After two long but exciting weeks exploring the Trentino region of northern Italy, we made our trek back to Venice, where we would be spending the final week of our Italian engineering trip. Upon arrival in Venice, my peers and I began making a plan of all the different sites and activities we wanted to see before we left Italy. One of the biggest places we wanted to see was St. Mark’s Basilica on St. Mark’s Square. This church is massive and is the main feature of the famous St. Mark’s square in Venice. We knew we had to arrive early, as the line for this church is usually fairly long and can be tough to handle on a hot Italian summer day. On our planned morning, we got up and walked to the church. After waiting in line for about an hour, we finally entered the church. The inside of this church is stunning. The ceiling is covered with mosaic artwork made from millions of pieces of mosaic tile. This can be seen in the picture below. We got to go to the altar of the church and see where the remains of St. Mark, the author of the Gospel of Mark, were buried. At the end of the tour, we went onto the balcony of the church and saw the four horses of St. Mark. This basilica was worth the wait and blew my mind with its intricacy and large stature. Throughout the rest of the week, we enjoyed the culture of Venice, eating fantastic pizza, pasta, and desserts. On our last night, the whole program went to dinner together one last time where we enjoyed some of the finest cuisine in Venice. I ate an Italian steak filet that was bigger than any filet I’d ever seen before. I was sad to leave Italy, but I was very thankful for the experiences I had enjoyed.
