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Day 8: A beautiful day in Venice

Wow! What a great day to be a Hokie!!

The women's basketball team spent the eighth day of the Italy trip roaming the streets of Venice. The day started off with a hearty breakfast, followed by a departure time of 9 a.m.

Before actually arriving in Venice, the team had to take a boat taxi across the waters to enter into the city of Venice. Each boat could hold about 10 people, so we all fit into three small boats. The scenery from the boats was beautiful and the sound of the waves hitting the sides of it was relaxing.

Once we arrived, we visited the famous Murano glass shop, where we received our own personal demonstrations on how they blow the glass in to different items. To actually see how this is done was amazing. The artist used temperatures that were at least 500 degrees Fahrenheit and molded one piece into a perfect glass horse and another in to a beautiful vase. The history behind this is that every blow glass artist chooses a specific animal to study when they first begin this training and that is their signature trademark. Upon leaving the demonstration, there was time for the team to look around at other pieces of blow glass items and to buy if they preferred.

After, there was free time for everyone to go on their own to shop and eat. There were plenty of places to do this in Venice!

We all reunited around 1 o'clock to meet up with our tour guide. We visited the St. Marks Basilica and it was amazing on the inside with all the mosaics made with gold pieces. The entire ceiling was mosaic. The tour guide also showed us other places throughout Venice, including the opera house and the famed Rialto Bridge. He also gave us a few hints about where to find the less expensive restaurants and other good bargains!

Once again, there was more free time. The girls continued to shop and to eat, but soon found out that they had to pay to use the public restrooms! The girls were shocked at this but it was all a great experience!

The trip to the city of Venice ended around 5 p.m. with another boat ride back to the mainland to be able to go to the hotel. Once the team got back to the hotel, they were free to roam the streets of Padova, where they did more shopping and eating! We can't wait to see what else our guides have in store for the Hokie women's basketball team for the rest of the trip!

- Porschia Hadley

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