Heading north

Ciao a tutti!
Well, I'm actually writing this from Changi as we wait for the final flight home, but I figure if I at least get the last entries on here before we arrive home, then it's still okay.
So, for our last days in Italy ... after Florence we headed northwards towards Venice, stopping in Maranello to visit the Ferrari museums. Unfortunately, the only sports cars purchased were the model variety, but we did get to see an impressive number of street cars as well as the F1 racing cars. Some people tested out their reaction times, while others were quite taken with the F1 simulators.

Continuing on from Maranello after lunch, we then headed north east to the breathtaking city of Venice – and we were certainly breathless by the time we got to our hotel and discovered our rooms were on the fourth floor and there was no lift. Still, the grouchiness soon dissipated as we walked the Rio Tera round to the Rialto for our first impressions of Venice, taking the traghetto back in time for our delicious dinner just up from our hotel.

The next morning, in the watery sunshine we headed around to St Mark’s Square to meet Sabine, our guide for the Doge’s Palace and St Mark’s Basilica. She was certainly energetic, hustling us onwards to avoid the crowds. Venetian style is not subtle, and the Doge's Palace embodied that. We also crossed the Bridge of Sighs, so named by the Romantic poet Lord Byron in the 19th century to capture the last glimpses of the outside before prisoners were returned to serve out their sentences in the cold and dark cells. Next up we went inside St Mark's Basilica with its glittering glass mosaics, finding out that it took 800 years to complete the decoration of every inch of the basilica. This is also the reason why the glass factories were set up in Venice - so that the artisans could have constant access to the tiles needed for the mosaics. Sabine also told us that in nine months of the year, Venice had the entire population of Australia visit - over twenty million tourists whilst the local population who can no longer afford to live in the city has declined by half in the past forty years to just over 50,000. 

Continuing our very busy day, we then moved on to the mask-making workshop where we discovered the time-consuming process of making the papier-maché  masks. Our guide also explained the significance of the different masks, as modeled by Ricardo and Ben, before we crossed over a bridge and spent up in the shop. Montana and Ben also got to dress up in some of the traditional Carnevale costumes, although wisely no-one decided to invest after discovering that one full (very elaborate) costume cost over 3,500 euro. The next stop was of course a gondola ride in the sunshine before a last ditch shopping frenzy. To cap off the day, we took a traghetto back to hotel via the Giudecca Canal, which was all good until some larger waves unexpectedly swamped some of the group. Venetian canal water really isn't that fragrant, it has to be said, but luckily it didn't take long to dry and we were soon distracted by the Korean flash mob doing 'Gangnam Style'. Our last night in Venice was somewhat marred with a disappointing dinner, but once again, a gelato stop and a chance to admire the reflections on the Grand Canal alleviated it.

Our last full day in Italy took us by the fast train to Milan, which also meant that last day of moving unwieldy luggage. The train hit a top speed of 298km per hour, but with many of the students either snoozing or engrossed in their devices, I think quite a number of them missed it. Arriving in the impressive Milano Centrale station, we walked the short distance to the hotel before heading off to enjoy this stylish city. Winding our way through the labyrinth of streets, we checked out the pricey designs of the top labels on the 'Golden Mile', via Monte Napoleone. This is also where we were all traumatised by the incident between Ben and a very fluffy corgi. Let's just say that we hope the fur cushioned the impact. Moving on, we checked out the imposing facade of the gothic Duomo and the ultra-stylish Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele II, as well as more shopping. Our final official visit took us to Santa Maria delle Grazie to see Leonardo's stunning 'Cenacolo'. Finally, it was time to head back to the hotel before our own 'Last Supper' and a chance to reflect on everything that we had learnt about each other on the trip.