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Published: April 21st 2011
First a bit on the traveling part because these parts took up a significant part of a day and I think are the most useful pieces of information for others also traveling (and maybe to people who do not know me that are possibly searching these blogs for just this bit of information).
We paid an insane amount to get a taxi to the Athens airport but mostly because we had to go during morning rush hour and the idea of squeezing into the very crowded Metro trains with all our bags was just too much. So we ignored the exchange rate of the dollar against the Euro and went for it. It was a long drive. I had 4 hours or more to waste (my flight was later but we just went up together to share the fare) and Athens airport is quite small so I explored every bit of it. There is an airport museum of all the things taken from the site while digging. There were a few settlements there, dating back to a few different periods. I doubt you can dig anywhere in Greece and not find it to be an historic site. One thing I
appreciated a lot was that they had the museums with these pieces at the same location where they were found. Sure some of the bigger pieces may go to major museums but a lot are kept at the site and that makes it more relevant somehow when you are looking around.
Also did you know that a Greek McDonalds also serves a shrimp burger? And egg rolls? (No I didn’t try it.. I was just looking at everything). There was even a Sbarro pizza place there. It is interesting which chains are in airports and malls everywhere. And you know I gotta say, I don’t think duty free is such a good deal really. I guess that also depends on where you are.
Just one more bit about airports - the Rome airport is always confusing to me. I don’t know what it is. I don’t think it’s labeled very well and maybe I was just tired. But after getting off the plane and trucked to a gate, you exit and then I went up a lift and thru security (which I didn’t even see because it was empty so I didn’t think it was security, it was
a little embarrassing) then up more stairs and through a hall and then down to get to my gate. Yeah. After reaching my gate in a bit of a panic thinking I had 10 minutes before departure, I found it empty… and fortunately there was some rational part of my mind left that told me to check the time. I didn’t realize there was an hour difference between Athens and Rome - either that or my clock messed up somewhere along the way but I was actually an hour and 10 minutes early. PHEW!!
Finally arriving in Venice… the only bad thing about here was figuring out where to get the water bus to my hotel and then finding my hotel. HA!! I say this like it was a piece of cake. Well, the water bus was not that bad. It is a 5 minute walk from the airport and once someone pointed to the signs, I only had to follow them. It was trying to navigate those narrow and confusing streets in Venice with a BAD map that had me messed up. I stopped for directions - and yes this is embarrassing but I’m going to write it
anyway- JUST across from the hotel. (red face). I was looking for the damn sign of which there was a picture on my booking reservation which did not actually exist - well, that’s not true - the sign was actually outside my room which was inside the structure of the hotel. Ugh. At least I gave those Venetian guys a good laugh. They thought it was great fun asking me if I needed new glasses (it was actually good-natured and I was laughing too).
OK done with the traveling bit. I was here for two full days (3 nights) and my biggest take away from here was touristy and shopping. Really. Oh yeah, there were canals and over-priced gondola rides as well and some really stunning architecture, if you took the time to look up after avoiding bumping in to the kids that were running up and down the walkways (I think it was spring break). But I will say - for you shopaholics, there was every designer you could possibly hope to see here. There were jewelry stores for all the Murano glass jewelry and there were many stunning pieces! There were figurines of glass as well. The
Winged Lion
Symbol of St. Mark and very prevalent in the architecure and sculpturecarnival masks were just really super cool and fun (I hope I can upload the pictures of some here) and if I had a lot of money and someone to carry my bags, I would have taken an extra and filled it with all sorts of things. Don’t go here and expect not to at least be tempted.
Other than shopping…. I was staying near Piazza San Marco (St. Marks square) which is also probably why my take home thoughts were shopping and tourists..(BTW, I highly recommend you pick a more quiet place to stay- this was right in the middle of it all but I can guarantee you I would have been more relaxed elsewhere). But here was gorgeous St. Marks Basilica, the clock tower that still struck the hours and Doges Palace. This was the biggest square (unless I missed something) and drew the largest crowds and longest lines and I think probably the highest prices- but you can’t NOT go!! Unfortunately they were in the midst of renovations so my pictures of the Basilica and some other things is marred by scaffolding but you can still see the stunning detail. Well, actually you CAN’T see the
Rialto Bridge
This was the less busy side :) detail in these pictures- it is as always much more impressive in person.
Now for very little history- Piazza San Marco is named for St. Mark who was named the patron saint and his symbol is the winged lion. St. Theodore held that title before St. Mark and he is represented with a spear and a crocodile to represent the dragon he was said to have slain. These two symbols stand on top of columns in the square. The two columns are thought to have been erected around 1268 when the water was closer and they would have been on the edge of the lagoon - I guess framing the entry to the city from the sea. In between these two columns was apparently a special space - you could apparently gamble here and also public executions took place here.
I could go on and on about the history - it’s a much longer story but this is just a little brief about some of the things pictured. The winged lion was a prominent figure all over the city and there were smaller churches and other well adorned buildings in every little square. Each bridge seemed just a
Vegetable market
on the "other side" of the Rialto Bridge. It was several stalls large. little big different - some of them very plain and some of them much more impressive such as…
The Rialto Bridge- which is the most elaborate (I am not sure about biggest?) bridge of all of them and probably the best known. It has shops from all over it as well (surprise surprise) and led over to an area that was somewhat less hectic which I enjoyed a lot more. The fruit and vegetable market was over here and impressive. Because of the arrangements of everything it was hard to get a good picture but the produce looked amazing. There was also the fish market that I just couldn’t get a decent picture of. I wandered through the much smaller and quieter neighborhoods and that was nice. I just got lost but I didn’t mind here because all you need to do is find a canal and it will eventually lead you back to the Grand Canal and then there are ALWAYS signs for Piazza San Marco and Rialto - so I suppose that is the only good thing about staying in that crowded area- you can always find your way back easy enough. And if you can’t do
it by walking, you just hop on a Valparaiso (water bus) or water taxi and you will be back soon enough.
Of course I need to mention the food and wine. I stopped at an enoteca and ordered the cicchetti which are snacks or small plates (like Tapa’s if you know that word better). You stand at the counter and point to the things you want (I should say you point if don‘t speak Italian), order your wine, go sit down and they bring you the warmed plate. It has things like meatballs and pasta, breaded stuffed olives, eggplant rolled with other things, pasta, fish, etc. You get the idea. I had a Valpolicella in this place that made me swoon! It was really very very good. I had two glasses. In another Enoteca I tried more Veneto or Friuli-Venezia area wines - Soave, Tocai Friulano, Pinot Grigio, etc. I try to stay with all local wines while exploring-after all, that is the point. I did have more Valpolicella and also Prosecco. It was all excellent. The food of note for me was really on the last night and it was an appetizer plate of small shrimp, that I
usually do not like, but done very simply with olive oil and lemon and it was fantastic and matched my wine perfecto.
I guess I must wrap up Venice here but I have a lot of pictures to upload. I had a hard time deciding which were the best to include so I will include a lot. I would like you to be impressed by the pictures that have few people in them, I had to be patient and then quick in order to grab those shots.
I moved West after this to Asti, going from my predominantly white wine region to my predominantly red. Yummo!!
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