title: venezia di notte

i have been having some strange experiences lately. nathan is playing assassin's creed 2, which takes place in the vital parts of renaissance italy: florence, venice, rome, and even san gimigano among them. it gives me a constant feeling of deja-vu. i have never seen a game so accurately depict reality before. they bathed florence in the right light, detailed all of the intricate decorations of il duomo and st. marco's (which, incidentally, you climb all over), captured the insanity that is rome. we have been joking that i got suckered into paying for the real tour when i could just have done it in the game. of course there's no truth in that; italy must be lived to be understood.

i took the classic college student course through italy: venice to florence to rome. from florence i also visited san gimigano, which was probably the most beautiful place i've ever been to. and i've been places.
the train ride from munich was staggeringly long, but tempered by the stunning magnitude of the snowy alps passing by the windows, good friends, and a card game called scopa (heard of it?). we stepped onto the platform in venice's central station at night, and wandered in awe for quite a while after checking in to our hostel (which happened to be a 3-bedroom-apartment-cum-hostel). we actually did get lost, but that's supposed to happen in venice. enough yammering, here is a visual description:
often the camera will distort the colors of the night, but i promise these are accurate. venice really is green at night. it's eerie and peaceful; feels thick with ghosts who dance and laugh and cry and kiss and kill each other. i will share with you how bright venice can get in my next post.