Carnevale Feb. 20-21 and cancelled classes

Hi Everyone,

Here's some important news regarding Carnevale. I was corresponding with a friend of a friend who's been living in Venice and when I mentioned that I had planned to go for the first weekend of Carnevale (Feb.9-10) she responded by saying "The Carnival [and all the party madness at night] starts only on the 16th or 17th - before that it's the usual boring
Venice! switch!" I asked Helena about this as well and she also agreed that the first weekend would be pretty staid. Of course, I was pretty disappointed about having to switch around my plans, but that quickly subsided given that I won't have to face the disappointment of going for Carnevale expecting a big party and being met with empty streets! I mentioned this briefly at the latter part of the meeting on Dec. 7, so some of you will already know about this. The general feeling, I think, was that everyone wanted to switch their Carnevale plans to the next weekend or for martedi grasso (Fat Tuesday the 20th). My friend says the "last thursday to last tuesday the mardi gras are the craziest of them all!!" and Helena added that the final weekend's celebrations, though quite big, are a bit more touristy than martedi grasso's. Also, that weekend confilcts with the Classics fieldtrip to Pompeii.

Helena also mentioned that she's had students in the past who've gone up for Fat Tuesday and missed class and she did not seem adverse to this, even adding that we could possibly make up those missed classes on fieldtrips. So with all that in mind, in my correspondence with Helena and her correspondence with Dr. Szostak and Jo we've worked out the following, which should work out best for everyone if we can agree to the following:

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION FROM HELENA (and note that I added the caps for emphasis)

"Okay, all the votes are in and there was a concern expressed, but I think that we can work around it if we collaborate. We can cancel classes on Tuesday Feb. 20 and Wednesday Feb. 21 if we can agree on the following terms;

a) THAT YOU ALL LEAVE FOR VENICE ON TUESDAY AFTER ITALIAN and

b) THAT YOU ARE ALL BACK ON WEDNESDAY EVENING so you can be in class on Thursday. If you can all agree to that, then we have no problem with just cancelling all classes on Tuesday ater 11:00 and all day Wednesday to accomodate a trip to Mardi Gras. This would address the major concern of Prof. Szostak who is worried that the students in the Econ 212 class (going to Venice that following weekend) might just stay there, and Dr. Szostak wants to be sure that his students are in class in Cortona on Thursday as that is fundamental to his fieldtrip. Jo is fine with everyone missing one Italian class, but missing two becomes a problem so leaving after Italian on Tuesday would address that.

What do you think? I hope this works out, because going on mardi gras is the real Carnevale, so it is worth seeing it. The weekend festivities are usually much more touristy, and not the real thing.

All the best, Helena"



I hope everyone agrees that this is a excellent solution to our problem and we owe Helena, Jo, Rick a big thank you!

Just a note if people are scrambling to find accomodation: don't worry about it too much--there is plenty left (and plently left in the heart of the city I might add). If you look on www.hostelworld.com there are still plenty of hostels available to book for the 20th. I just booked a room for myself and 5 other people at the San Lio Tourist House for 40 euros each.

Good luck on your finals and I'll see you in Rome in about 3 weeks!

I would be ok with that, perhaps those of us who do not have Italian class could even go up on monday after classes instead of tuesday, then we still get the extra time in Venice.
Of course, this all depends on whether or not the people who booked the hostels are able to cancel their booking and get the deposit back. If not then I don`t know if it`s worth the hassle, it would really suck to have to lose the money on the deposit, especially since the rooms are booked for so many people.
I`m going to leave it up to the "organisers" to decide, as it is them who will be at a loss of precious money if it doesn`t work out. Besides, I`m sure that even on this "boring" weekend, Venice won`t be all too boring

Of course I am up for switching!! I see no reason not to since they are cancelling classes anyway, what an opportunity!! What a school~! " Hey guys you'll miss carnivale if you go on the weekend, so we'll cancel class for two days so you can go!"

Um... OK!!

So, I am in. Lets book some rooms!!

Nik

oh yes, I hadn't thought of the deposit.. DO the rooms have a deposit?? I have not been informed of that so I am not sure. Maybe if we re-book at the same location ( if available) they will not drop or recharge the deposit. It is worth looking into anyway!

Thanks David for looking into all of this for us. I really want to try and to go since Helena is being so nice about it and giving us the day off. My Only concern is that I won't really get a chance to see Venice in the one night. Right now I'm considering keeping the reservation for the weekend of the 9th and also going again on the 20th.

I agree with Candace. I'll want to go on the original weekend as well as on the 20th. The first trip will allow us to enjoy Venice, as well as getting our masks and everything. Then, when we go for Fat Tuesday we'll be all ready to celebrate.

ya i agree with Candace on that as well. i'm up for doing both. i'll check to see if there's anything available at that hotel that we booked at.

Looking at the website that David provided, there seems to be many hostels in Venice at reasonable prices. I think we should be in Venice since we only have the night and don't want to be restricted from the night events by the water bus. So, should we start booking new rooms again? I would be willing to book one.

Unless you want to really explore Venice in depth, from my experience, a night and a day should be more than enough to see Venice. It's beautiful but at least when I stayed there this past summer, it was just absolutely overrun by tourists, extremely expensive and basically had zero night life. However, there's a lot of amazing museums and other stuff to see there, and after all, that was just my experience with it.

i just found a hotel http://www.hostelworld.com/availability.php/HotelCentrale-Venice-5245. it's right in the center the shopping area, in downtown Venice and it's cheap, which is even better. like 26CAN in a room of 4 people.

if it's just one night, i'd rather stay somewhere cheap. like this place still has a fairly good rating.

what do you guys think?

Ok this is the story.

I booked a five person room with a non-refundable deposit of 30 euros for the original date of the 9th to whatever (I forget). Not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things.
The people booked to that room are:
Merin
Maria
Dave Beck
Stephy

Uh, and me.

Please let me know if you do or do not want your spot.
If not, perhaps someone can take your place.
If enough people still want to go at the original time then I will not cancel this reservation.

I personally would rather still go early as I am NOT that big a party person and rather liked the idea of going when everything was still fairly mild.

If it turns out that we need to cancel then the deposit can always be split 5 ways which really does not amount to much.

I'm looking at the Locanda SS.Giovanni e Paolo Hotel. Its 55 euros each but it seems to be at a really great location only a few steps away from the Rialto Bridge and Saint Mark's Square and breakfast is included. The website is :
http://www.hostelworld.com/availability.php/LocandaSSGiovanniePaolo-Venice-1640
If anyone is intrested in staying there, let me know. Otherwise, I'll keep looking at other hostels.

Elise, that hostel is in downtown Venezia which is a 10 minute bus ride from Venice. I am ok with this as long as we know how late the buses run to get us home. But before I book anything I need to hear from my Venice roommates who have not gotten back to me yet.

oh sorry Candace i didn't even realize that. so the same thing goes with my room for the original weekend:

Nikki
Dominika
Mike

i need to know who still wants to go for the weekend that we had already booked.

i'm going to keep looking, but i know i can't afford 55 euros for one night.

Nice to hear from everyone again...I would be ok with going to both weekends but if we had to choose only one trip I would be up with going on the 20th since Helena is being so nice to us all and letting us skip some classes. I do not have any classes on the Monday and would be willing to go out on Monday sometime. So I think for the first weekend in Venice I am staying in Haliey's room? If this is true or any of my other roommates for that weekend have any other ideas then feel free to let me know. Also if anyone is booking a room for Venice for the 20th or the monday 19th then count me in. Thank you again to David who organized all of this shift in plans. I am not a big partier usually but I think Carnavale will be a different story altogether. Well talk to everyone soon.
ciaociao

I think our conception of "party" varies a great degree from the "party" that Carnivale is. Keeping that in mind, I am ok with going both the tuesday night and also maintaining the original plan for the weekend. There are some places in Venice I would like to see, ( and others I am sure I don't know about yet ) so, to have a day/night for carnivale and and in addition a whole weekend to explore and relax would be perfect in my opinion. So, Elise, to anwser your question, I will keep with the original weekend AND also go on the tuesday night, I mean really, can one have too many days in Venice people?? I am not sure if you had to put up a deposit, and in light of the the destination for that weekend, I would hate to waste a deposit when we could be in Venice for a little more time.


Let me know what YOUR plans are and then we can go from there. Aaaah, Venice.!

I'm up for going on both dates as well. One trip for sight seeing, museums, etc and one for Carnivale makes sense as I think the Carnivale time will be too focused on the event for us to even really notice what city we're in.

So, Barbara, I'm still in for our reservation.

Ok great. I am still not sure if I want to go on the 20th or not.

Independant person that I am...I will probably do what everyone else does. LOL

I will still go for the original weekend too Barbara, no worries! We can use this weekend for a relaxing visit of Venice, I don`t think this is prime tourist season either so it shouldn`t be too crowded. I think I`d like to go for the 20th as well - I can`t say no to a good party!

Personally I really like the hostel elise mentioned...hostel centrale and I do like the place Jessica mentioned as well but for one or two nights it is pretty expensive. So are we up for hostel centrale????

Hey Gabriella. I'm in Hailey's room too for the Venice weekend and I definately want to do both.

Also, here are some other hostels I found:

Reiter Hotel – 3 / 4 bed ensuite 30 - 35 www.hostelworld.com/availability.php/ReiterHotel-Venice-11363
Hotel Antico Capon – 4 person mixed dorm 33
www.hostelworld.com/availability.php/HotelAnticoCapon-Venice-3825

I think they are on the island. Venice is so confusing. Arg!

Jessica,
I don't think Hostel Reiter is in Venice

I wasn't sure about having two trips to Venice either, especially when there is so much else out there to see. I'm also not a real heavy partier, but I figured only one trip is really to Venice. The other is to Carnivale, which I think I'd like to experience to the fullest even if huge parties aren't my cup of tea, and as the focus is on Carnivale it doesn't particularly matter what city it's in as, especially with only a single night there, I imagine the spectacle of it all will be such that we don't even really pay attention to anything else.

Just my thoughts on the subject.

Oh, and about the Reiter Hotel;
from a review on the linked site: "This hotel was on lido, which is the island across from venice, kind of an inconvieinience at first, but not bad. the island is tiny and you are able to see a different part of venice. very pretty."

Here's a map of the Venice area: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Gran+Viale+S.M.E.+57/b+-+lido,&ie=UTF8&z=12&ll=45.416768,12.348289&spn=0.135197,0.374222&om=1

And here's the Hotel's web site. If you click "Location" near the top you get a nice photo showing exactly where it is.
http://reiter.hotelinvenice.com/main_en.html?source=

Thanks guys. I'm getting so confused trying to figure out what is where in Venice. But I think I would like to stay on the island during Carnevale and I'm pretty sure that it will cost a little more than the hostels on the mainland.I figure we wouldnt have to worry about ferry scheduals but I dont know how much that will really matter with the events planned for Canrevale. If anyone else wants to stay on the island we could set up a room, otherwise hostels on the mainland are fine.

Also, here is a website that shows the planned events for Carnevale:
http://www.flexcmp.com/CarnevaleVenezia/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/EN/IDPagina/63

Barbara,
I'm in with you still on the 20th weekend. I'm not much of a partier either and i'd like to go to see the costumes and check out some museums.

I do think that i'm also on board for the tuesday. I figure this is a once in a lifetime type of experience, its hard to pass it up, especially if we're gettng the day off school!
I dont have time to look up hostels at the moment but please let me know when we figure one out and count me in!