Italy pt. 3

So after a heaping helping of rain and lunacy we headed to our hotel where we were informed that we were to be in our rooms by midnight.  They decided to enforce this rule by patrolling the halls after 11:30 and ordering anyone who was out of their room back inside.  You see the teachers believed the trip was intended to be educational and fun, kids know that this combination is rare and has been achieved only a few times in history (Bill Nye the Science Guy and Dr. Suess being some notable examples).  So our opinion of the trip was that we were supposed to have fun by doing whatever the hell we felt like, and that meant hanging out with friends in other rooms after midnight.  So what's the solution?  Talk to the teachers?  Wait till the next day?  Run across the roof while smoking cigarettes and jumping into second story windows?  If you answered number three, you're right!  The teachers however thought that this was uncalled for and had a meeting with us in the morning to reasonably lay out the rules and tell us that our action was a little over the top, but somewhere along the planning stage and the delivery stage something went wrong,  'What the fuck do you think you guys were doing last night?!  I caught a girl running across the roof and I have a good mind to send her home!  You're all a bunch of god damn hypocrites!  You want to be treated like adults but you act like fucking children!'  Yeah, they're a little more liberal with curse words here.  Indeed the teachers almost elected to go the 'third-world dictator route,' if people disobey your rules don't reconsider policy, eliminate the infidels.  Luckily it turned out that he simply had not had his coffee that morning, the rest of the trip the teachers were relatively calm (and no one got sent home). 
That day we went to Venice, an entire city designed on the Italian dream, take money from people who don't speak Italian.  Not there is anything wrong with that, everyone was incredibly happy to be ripped off at every corner because it was freaking Venice.  This city fulfilled all my misconceptions about Italy while being incredibly beautiful.  We visited a royal palace where paintings covered walls and ceilings to the point where you could not look anywhere without being bombarded by the royal family involved in Jesus-y scenes.  Our teacher explained that it was old school propaganda, they did not have the fast talking, beautiful bearded, Billy Mayes types back then, so they had to rely on artists.  The artists then painted members of the royal family in classic religious scenes proving once and for all that the king was divinely selected.  No way to argue with that logic.  If you can't trust an ad man, being paid in gold, who fears for his life if he disobeys orders... I forgot where I was going with that, but anyways the view was that they were pretty darn reliable.  The only problem I saw with this form of brainwashing your collective subjects was that unless there were guided tours of the palace (Royalty usually isn't too keen on that idea), then you only get to screw with your children's world view, and sure they might believe they're divinity but for some reason that doesn't help public opinion. 
The rest of the day we were free to walk around the river community, that I still think should be inhabited by elves, and find dinner while getting completely lost.  We also took a Gondola ride around the rivers that traverse the city during which our driver (gondolier? boat dude?) spouted off a few facts about the city while singing, no joke, Katy Perry.  The only fact I remember is that there were 152 churches in Venice and could not help but wondering if that automatically cancelled out sin on a city wide scale.  On our little circle around the block we came to many buildings that appeared to only be accessible from water illustrating one of approximately two benefits of a city built around rivers.  Don't get me wrong I loved Venice, it was beautiful and very few motorboats made it incredibly peaceful, it was nice having a break from automobiles for a while.

Did I mention really really beautiful

However, water is a substance amazingly easy to pollute and hard to clean.  Getting around was inefficient and slow.  Every vehicle was in a continual state of rot or rust due to constant exposure to water.

Or at least 36% water, urine levels unknown

On the plus side, many stupid tourists to take money from.  The Basques did not seem to go into the situation with the same mindset I did.  I knew the people of Venice were going to have no respect for us, we're like prostitutes to them, we get what we pay for, then we get the hell out of the way.  So I, in turn, set my standards to low.  For example, while my friends were complaining that a certain waiter was impolite I was just happy he did not stab me in the temple with an ice pick.  It's all about perspective. 
The next day we went back to Venice this time we took a boat bus all around the city and saw every water side neighbor hood for all its beauty.  I know I'm sounding a little repetitive with my adjective choice but there really isn't another word to describe it.

Lovely, doesn't that just sound too British and sarcastic?

But it really is worth it, if you're a world traveler Venice is one city you can't pass by.