Doge's Palace

I am sure you know at least one of the highlights of Venice.....One of the biggest ones is definitely “St. Marc Square”, but do you know what the highlight of St. Marc Square is? I would say The Doge Palace. Now why? The tapping sound your feet make as they meet the marble floors, the columns that reach as high as you can see, the beautiful statues that greet you inside and out, the paintings that show you history, and the gorgeous views from the top of the palace. The Doge’s Palace has a long history, and we learned a lot about the way of life in Venice a long time ago.

You might be asking, who is the Doge? He is someone who is responsible to rule over Venice, and he was elected by the public of Venice. He had to be nice and everyone had to like him. A way to be elected was by being kind towards others and agree with all the decisions that the people make. Most Doge’s were very old and lived four to five years maximum before they died.

If you ever go to Venice, I highly recommend you visit the Doge’s Palace and walk through a palace that holds the history of the city on water.

Geraldine Lekszton and Charlotte Rupp

Restaurant of Friendships

Tonight at the restaurant was a bit different, we didn’t get to choose our “table mates”. The teachers said that we have been choosing to always spend time with the same friends and that staying with other people is good because we get to know other people better.

I (Luis) talked to Adele and I learnt that she doesn’t stop until she gets what she wants. I liked dinner because the food was very good. We had a choice between pasta with cheese and bacon or lasagne for our first course, and roast chicken or pork cutlet with tomato for our second course. After dinner we headed back to our hotel and stopped for a bit of dessert at a Gelateria where we were treated to three scoops.

Both Pietro and I think that the best part of the day was watching the glass making demonstration on the island of Murano. It was amazing to see Giorgio make a rearing stallion out of glass in only three minutes. If you have a chance, I would recommend you go and watch the glass-making in Murano!

Luis Gonzalez and Pietro Revelli

Fishing on the Canal

It was a beautiful day on the island of Burano. Two of my friends, Sage and Giovanni had bought a fishing pole and some bait. So what did they do, they went to a canale on the island of Burano. They caught a crab and a fish. Then we went on the ferry and then went to the island of Murano where Giovanni caught three more crabs. Unfortunately, no fish. We might catch some tomorrow.

Duncan Hillyer

'Evaporators'

The ‘evaporators’ (vaporetto water busses) are the kind of busses for Venice. we use them all the time up to know we have at least gone on them 15 times They get pretty full during the day, with about 120 people on each boat. In Venice there are about 10 evaporators and they go from the Lido to the St. Lucia witch is the boat/bus station stop. The water buses have four seating varieties: the front seats, the place were you board the bus (which is usually a standing up place), followed by the inside seating (which is the biggest area), and then the back, which in my opinion, is the best seat. Personally, I prefer taking the water busses to walking around all over Venice.

Kimon Papageorgiou

The Jewish Gheto

Wow! It sure takes a long time to get kids to blog their comments about our activities!

Today was another eventful day. Lots of sights, and a reasonable amount of walking. Highlights today included the Doge's Palace, the Arsenal Shipyards and Naval Museum, the Jewish Gheto (no, I have not spelled it incorrectly), Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari (resting place of Titian), and dinner near the Rialto Bridge. Doesn't sound like much, but once again, our day was packed with sights to see.

It was interesting to see the architectural difference between the city of Venice and the Jewish gheto, but the highlight for me had to be the Doge's Palace. A beautiful multi-functioning structure, centrally located next to the Basilica del San Marco...definitely worth taking a look at (especially with a fantastic English-speaking guide)! I enjoyed the wonderful history lesson given by Carlo today!

Mr. Yon

Mask Making

On Monday 20th the Kennedy School 6-8 graders went to make masks. Silvia, the mask director, put many different masks on a table from which we can choose from. All the masks were amazing. The masks were made of paper maché but we didn't have to make them ourselves; they were made for us. Our task was to decorate our own masks. There were many different designs and patterns we could use.

First you need to choose a basic design, then we put our first layer of paint on the mask, if you wanted the colours blend from light to dark you would need to put an other layer on top of the first layer and dab it in with the other colour while it is wet. Then you blow dry it with a hair drier, when it is dry you have to choose a design to put on your mask with black paint. After that you can choose if you want to put metallic paint on it, if you do then you have to a thin layer of wax on it and wait five to ten minutes until it is not sticky anymore. Then you may put the metallic paint on it.

After you are finished with your mask you need to dry it off very carefully so that the metallic paint dries. It is very hard to dry that kind of paint but Silvia gave us a bag so it could dry on the way.

You should really try to make a mask yourself it is loads of fun!

The highlight of the trip so far for us was jogging in the morning on the beach in the Lido, because we love the beach in the morning.

By Ivet Ivanova and Shifra Steinberg

You may know about how Leonardo Da Vinci is one of the greatest painters in the world. Of how he painted the "Mona Lisa." Well this museum was not on all his magnificent paintings but on his inventions and creations. Leonardo was not only a painter but he was also an inventor. He invented the "movable wings" to help man fly. Well in this museum not only showed his inventions but you could actually (First museum I have ever been to) that you could actually TOUCH the exhibits. You could play around with the models and learn how to use them. There were really cool things. Like: the movable bridge, the pully machine to increase a lift ratio, and he also invented the bicycle. It was very interesting. I hope many of you get the chance to enjoy the lovely and enjoyable museum of Leonardo Da Vinci.

-Ambra Moore

Yesterday, we went to the busy Piazza di San Marco, where we went to the Bell Tower, and the Basilica di San Marco, I would like to focus more on the Basilica di San Marco as there was always more status and paintings to see. Looking at this church taught me what hard-working is, how long it must have taken to make this church, it was gigantic! You could also go on the second floor where you had the best view of the Piazza di San Marco, besides the Bell Tower of course. The architecture is what inspired me the most, between a gothic to Renaissance style, it was amazing, there was a point where I was just watching in amazement.

This was one of my highlights, with the delicious Gelato, no one could stop me from eating wild berry flavoured! Although, I think that all the flavours are delicious.

I love Venice!

-Adèle O'Neill

Eating with Friends

Each day we had dinner and at dinner we all get varity of foods like pasta, steak, eggplant (my favorite) and many more. We eat at different restaurants and get to sit with different people. It is really fun! The things I enjoy the most in the evening is sitting and making jokes with friends. Each day we do a lot of things.

The highlight of the day today, in my opinion, was making the masks at the masks factory. We all got to be creative and invent our own design of masks. It was awesome!

Brighton Steinberg

An Eventful Day

After a long day and many sites seen, we returned to the hotel for a much needed rest. Our hotel is nothing special, but it is in a quiet area of the Lido, and has comfortable beds for us to sleep in. Today was a wonderful day, and we found ourselves walking around under blue skies. Some of the highlights of the day today included touring around on the vaporetto water busses, Piazza San Marco, our mask-making workshop, and the Leonardo da Vinci museum. Because of how long the day was, you will have to check back tomorrow to get an update from the students about some of todays events; there was just not enough time before bedtime to fit in blogging today! With such a busy schedule, we can hardly wait for the next sights to see tomorrow.

Mr. Yon

Day One in Venice

On Sunday 16th of May at 6:38 A.M the Grades 6-8 departed from the Saanen train station. We had approximately 2 hours to Montreux and then hourse to Venice-St.Lucia. When we arrived we took a private boat to Lido Island where our hotel was placed. When we arrived we unpacked our bags and had a little free time. We then took a stroll to the beach and then went to the restaurant. We had a great meal and we cant wait for Day 2 of our amazing trip.

Alex Fischer

The Train Ride

The train was great and we had an amazing time. But it became boring sometimes because the train ride was about 8 hours long. Kamalei and I played and watched movies and TV shows on his iPad.

Munkh Khorolsuren

Here we are at our starting point, the Boarding House. We will be leaving at 6:15...a bit too early for a lot of us, but I'm sure we will all be anxious to get on the train for Venice! We hope that you join in our journey and check back with our blog regularly through the week to see what we are up to.

Today we reviewed how to post our blog and comments. You can see us working in class.

Only a few more days and we can try this for real!

Here it is... the first post for 'the best little school in Switzerland!' Join us as we get prepared, and take our spring trip to Venice! We are looking forward to our fantastic trip, but as you can see, we will be missing the spectacular views from our classrooms!