They were staying at what was essentially a bed and breakfast. With lots of cats.

Walking down the road towards the beach.

The wet and stormy weather seemed to have brought out the local snail population.

The little bungalows/shacks belonging to the private part of the beach.

The atmosphere was fitting given its finality.

And upon my departure back to Venice, I discovered that the Piazza San Marco had flooded. Couldn’t have asked for a better day. Hope my photos were enjoyable. I’ll be returning to my usual fare of portraits and nonsense concepts.

Santa Maria della Salute

Posters outside of the Accademia.

Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, design by Palladio.

I really loved the little enclave the church sat on. Unobstructed view of the cityscape. Perfect.

From the top of the church.

Taken while riding on a vaporetto (water bus).

A little posterity. This was the hotel room. Not as grand as the wallpaper and mirror would have you believe (you could see the water line from past flooding).

Went for a night stroll.

Next morning, we paid a visit to the oldest market in Venice.

The market has been in operation non-stop every morning for about 1000 years.

A delicious looking swordfish. Just kidding, I hate fish.

Despite appearances, this was actually a bear, not a dog.

The approach to the Villa Rotunda. Quite an influential design by Palladio – Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello was based on it, for instance.

After the villa, we made a quick stop in the small city of Vecenza.

The Teatro Olimpico is located here, which is the oldest indoor theatre of the western world. The set design was done by Palladio. Pretty neat if I do say so myself.

Last stop was Villa Barbaro. Lots of emphasis on the perspective here, with an odd tweak, as it’s not perfectly perpendicular to the road.

Seems appropriate – the SCAD mascot is a bee.

Sun was on the descent during the drive back towards Venice. Made the sweeping vistas even better from the seat of the bus.

Newly completed bridge in Venice. One of the few contemporary architectural features we saw during the trip.

This little tower was hidden in an alley within an alley. While we didn’t see the tower of Pisa, this would have to do. It’s especially odd given there aren’t really any other towers, outside of Piazza San Marco, in the city.

Our hotel (behind me in this photo) was in the heart of the city (just like all of our other stays). I really applaud the professors/SCAD for the booking (they’ve been using the same set of hotels for several years now too).

Piazza San Marco, a brisk walk through a few winding streets in relation to our residence. It’s worth noting that Venice is perhaps the most disorienting place I’ve ever been to – but I never once felt lost.

Not as many pigeons as they show in the movies. But they will land on you should you offer.

The Doge’s Palace.

St. Mark’s.

I like to think this was my most iconic shot from the trip.

This is the next morning. The clouds and rain rolled right in after the beautiful sunset yesterday.

Interior courtyard at the Doge’s Palace.

Went wandering around Venice in the afternoon and got thoroughly disoriented. An exciting day.

All the walls were perfect.

Even found a cat enclave, complete with cat homeless shelter.

I was tracking this one, pretty skiddish.

Before leaving the city limits entirely, we made a brief stop at a modern church by a famous architect that I don’t recall the name of. I’m a bad student.

At our bus stop, there had apparently been a carnival/fair the previous night/day. Clean up was going on. Lots of trash littered about too. I’m guessing people freely litter because they know someone’s job is to go around picking up litter. Still not a fan of this.

This is the Pitti Palace. Absolute monstrosity. It’s apparently ostentatious as anything else in the world as far as the interior goes – unfortunately, didn’t see that. Next time.

We eventually went inside the central courtyard, to proceed on to the Boboli Gardens.

One of the few cats I saw while in Florence, and it was an awesome cat.

This was the next day – visited a beach at Viareggio. It was a terrible beach. Never go there.

First stop, Pienza.

Absolutely unreal.

Siena was next up.

Just an absolutely stunning cathedral. It was planned to be extended, but the plague hit the town, and so it remains technically unfinished.

On the Spanish Steps

The Borghese in the background

Bus ride to Hadrian’s Villa on day 6

Villa d’Este

Graffiti was pretty lackluster in Rome. Mainly consisted of sentiments such as this one, oddly enough.

This probably wasn’t a stray. Dogs were extremely obedient, loyal, and well trained. Never ran off too far from their owners. Leashes were more or less optional.

So we arrived in front of St. Peter’s. The energy and atmosphere is something else, just a striking structure overall.

Inside the Vatican at this point, the first courtyard, the Courtyard of the Belvadere (beautiful view). The layout of courtyards and gardens in the Vatican is what essentially influences Renaissance gardens, and that further leads to gardens such as Versailles. The design is by Bramante, and the gardens and structures are meant to house works of art – essentially, the first museum.

This, of course, needs no explanation.

I wish I had the time to really get a good pictures of this staircase. Spirals are simply awesome.

About to head inside.

Simply nothing like it. Absolutely massive space. And the light was indeed just as it is in these photos.

Ascending the dome.

The classic Rome/Vatican postcard.

The light went golden while a storm was looming. Perfect.

The front of our hotel lit up for the evening.

The colorful view from my hotel window.