The Last Supper (and the night of fun that followed)

Sorry for the delay in posting - our Venetian internet ran out so I've not been able to put anything up.
I'm now back in the UK and I have WIFI! I AM SO EXCITED! You miss it when you've had to use a dongle for 10 weeks.
Anyway, last Thursday was the History of Art and History final dinner.
We, however, did not go. It cost 35 euros for what we considered rubbish food and only a drop of wine.
Alex, Charlie, Helena and I instead took ourselves off to our favourite Venetian restaurant, Muro.
The food there is incredible and is undoubtedly the best in Venice. We went there for my birthday but I never blogged about it because I was just not in a fit state to photograph anything after the night of my 21st.
Anyway, yeah, we started at Muro.

Alex went for pasta with sausage and broccoli...

Charlie went for the seafood spaghetti...

Helena went for the roast pork, but unfortunately she was lurking in the shadows and the picture came out too dark.
It doesn't matter though because it was my dish that really stole the show...

Zuppa di pesce.
(fish soup)
Mussels, clams, king prawns, shrimp, langoustines, salmon, swordfish, skate, scallops.
Alex quickly dubbed it 'the aquarium'.

Once we were all suitably full, we headed to the shop to stock up on prosecco.
Shortly after, we received messages from friends at the formal dinner inviting us to the drinks reception after.
Since it's not in our nature to turn down a drink, we grabbed our coats and headed over to St. Mark's to find everyone.
We may have got a little bit distracted on the way...

We got there in the end though.
An hour and several glasses prosecco later, we progressed from our posh reception in the wealthy area of St. Mark's to a complete dive of an Italian club... although this was not before two of the history boys attempted to hijack a gondola...

From this point on, the night descended into madness.

I loved every minute of it.

Venice, you have been a whirlwind of prosecco, carbohydrates, incredible scenery, more carbohydrates, and an awful lot of churches.
And y'know what? It's been absolutely brilliant.
Ciao Venezia!

Asolo

Hands up if you've seen this photo recently?

Well, if you read this regularly, you've probably seen it on my instagram. It got a pretty good response, so I feel like it deserves a post.
It is the view from Asolo - a little town in northern Italy where we spent some time between visits to the Palladian Villas.
The drive there boasted fantastic views of the surrounding scenery. We all had a lot of love for the mountains!

The town itself is absolutely tiny. Its high street includes only a handful of shops, all of which close for lunch.
It's got a real sense of being 'undisturbed' - away from the hustle and bustle of other places in Italy.
It's a town of 'real' Italians, going about their everyday life, untainted by tourism (apart from us little art historians!)

One of the best things about spending a term in Venice has been the opportunity to visit other places in Italy. Asolo isn't somewhere I'd ever think to go to on holiday, and I am so glad I had the opportunity to visit such a beautiful town.

The Palladian Villas, Part Two: Villa Barbaro

The other villa visited on Tuesday was Villa Barbaro, also designed by Palladio. 

I can't exactly pinpoint why, but I liked this one a whole lot more than Villa Emo. Maybe I just hadn't woken up properly for the first one and was being grumpy... who knows?

It might've had something to do with the Villa Barbaro's surrounding countryside though...

Perhaps you'll think this is lame, but I've really missed fields.

Venice is all stone and water. It's rare that you see anything green at all, and I've really missed that.

After a short lecture outside, we headed in to check out the interior.

We had to wear some bizarre oversized slippers to protect the floor...

They kept falling off because I have tiny feet, but they were quite fun to wear.

My lecturer, Giorgio, decided he was going to do some 'ice skating' in them, naturally.

The interior of Villa Barbaro is decorated with frescoes by Veronese.

They're somewhat problematic because no one knows what any of them mean, so I'll just leave you to appreciate the photos of them.

Afterwards, there was just enough time for a few more photographs of the surrounding area before we headed back to the coach.

All this countryside has made me so excited to get back to England - ONE WEEK TO GO!

The Palladian Villas, Part One: Villa Emo

Yesterday we took a trip out to the North Italian countryside to see a couple of villas by Andrea Palladio (same guy who designed the Teatro Olimpico, in case you were wondering!)
Our first stop was Villa Emo (pronounced ay-mo, not ee-mo, much to my disappointment)
Palladio designed the architecture, and the interior is decorated with frescoes by Giovanni Battista Zelotti.
It's pretty impressive, but it was so so cold! My fingers didn't work well enough to take many notes, but they did an alright job of taking photos. Priorities, right?