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Published: November 3rd 2011
Well, due to the difficulties of finding internet access in Venice we haven’t loaded a blog since the one a couple of days ago and that was a mission in itself. I wrote it up and saved it onto a USB stick and tried to use the laptop in San Marco but as we had used the connection we had paid for on Joy’s iPad it wouldn’t allow me to access it on the laptop. So had to find an internet café and they seem to be few and far between. Finally found one (that was actually open) and then had to navigate an Italian screen to download the word document and the photos. Got there in the end.
We are now on the train travelling from Venice to Rome to Naples and then onto the Amalfi Coast and Positano, our next base for 6 nights and 5 full days. I am taking the opportunity to crash this out on the laptop as the first class carriages have power connections between the seats which helps when your lap top battery isn’t the best.
The last 2 days in Venice have been busy but in a relaxed sort of way, I suppose.
We attended the Vivaldi concert on Sunday evening and it was of a very high standard, as one would expect. The string ensemble played the ‘Four Seasons’ and then performed a suite written for the ‘clavicle’ (a piano like instrument for the great unwashed!!) and then a cello solo. The cellist was a real extrovert throughout the whole concert and made the evening just that much more entertaining. The concert never finished until nearly 10.45pm and all the restaurants in the area were closed when we got out so it was back to the apartment for bread and cheese and meat for dinner.
Monday morning was the ‘Photography’ walking tour that Joy had pre-booked so we set out walking to San Marco around 8.15am. This guy turned up (unlike the one in Paris) and we spent from 9am until 12.15pm wandering around some of the ‘backstreets’ and canals of Venice that we would never have found ourselves. He provided Joy with many varied photo opportunities and assisted her with the intricate workings of her camera which she found a real bonus. She now understands many of the settings and just what they will allow her to do and what special
sort of photos can be taken. He was an American from Baltimore who now lives in Venice and it was an interesting morning. He showed us all sorts of places and was able to describe local procedures etc. He even helped us bypass the queues to get into the big church in San Marco where the queues start forming an hour before it opens at 9.45am. Anyway, more on that shortly. So the morning was a great success all round.
We finished the tour right opposite the boat station that we are staying near at San Samuele so we risked our lives and crossed the canal in a gondola, at 50c each, to our side of the canal. Man is it ever hair-raising. Two gondoliers ‘rowing’ flat out to get across the canal and avoiding all the ‘traffic’ going up and down the canal as opposed to our sideways. We are still alive!!!!
In the afternoon we jumped on a vaparetto and headed back to the railway station side of the city and wandered back towards Rialto trying to find an internet café. Found one that was closed for lunch!! Boy they have long lunches. Must remember to maybe re-negotiate
my contract next year and include an Italian style lunch break!!!! More walking and window shopping (and real shopping as well) and finally found an internet café and sent the blog etc.
Then we headed for Rialto and then on to San Marco which took until about 4.30pm, with lunch on the way near Rialto in the Venetian version of a buffet type restaurant which made for a faster lunch stop.
We arrived in San Marco with 30 minutes until the church closed and the queue was huge. So we tried the trick our photo tour man had told us about. They don’t let you take backpacks into the church so you have to take you bag to an office just off the square to check it in. I did this and got my ‘bag check’ ticket and then we went down the exit lane to the front of the queue, showed the bag check ticket and were shown straight in. It worked!!!!! Thank goodness. We wandered around the church and paid our 5 euros each to go upstairs to the museum and access the balcony that looks right out over San Marco. The church itself is AMAZING and line
with most of the Italian churches we have seen on the last trip and this one. Art and gold everywhere, incredible to see. The view from the balcony outside was worth it as well. When we left the church after seeing and doing all we had wanted, the queue was still and mile long and they were closing the doors, so our bypass access was brilliant. So just a words for anyone going to Venice and wanting to get into the San Marco church without queuing, always have a backpack with you that you can check into the ‘bag department’ which is just off the square in an alley on the left side of the church as you face the front.
We got the vaparetto (water bus) back to the apartment and had a quiet time before venturing out for dinner. The sun goes down very early, around 4ish, and by 5.15pm it is pitch black and getting quite cool.
We found a nice little restaurant for dinner about a 10 minute walk away and had a lovely meal. However it does take forever to eat at a restaurant here, they never seem in much of a hurry to get rid of you and almost seem reluctant to bring you your bill but it is interesting.
Yesterday, Tuesday, we went to the islands off Venice, Murano (glass), Burano (lace) and Torcello (6 century church). We used the vaparettos to get there which was, again, a mission and it took over an hour and a half to get to Burano so we could go over to Torcello. Those of you who followed us 3 years ago may remember that this part of our visit was a bit of a disaster. Then we got to Torcello very late in the afternoon and the church was closed and we were eaten alive by the local mosquitoes as we waited for the ferry back to Burano and then Venice. I put my video camera down the seat in the vaparetto station while I applied insect repellent and didn’t pick it up and it was never seen again.
This time the church was open and we visited it and I never let my video camera go!!!! The church was built in the 6th century and was a lovely old chapel with a magnificent Basilica next door. Unfortunately, like a lot of buildings on the this trip, the bell tower was closed for renovations and was completely encased on scaffolding and other covering so wasn’t visible at all and no access. Shame really.
We headed back to Burano and lunch and, for Joy, some shopping for lace thingys. The Burano economy did all right out of the Kitto family 3 years ago and they did even better this time round. Burano is a small island with a church tower that leans precariously and is a network of small canals but unlike Venice the buildings aren’t built in the canals and there are wide footpaths along both sides of each canal. The houses are all painted bright colours and the whole island is very picturesque and great for photographers (like Joy).
We then went back to Murano, the glass making island, and their economy benefited from the Kitto visit as well with a few Christmas presents for various family and friends being purchased. It was after sundown when we left Murano for Venice and was after 6pm before we finally got back to the apartment.
Joy downloaded the days photos and wrote up her ‘purchased’ list and we got changed and headed out for dinner. We ate at ‘our local’ where we had eaten on Saturday night after we first arrived in Venice. The food was varied and good and the staff were very friendly and even remembered us from the Saturday night visit.
A bit of packing was done and we hit the bed ready for a 5.50am start. Unfortunately San Samuele was on the wrong side of the canal for vaparettos early in the morning and we would have had to walk dragging our bags for about 30 minutes to get to a vaparetto station that would get us to the railway station at Ferrovia by 8am SO another taxi to get to our transport. This time it was, of course, the Venetian water taxi. I’d got a phone number from one of the Taxi ‘stands’ during the day and phoned and ordered one for 7.30am. There was some language difficulties but I felt our order had been understood but time would tell.
Taxi duly arrived at San Samuele 5 minutes early and off we went in one of the jet powered big long water taxis. They are beautiful boats and I’m sure they featured in a recent James Bond movie based in Venice. The route taken wasn’t along the grand canal but through a network of other smaller canals which was interesting in itself. 60 euro (plus tip) makes it the most expensive taxi we have ever taken for the distance travelled!!!but it sure beats walking for long distances dragging our bags.
So here we are, just stopped at the Bologna station on our way to Rome and everything so far this morning has gone well.
I will complete this blog tonight from Positano where we apparently have wifi coverage at our apartment.
Well here we are in Positano AND YES, I know this is a long one but we have a few days to catch up.
We arrived in Naples at the appointed time, Italian Rail is every bit as efficient as all the other European Rail networks, 2.10pm and were met on the platform by our pre-booked ‘taxi’ driver, Giovanni. And he looked just like a ‘Giovanni’, very smooth Italian from Naples. We loaded everything into the very comfortable Mercedes Van and headed out of the city towards the Amalfi Coast.
Naples is a typical big Italian city, an absolute mad-house, with people and traffic everywhere but Giovanni managed to push his way into the traffic and we were soon heading through the suburbs. Naples doesn’t impress me from what we have seen on 2 very brief trips here now. Full of apartment buildings, dirty and crazy traffic but that’s Italy. I’m sure there are nice parts to it as well but we just haven’t seen them yet.
However once you leave the mad city and get towards the Amalfi Coast it all changes. Those of you who might have been here will understand what I mean when I say ‘breath-taking’!!! We soon saw the ‘beaches’ that Italians crowd onto in their thousands during summer, little pocket handkerchief areas of ‘sand’ that are apparently all privately owned and you have to pay to go to them. We are just so lucky in NZ and I look at the beaches here and the system they have and count my blessings every minute!!
However the most spectacular thing is the way they have built houses and roads into the side of the cliffs, and I mean cliffs. There is just no way would ever contemplate driving around here and I consider I’m a very confident driver. The roads are marked two way but at best, with parked cars on the side, are barely one way but that doesn’t seem to slow anyone down or stop overtaking on blind bends, and the whole road is just one big blind bend for mile after mile.
Positano is just beautiful. When we arrived at the apartment, or studio unit, about 4pm we were met by the owner who lives just next door and she is a lovely helpful lady. We had to climb many , many stairs and a driveway down off the road to our unit and the view is worth a million dollars. Hopefully I can get a photo included to show and in this case a picture is worth the thousand words.
We sit on a deck with a view right across to the town and right up and down the coast. Unfortunately we are just a little bit outside Positano and will be relying on local buses to go anyway. Also the main inter-town buses have stoped running due to rock falls onto the roads so we may not be able to get to see some of the things we wanted to without spending big money on taxis but time will tell.
We couldn’t get a hook up to the internet last night so that is why this offering is a bit longer as I catch up on Wednesday and this morning, Thursday (I think – we seem to have lost track of the days). I couldn’t get the blog written on the train published but we got connected very late last night so I’m sitting on the deck overlooking the sea in my PJs, having just had a cuppa, finishing this off.
The unit is just wonderful and we lie in bed and look out the huge double glass ‘French' type doors across the sea watching boats etc. cruise past.
We went out for dinner to a lovely local restaurant. They picked us up at the gate and delivered us back after dinner and they even do home deliveries!!
We intend having a lazyish look around day today. No hurry to get started as we catch up on internet things like emails and this blog. We want to head by bus into Positano and just wander around.
So, sorry about the length but that’s up to date now and we are still heading home, only 3 and a half weeks to go so on the downhill slide now!!!.
Still surviving but I feel a lot of walking and a lot of climbing will be done over the next few days due to the amazing location and topography around here.
Bye for now. Ciao!!
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Michelle Templeton
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Loving the blog
Really enjoying your trip blog. Thank you. Am going to New York in Feb so was really interested in what you were saying there. Will certainly get the metrocard! Nicola is going to England, Berlin, Switzerland,Northern Ireland, and New York so I will be telling her what you have found and saw. Have fun and I'm looking forward to the next installment.