Shadowing Practice: I went to Venice to write... and it was magical - Learn English Speaking with Video

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so we love being in a european city

hello it's ruby

and last week i traveled alone in mainland europe for the first time i'm currently writing a novel

but have recently had quite a lot of writer's block

and thought a change of scenery might just help to give me some inspiration and so i went to venice

a city which inspired byron du maurier shelley hemingway

and thomas mann i thought it might help i'm just standing here on the edge of the lagoon

and getting this really weird wave of nostalgia i don't know where it's coming from

because i haven't been here before i think it's from

when i read death in venice something like this was described and it just feels like I've already been.

It's very odd.

I genuinely still can't believe that I'm here.

I kept on back and forth -ing so much as to whether I would come or not.

I've just checked into my hotel and it's really beautiful honestly.

Like the building itself is stunning.

The room as you can see has got this wonderful brickwork here.

There's a desk, a full -length mirror.

Ignore the clothes on the bed.

I dropped off my things, checked in, and then I ventured into Venice.

I was staying in the back street and wandered over bridge and river searching for La Piazza San Marco.

My grandparents warned me that I would get lost, and I very nearly did, but I majored to La Piazza,

a space where pigeons flurry in snowdrifts and cover the square like granite tiles, and I saw what Percy Shelley described.

Its temples and palaces did seem like fabrics of enchantment piled to heaven.

So I wondered for a short while just taking in the extravagance of this square.

I noticed that there was no queue for the bell tower, la campanile.

So I bought a 10 euro ticket

and climbed to the top to see venice for the first time

and it was a wonder a pure real absolute wonder i stayed up here for about 40 minutes

and watched the sun drop the city start again with dusk ready to show the stars

which galileo actually showed the doge in 1609 from this very

same bell tower this tower arches is this perpetual reminder of things

that are bigger more important than us which is just encapsulated in the fact

that this is where Galileo showed the Doge his telescope for the first time.

After that, I wanted some more.

It's quite dirty, you're not going to lie.

And just soaked up the energy of the space, which is my favourite thing to do when arriving somewhere new.

So I just bought a gelato from Gelato Fantasy, which had so many vegan options,

and their pistachio especially was really tasty and I just admired the way that Venice looked at night basically.

Then eventually after looking around for a while I found a small taverna

and got some bruschetta and just did some writing basically with my first impressions of the city.

I spent the last few hours just exploring Venice

and I mean I'd seen pictures i knew

that it was going to be beautiful it's just exceeded my

expectations it's even better than i thought it would be

and there's just

so much to see it's like every path you go down there's something new there's something different i also

bought this ginormous palette of strawberries anyway i'm gonna get into

bed it's 9 30 i didn't sleep very much last night

and i definitely want to be well rested for tomorrow

because i'm going to do a lot of the museums tomorrow

i'm planning on doing the basilica their bibliotheque tomorrow they're the two i'm most excited about

so i kind of want to get them done at the beginning

so that i've definitely seen them

and i don't accidentally not end up seeing them also a

quick um one thing you've probably realized by now is

that the main thing i buy is postcards i just buy

so many postcards i like sending them to people i really like letter writing

and i also always have like a mood boarder post cards up above my my desk

so i do use postcards so i've got these two to send people

and then this stationery show was wonderful

but i got this beautiful card this was only two pounds

it's some really nice manuscript paper they're like just tiny pieces

i've actually been looking for something like this for ages i love the idea of having one in your pocket

and then if you want to like leave a thank you note

or something you can use these okay good morning

so I'm just going to walk down to San Marcos now

and buy my museum pass and hope the lines aren't super long already because I think they probably will be

One of my favourite statues was this one, Daedalus and Icarus by Antonio Canova.

So if you're not familiar with the story of Icarus, Daedalus and his son Icarus created wings out of feathers

and attached them with wax but

when icarus flew he flew too close to the sun

and the wax melted which meant his feathers fell off we know this myth

and there's dramatic irony when we look at the statue

because we know what's going to happen to icarus

and yet frozen in the stone we see the anxiety the

care of daedalus as he desperately fixes the wax hoping that the feathers will stay in place

so this is la biblioteca Marchana and in 1603 they actually passed a law

which meant printing presses had to send a copy of anything

published to the library a little bit like what we have with the Bodleian in Oxford

This museum is amazing, it's so massive and it's snake -like.

This is the whole way around.

This is the final boat, which is the archaeological.

so doge palace is exquisite it's actually byzantine architecture and

so incredibly old and it was the heart of venetian government for centuries until the republic fell in 1797

it's an incredible space to walk around very inspiring i was

actually listening to italian opera music whilst i was walking around

which was very fitting and i would recommend that

if you do go so in doge palace you walk over the bridge of size

and lord byron wrote i stood in venice on the bridge of size a palace

and a prison on either hand that just perfectly captures this disjunct between the prison

and the palace like so you've then got the prisons

which is straight underneath and after the grandeur of seeing those rooms above it's so stark

so i got back to my room maybe 10 minutes ago

and i've just been decompressing a little bit let me say venice is amazing

so my plan today was to go first to the basilica

but ended up not buying a basilica ticket

but i went to dodge palace

and the museum cora i really enjoyed what i did see even

if it wasn't originally what i was planning on seeing

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and i'm just going to see the basilica tomorrow morning instead um the line for the basilica gets

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so long so quickly and

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so i need to find a way to pre -book my ticket for

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that Thank you i put on mascara

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which was a rookie mistake it always runs i'm not usually

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a big fan of cities like i'm definitely much more of a countryside person

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but then this is such a small city

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that it doesn't really feel it doesn't i mean that's a

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lie it kind of it doesn't always have the bustle of the big

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that big cities do um san marco square is so

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so crowded so i mean i really love the architecture there

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but it's it is a bit too crowded

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and i do prefer the feel of the back streets oh actually i'm getting into this but

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because i'm gonna go for dinner i think i might change

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into my dress this is probably my favorite evening dress like

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so many of my dresses it used to be my mom's a lot of the dresses

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that she had when she was younger or my age i now have

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which is really nice when my mom bought it she said it was

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because it reminded her of pretty women like she called it a pretty woman dress i think it's

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when she goes to the races she wears like a polka

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dot dress like this i think i might wear it down

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and then wear this big bow in it

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and i'm also going to wear a red lipstick something about being in a european city

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which isn't london i mean which

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just makes me want to have a dark lip i might

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read you an eyebrow my favorite thing actually ended up being the dorge palace this might sound silly

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but i wasn't going to book to go there this is terrible for me to say um i understand

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and realize my mistake now but i think

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that it might be slightly overrated and so i wasn't gonna go

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and my grandma was like no you have to go that's the best place

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and she was so

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so right the paintings in the dodge palace were just exceptional

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just kind of how the space uses religious art in order to aid

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and strengthen the authority of the council there was i can't

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remember the name of the room i'll put it on the screen

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but one of the rooms they had um this painting massive it covered the whole of one of the walls

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and in the middle you have jesus and he's emitting this light

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and it illuminates everything around him

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and this light it genuinely just seems to glow like it's just paint

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but it seems to glow

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and it's beautiful let's go i think i'm gonna leave this camera here though

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and just bring my gopro because it's one fewer thing to hold

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and i probably won't film

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when i'm actually having dinner i don't know You know why I'm actually nervous to go out for a meal by myself?

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It's much quieter here.

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This is what I came for.

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i've got to say i think venice is even more beautiful at this time of day

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mostly because it's a little bit quieter.

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It's very very busy in this square.

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I'm back in San Marcos Square just because I know my way from here.

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I've got tiramisu around my mouth.

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I didn't realize that.

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So the restaurant was called La Tachia Begana and it was amazing that everything on the menu was vegan.

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I would say if you're going to go, book ahead because I was really lucky to get a table it was only

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because i got there just as they opened in my room now for the night

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and i might just read um i think i will start

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the man in the picture by season hill partially based in venice

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which is why i bought it this trip on the third

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day friday i started the day by writing at the hotel the reception space looks right out onto the canal

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and it was the perfect quiet space to write in as

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i said before i took this trip to focus on writing my novel

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and this is basically what i was writing here i couldn't help

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but actually bring venice into my book

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and i actually really think it works originally one of my characters was going to go to rome

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but i changed this in the end and rewrote this section

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so she went to venice instead

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and here is just a tiny tiny snippet of something

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that i wrote she woke up early the first morning early enough

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that the sun hadn't risen

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and the lagoon was speckled only with the occasional water taxi

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the san giorgio maggiore basilica carved out from the horizon like rossi's adam and eve.

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venice was dreary and covered in a patina of rain

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but i was worried i wouldn't see the basilica at all

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if i didn't queue today

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so queue i did for a good 45 minutes i made the terrible mistake of for getting my umbrella.

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the basilica was good and obviously impressive the colors especially all of the gold

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and red and green

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which would have been especially vibrant in the ninth century where color was expensive

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and rare outside of nature so like

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so many people who visit venice la basilica san marco was the top thing i wanted to see

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but i thought of everything it was probably the most overrated mostly

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because it's just so crowded and feels quite formulaic

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when you're going through because you look around almost in a line

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because well when I went there were so many people and I prefer the other churches I happened across.

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Anyway next I went to Aqua Alta bookshop again top on the list

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and close to the hotel as well this has staircases made of books

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and a gondola filled with them to protect them

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when it floods it's so unique and definitely a bucket list spot ticked off.

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i went to the basilica this morning

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and then i did a little bit of shopping

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and went to the main shops that i wanted to go to the floating bookshop

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which is so cool and there's a gondola in the middle

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which is filled with books they didn't have many english books

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so i didn't give my books dad and mary

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and jesus i just really like this that was only two euros

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and then this one was one euro i haven't had a coffee today

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so i think i might go out for a cafe

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or a latte not all coffee shops though have like oat milk

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or soy milk like last time i went to mainland europe i made a note myself to do this

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but i've got this mini hip flask

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and i've bought some oat milk i really don't like black coffee it's just too too intense for me

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this second basilica was my favorite church I visited by the way I'd recommend you going

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Thank you.

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i'm really tired this is a running theme every time i

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pick up the camera i feel like it's for me to say i'm incredibly tired i'm realizing

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that venice is so great for like for independent craftsmanship

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but specifically for stationery

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but i did go to this place called il pavoni he's had his business for 35 years

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and he creates beautiful uh notebooks beautiful stamps

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and i bought an ex libris personal stamp for my friend

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for her birthday i also went to screamer i did buy

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this it's a wax seal spoon whilst i'm talking to you

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because i am feeling very tired i'm going to read some more of the man in the picture

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which i barely read today i didn't bring this out with me i bought my kindle

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and on my kindle i'm reading the wonder by amadona hugh I often spent time looking at it though,

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staring at the faces, the shadows, the buildings, the dark crippling waters of the Grand Canal, and I also vowed that one day I would go to Venice.

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I had never been a great traveller as you know, I loved the English countryside too much and never wanted to venture far from it during vacations.

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this is really good slow burner but already uncanny and spooky

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i started the next day with a very expensive coffee at florian's this was a frequent spot of oscar wild

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and i couldn't resist going and i've heard

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that this is the oldest coffee shop in the world so it was something i really wanted to see

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I'm just walking down to the Galleria Academia,

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it's very awkward fucking public as of her and I went into the early bad bureau to buy some letter writing paper.

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I actually love the letter writing paper here.

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Excuse the fact I am in the toilet.

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and hope no one comes by because i'll be very awkward someone came as i said that

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i've temporarily left uh la galeria um because

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i'm quite hungry i'm very thirsty and so um they kindly signed my ticket

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and said that i could come back in an hour the lagoon is right here

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so i might see if i can find something with a good view

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you might be wondering what kind of thing i write in my commonplace book um

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because i've got loads of clips of me just walking around the gallery writing things.

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I just write observations and the names of my favourite paintings so I can look them up if I decide to later.

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One of my favourite things in the gallery was Giovanni Bellini's Madonnas and how they're haunted by the eventual fate of Jesus,

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this dissociative melancholy where the infant looks already near dead.

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They're haunting paintings and some of my favourite Madonnas that I've come across.

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but i've come back to my room just for a little bit

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because when i left this morning it was quite cold

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but it's now really warm and this top is knitted

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so i'm gonna change into my dress just the same one i wore last night

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and the night before um i'm going to a vivaldi concert tonight

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which i'm so looking forward to it's in the church where the music was first performed and

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so it's gonna be incredible to listen to the four seasons like in

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that original space i'm a really big believer in fusing space and art.

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I think art and space go hand in hand

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so to experience this music in this space is just going to be amazing

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and as soon as I saw it I booked tickets.

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Okay I'm all ready and it's quite sunny so I have got my sunglasses.

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It feels nice to actually use them.

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I didn't pack very much with me and so I wanted to use them at least once.

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I'm going to get to the end of the day, I'm going to get to the end of the day, I'm going to get to the end of the day, I'm going to get to the end of the day, I'm going to get to the end of the day, I'm going to get to the end of the day, I'm going to get to the end of the day, I'm going to get to the end of the day,

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I'm going to get to the end of the day.

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Venice Inn.

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The day is beautiful of course

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but I haven't actually been out in the evening to see that ether which has fallen over the city.

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It's incredible.

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But that concert,

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it was just better more than i could have anticipated especially um the final section the winter

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and the invierno the piccolo was playing these single staccato notes

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and it was like the snow was melting

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and like you could hear the sounds of winter you could hear the silence of winter

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and then the strength of the storms and um generally just i've never heard Vivaldi liked that before.

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I think because I only ever listened to him reading extracts like

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I'll listen to a piece while studying and it'll be on in the background but that was different, remarkable.

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I'm really just, I'm a little bit overwhelmed by it if I'm completely honest.

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If you happen to find yourself in Venice then I'd recommend listening to it in the Vivaldi church um but just

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if you had a chance to listen to it live at all from a live orchestra it was

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so different to listening to it on spotify anyway i'm going to soak up the beauty of venice at night

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when it was rainy the other day someone said this in

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um uh florian's uh this morning said well actually venice in the rain is beautiful

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because you get all the light on the water in the same way

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that you get at night anyway yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna enjoy the way that venice looks right now Night advanced.

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Time was crumbling.

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Isn't that great?

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Not a stain in the sun -brimmed sapphire cup that is the sky, not a ripple on the black translucent lane of the palace -walled lagoon,

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not a cry as the gondoliers with velvet all glide by through the golden afternoon.

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From this height, where the carved age -yellowed balcony o 'er to yonder liquid marble pavement see the light, shimmer soft beneath the bridge,

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that abuts on a labyrinth of waterways and shuts half their sky off with its ridge.

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that was very worth it i really enjoyed it honestly the architecture

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and the decoration of those rooms is stunning i returned to cafe florian this time i got an orange tea

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which was delicious instead of writing though i read i'd finished death in venice the day before

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so i started reading the merchant of venice by william shakespeare instead

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I saw this deep dish pizza place yesterday, and in the looked amazing so and yes i found the pizza

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which was just as good as i'd hoped if not better

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this was honestly such a good find

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and very quiet too there were people at the bottom

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but hardly anyone actually climbed the tower the palazzo contarini del bovolo

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and there was a temporary modern art exhibit too uh which kind of confused me honestly

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so the ticket was six euros and i definitely made full use of

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that i stayed up there

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and just wrote in the tower for honestly nearly an hour

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i ended up writing a whole chapter of my book there was just something about the quietness

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and the looming prospect of leaving venice that afternoon

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which spurred me on

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or inspired me i suppose i also wrote a journal entry whilst i was up here

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which I wanted to share with you.

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I'm at the top of the Palazzo Contarini and realised there's something beautiful about stone and how it holds you.

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I can lean entirely into the pillars, easily fall and yet never do.

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This tower has been here for hundreds of years and still, or maybe in spite of this, it has that strength and it won't let me fall.

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My dad said the same in the climbing frame when I was three.

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Don't worry Ruby, he said.

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I won't let you fall.

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There's something about someone saying your name even now by myself

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in venice 100 feet up in the skies of a sinking city

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so so worth it honestly just the level of inspiration

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and um you can't put a price on the thoughts like

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that like certain spaces inspire thoughts inspire thinking and this architecture

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i was tired by this point and just wanted to read

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and write so i headed back to the hotel and wrote in

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that same spot as before overlooking the canal i know this is repetitive i just keep on writing

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but i did book this as a writing trip

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and i got from this trip what i really hoped i would

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and what i was afraid i wouldn't get from it i'm not claiming

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or saying that what i produced was any good and

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that the writing is good but

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that wasn't my goal the goal was to feel inspired

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and to fall back in love with writing and that's what was more important to me the process the journey, not the destination.

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At the moment they kindly said

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that I could just wait here for a bit until I have to leave for my flight.

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I'm gonna leave in about like half an hour to walk down to the Ali Laguna, I think that's the name of it.

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It's like a water taxi that goes to the airport, but I'm starting writing some more.

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I managed to get so much writing done, honestly.

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I'm quite amazed that I managed to get as much done as I have.

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So I've managed to write like part three, part four and part five and i'm going to try

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and finish well i'm going to try

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and finish part five before um the plane lands

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but i'm not going to put pressure on myself

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because i managed to write

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so much more than i was hoping to do this trip anyway thank you

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so much for watching this video i hope you enjoyed it

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and if you ever get the chance to visit venice i would highly recommend you do they estimate

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that the city might be gone in 20 years

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because of rising sea levels and climate change

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and then this is this perpetual reminder of how much we have got to lose

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and how close we are to losing things.

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It's this harrowing haunting thought of what's at stake I guess.

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But thank you for watching, thank you to NordVPN for sponsoring today's video and I hope that you have more than just a productive week.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “I went to Venice to write... and it was magical”. This video has 358 sentences and 4472 words to shadow. The speech runs for 31:51. The speaker talks at a steady 140 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 79% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
palace noun	/ˈpælɪs/	Official residence of a head of state or other dignitary, especially in a monarchical or imperial governmental system.
architecture noun	/ˈɑː.kɪˌtɛk.t͡ʃə/	The art and science of designing and managing the construction of buildings and other structures, particularly if they are well proportioned and decorated.
server noun	/ˈsɝvɚ/	A program that provides services to other programs or devices, either in the same computer or over a computer network.
incredibly adverb	/ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/	In an incredible manner; not to be believed.
whilst adverb	/waɪlst/	Often preceded by the: During the time; meanwhile.
canal noun	/kəˈnæl/	An artificial waterway or artificially improved river used for travel, shipping, or irrigation.
climb verb	/ˈklaɪ̯m/	To traverse a slope or contour, either upwards (ascending) or downwards (descending).
sponsor noun	/ˈspɒn.səː/	A person or organization with some sort of responsibility for another person or organization, especially where the responsibility has a religious, legal, or…
inspire verb	/ɪnˈspaɪə(ɹ)/	To infuse into the mind; to communicate to the spirit; to convey, as by a divine or supernatural influence; to disclose preternaturally; to produce in, as by…
ruby noun	/ˈɹuː.bi/	A clear, deep, red variety of corundum, valued as a precious stone.
queue noun	/kju/	A line of people, vehicles or other objects, usually one to be dealt with in sequence (i.e., the one at the front end is dealt with first, the one behind is…
feather noun	/ˈfɛðə/	A branching, hair-like structure that grows on the bodies of birds, used for flight, swimming, protection and display.
haunt verb	/hɔnt/	To inhabit or to visit frequently (most often used in reference to ghosts).
desk noun	/dɛsk/	A table, frame, or case, in past centuries usually with a sloping top but now usually with a flat top, for the use of writers and readers. It often has a…
pizza noun	/ˈpi.tsə/	A baked Italian dish of a thinly rolled bread crust typically topped before baking with tomato sauce, cheese, and other ingredients such as meat or vegetables.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
end up verb	To bring to a conclusion.
walk around verb	To walk with no planned destination; to meander.
stay up verb	To remain awake; to not go to bed.
come across verb	To change sides; to cross over to work for the opposition.
drop off verb	To fall asleep.
fall off verb	To become detached or to drop from.
fall over verb	To fall from an upright or standing position to a horizontal or prone position.
get back to verb	Return to (an activity)

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

I genuinely still can't believe that I'm here.
It's quite dirty, you're not going to lie.
I've got tiramisu around my mouth.
I won't let you fall.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	i've actually been looking · i've just been decompressing · you've been looking
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	haven't been · I've already been · I've just checked
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	was described · is just encapsulated · was called
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	space, which is · boat, which is · people who visit

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 144 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, I've, gonna. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: feather /ˈfɛðə/, beneath /bɪˈniːθ/, myth /mɪθ/, underneath /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/, ninth /naɪnθ/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: inspiration /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, stationary /ˈsteɪʃəˌnɛɹi/, shadow /ˈʃædəʊ̯/, delicious /dɪˈlɪ.ʃəs/, destination /dɛstɪˈneɪʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: architecture /ˈɑː.kɪˌtɛk.t͡ʃə/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, inspiration /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/, stationary /ˈsteɪʃəˌnɛɹi/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like palace, architecture, server.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: I went to Venice to write... and it was magical - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?