were rising and on the walk back from dinner, many places were significantly flooded. 

\/ High Waters \/

The next day we did sort of a rush around the city... walking over the Rialto and a quick trip to Murano where we saw the Glass Museum which was impressive but only for about the first 5 minutes. After Murano we can back to Venice, missed out on seeing a cool church, walked through a "street" fair, and ate some more food. By this time it was already time for Kelly, Wendy and Megan to end their short trip to Venice. 

On Sunday I went to a city called Bolzano. Although in Italy, this city retains the culture of Austria, of which it used to belong. Here people speak German and street names are in German and people eat Leberwurst... the whole thing. Anyway, this town is special not just for its bipolar-ness, but also because it is home to the South Tyrol Museum of Archeology. In this museum, I saw Otzi the Iceman. 

quote from museum website:

Over 5000 years ago, a man climbed up to the icy heights of the Schnalstal glacier and died. He was found by accident in 1991, with his clothes and equipment, mummified and frozen: an archaeological sensation and a unique snapshot of a Copper Age man.

For several years highly specialised research teams examined the mummy and the articles found with it. They have been on exhibit since March 1998 at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology.   

It was pretty remarkable. They even know how he died! They had his clothes and all this crazy 5.5 thousand year old stuff! Unbelievable. And luckily I came back alive. I was quite afraid that he would come back to like Encino Man and attack me but he couldn't even stand upright. Remarkable nonetheless. 

Monday I spent all day in Museums. The Jewish Museum in the Ghetto. Was really interesting and I was able to see the 3 of the 5 synagogues that you can visit. Just like most everything here, they were beautiful. I also went to the Museo Correr where I saw the exhibition by Lawrence Carrol and also the rest of the museum which has stuff about all aspects of Venetian History.