Not Your Average Joe

This past Saturday, the group traveled to Venice. While we were there, we went to a photo exhibition called Scent of a dream: Sebastião Salgado, a collection of photos by Sebastião Salgado that was part of the World Expo. It was a collection of black and white photos that he had taken over the years. They showed coffee production in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Colombia, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Tanzania. For example, the exhibition showed Coffea arabica being grown and harvested in Ethiopia. It was incredible to see differences in how coffee is grown and produced all over the world and how much effort really goes into producing a drink that is consumed by hundreds of millions of people each day.

We also got to go to the world's oldest cafe/coffee shop with continuous operation, Caffè Florian. It has been open in St. Mark's Square since 1720. It was frequented by many prominent people when it opened, and it was also the only coffee shop that allowed women. Over the years, it has given many people a meeting place in Venice and a place for Venetians along with tourists to socialize. To this day, it is still frequented by locals and tourists alike.

-BW