Dueling Orchestras!!!!

And finally, one of THE coolest things about Venice was the dueling orchestras in St. Mark's Square at night. It was AWESOME!!!!!!!

There are restaurants in the Square, and they have chairs set out. You can see the chairs of the main two restaurants in this picture. Notice the awnings? The orchestras, (made up of 6 people, usually), perform beneath the awnings. One orchestra performs 3 or 4 pieces, and then they take a bow, and then the other orchestra performs 3 or 4 pieces. They go back and forth, and it is awesome!!!


This is the orchestra from the red restaurant. They were funny and entertaining as they performed. They played "classical" music, but it was more peasant-like and folk-like than the other group.



I took this picture solely for the hat the lady is wearing!!! It was quite a hat!

Here's the orchestra from the red restaurant playing a piece. (Sorry about the shaky camera).



And here is the orchestra from the yellow restaurant. They were more refined and usually played music from a truly classical repertoire. We stood behind the chairs and just walked from the yellow restaurant to the red restaurant and back. It was sooooo fun!!!!

This is another group that played across the Square.

Here they are playing!



And this group played in a different part of the Square, too.


Laura and I LOVED the dueling orchestras!!!!!! And we loved Venice!!!! We both want to go back!!! :-)