By jahdaimoriah
For weeks, I had been looking forward to go to carnivale in Venice. As a product of Caribbean parents, carnival is like the second coming of Christmas. I love every aspect about carnival, from the masks, to the bright colored costumes, to the musics, and groves of people having fun. I have a dream of attending all the worlds biggest carnivals: Trinidad, Barbados, Brazil, New Orleans.
I was ready to hit Venice, see the parade, and hitch a ride on a gondola. But did that happen...of course not. It was a monsoon when we got to Venice. The bright colored buildings that I saw in movies like the Italian Job and the Tourist were muddled by gray fog and clouds. Venice as you may or may not know is a city made up of little islands connected by bridges and traveled by boat. Because it is more water then land, when it pours it also floods. My beautiful Venice dream carnival turned into my wet gray nightmare.
If I have to reflect on the highlights of the trip, I can only thing of one. I got to see a glass blowing demonstration.All those neat glass figurines and glass cups that your grandmother owns that your are not allowed to look at let alone touch is made from glass blowing. In Venice, there is an Island known as Murino where all the expensive glass art work comes from. The families on the Islam are the only people allowed to make this fine glass art. From the time they are small they are trained to be masters of the glass--basically like ninjas.
I had the opportunity to watch a master make a few pieces of glass art work. He had only a few minutes to take the hot molten glass and shape it into a horse. I watched as he blew and then shaped the hot glass without ever using his hands. It made me appreciate the craftsmanship and recognize that art is found in the most random of mediums. Although I was drenched the entire time my appreciation for art grew even more during that moment in Venice.