Venice and Verona

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My number one "Bucket List" item finally discovered! During our brief planning for the weeks in Germany, I menitoned to Ralf that that Italy was one the the places I most wanted to see in my life. He made the arrangements for us to visit Venice and Verona during the last 4 days of our trip. While I know I only scratched the surface of everything I would like to see there, it was absolutely amazing. We spent two nights in Venice. The first, on Lido Island right across from the Grand Canal in Venice. Expedia.com did not specify that the reasonably priced hotel I located for our stay was only accessible by car ferry so imagine our surprise while diligently following the trusty GPS lady, she led us right to the waters edge with nothing but the ferry, a few cruise ships and parking garages in the general vicinity! Still showing 5 km to our destination, we were a little puzzled. With a more investigation (thank you IPhone internet access) we realized that those last 5 km were across the water, past Venice proper to a little island that was barely visible in the distance. We got the ticket for the car ferry and began the next phase of our adventure. Although initially frustrating, the ferry ride ended up to be a great opportunity to see Venice from the water. Once on Lido Island, we found our hotel easily and coincidentally agreed that it was by far the smallest hotel room either one of us has ever been in...very cozy would be one description! Then off on foot to explore. We found a great little pizza place right away and I enjoyed my first, and very much anticipated, authentic Italian pizza....delicious! We spent the rest of the day checking out the island, eventuially finding our way to a gorgeous beach where we joined a private party. Note to bartender at the lovely lawn party, the two people wandering aimlessly with backpacks who only speak English were not invited to this function but then again, maybe he was just feeling generous! On our walk back from the beach we found a great outdoor terrace with live music and spent the rest of the evening there. The next morning, with a serious craving for an American breakfast of eggs and toast, we set off to explore some more. Eventually, we settled for grilled ham and cheese pannini after we learned that evidently nobody in Venice serves eggs for breakfast. However, there was a bounty of awesome pastries and rolls with assorted cheeses and meats. It was just one of those "Ive been away from home for nearly three weeks and I want eggs and toast" kind of cravings! After breakfast, we found our way to the car ferry port only to learn that we would have to wait in a line that wound back through the neighborhood for about a hour to have our turn to board the ferry and cross back over to the mainland. Once there, we set off for day two in Italy...Verona!

The drivers in the parts of Italy that we visited were very agressive and a few downright jerks! So much for Minnesota nice, let your neighbor merge mentality, it was a crazy mess of everybody in a hurry to get somewhere and no mercy for those that weren't completely sure where that "somewhere" was. Despite the last fellow who clipped his passenger side mirror in an effort to "beat us" through the toll leading into Verona and a few choice words which I am pretty sure were not "Welcome to Italy" we made it safely to our hotel. The sweet young lady at the front desk gave us a good map and a few "must sees" for the city and sent us on our way to explore Verona. We spent the day exploring, doing some shopping and then eventually the highlight of visiting Juliet's (of the much famed Romeo and Juliet) balcony. Since I already encountered the questions on the picture I posted on facebook, I should explain that it is a tradition when visiting Juliet's courtyard to touch the right breat of her statue to bring luck in love. Hope that clears up any confusion! That evening, we got changed into our formal attire, had a wonderful dinner at a restuarant facing the Arena di Verona which is a Roman amphitheatre and considered the most renowned monument in Verona. According to history, the Arena has always served the special purpose of spectacular events. During Roman times, for example, it was used for spectacles of gladiator fighting. In Medieval times and until the mid eighteenth century, games and tournaments were common events at the Arena. In 1913, the Arena was finally discovered for what it has become known for today, as the first true and most important open-air opera theatre in the world. What was most special about this day is that Ralf had made arrangements for us to see the evening performance of the opera Romeo and Juliette at the arena and there really are no words to describe that experience. It was most definitely another "fairy tale" moment in this whole journey these past weeks. The opera was performed in Italian but even so, it was so well done that you could tell what they were singing about and follow the story line perfectly. The only downfall to a spectacular evening in an ancient outdoor amphitheater was that the rain decided to come after Act 2 and then after an intermission where everyone rushed into the outer ring of the theater which was protected from the rain, they evntually had to call off the remainder of the performance. Ralf and I joked on our way back to the hotel that at least we got to see the happy, romantic portion of the story and missed the tragic ending.

The next morning we left early and enjoyed a small breakfast at a quaint little bakery in a small village outside of Verona, then through back throught the south Alps to Venice. This time, Ralf had made arrangements to stay at a place we had spotted from our cary ferry ride a few days earlier which was right on the Grand Canal. Since there are no cars allowed on the island of Venice, we parked in the overnight parking ramp and took the public water taxi to our hotel, the Hotel Gabriella, located in a Venetian Palazzo from the 14th century. Our room was absolutely incredible, with15 feet (at least!) ceilings and an amazing chandelier (see picture) and huge windows that opened to a small balcony overlooking the Grand Canal and all the activity of a city full of life. Anxious to explore, we set out towards St Marco Square, which is one of the main tourist areas in Venice. The crowds were overwhelming at times but well worth it considering the views of Doge’s Palace, the Basilica of St. Mark and the Arsenale. Due to a limited amount of time and the busy travel season in Venice, we decided not to spend the hours it would have taken to get inside of any of these places but instead enjoyed a fantastic day of exploring the many walkways and canals of the city. There are cute little restuarants around every bend as well as Gelato shops and we sampled plenty of them! For dinner we found a place to enjoy authentic Italian pasta and it was worth the wait....yum! We did find, in Venice, that shopkeepers and restuarant staff were not as "customer friendly" as other places we had traveled but with that said, we still enjoyed much of what the city has to offer. I know what we had a chance to see only scratched the surface but I am so thrilled that I finally got a chance to visit a country I have dreamed of visiting for as long as I can remember.

Tomorrow... my final blog for this trip, an account of our return to Berlin and some more amazing historical landmarks there.

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Photos

End of the road
but still 5 km to our destination!

Waiting for our ferry
Good thing we both have a good sense of humor!