Three days in Venezia

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Date Wednesday, 27th October 2010
City Venice, Italy
Currency NZ $1.00 = $0.54 euro
Climate low 4c - high 14c -fine and sunny

We landed in Venice on a glorious clear, sunny day. But what a difference in temperature after the mid-thirties in the Middle East! The flight took us over some gorgeous scenery - lakes and snow capped mountains. The flight path took us right over Venezia and we were able to look down over the canals and waterways that decorate the island.
We decided to take the local bus to our hotel from the airport as the weather was so nice we didn’t mind a short walk if necessary. For 3 euro each we caught the ACTV bus straight into Mestre where our hotel is located. We were told by the information centre that a taxi would be around 30 euro so the bus was a great alternative.
We found the hotel on-line and we didn’t have a lot of choice; due to leaving the booking to the last minute - however, it turned out to be an excellent choice. It is close to transport, local shops and the facilities are lovely and modern. The Hotel Residence Elite is located in Via Forte Marghera, 119 Mestre. www.elitehotel.it . Once settled we walked down to the local “Pam” supermarket and bought some supplies to make a salad for dinner. Having had a full night in a plane we were very tired, so once we’d had dinner and watched some TV we were soon finding the eyelids getting heavy and so collapsed into the king bed for an early night.

Date Thursday 28th October 2010
City Venice, Italy
Currency NZ $1.00 = $0.54 euro
Climate low 5c - high 16c - fine and sunny

We slept well and woke to another beautiful day - although very chilly to start. Breakfast is included in our room rate and we ate that in the basement dining room. Simple, nice and adequate. The front desk provided us with bus tickets into Venice - just 2.40 euro each return and they also provided us with good instructions to the nearest bus stop. Once onboard it was a quick trip into the central bus station on the main island of Venice - just 9kms away. We firstly checked out the options for getting to the cruise terminal on Saturday. There is a great “people mover” monorail and the information centre told us there is often a free shuttle service operated by the cruise ships as well. We are confident these are two great options for Saturday. The cruise ship terminal is close to Piazzale Roma where the buses terminate - so we are happy that we can get ourselves there with our luggage - avoiding a costly cab fare.
We walked to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection art gallery - Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, Dorsoduro. It is located inside her Venetian palace where she lived for 30 years. It was opened to the public as a museum and contains her art collection - including works by many famous artists. There is also the Nasher Sculpture Gardens and it hosts temporary exhibitions as well. We recognised works by Picasso, Salvador Dali, Joan Miro and Pollack. There were others we didn’t know - but overall she had a valuable collection and wonderful taste in art. The entrance fee was 12 euro each. It would have been a wonderful home back in its heyday and Peggy no doubt would have enjoyed its prime position right on the Canal Grande. Prior to entering the museum we enjoyed our home-made lunch (a ham and cheese roll) at the nearby 17th century church Santa Maria della Salute. Adjacent to that there is Dogana di Mare, the Contemporary Art Museum and we were interested to see an armed guard watching over a beautiful statue at the head of the Dorsoduro peninsula. During the afternoon we wandered the streets and took in the unique and fabulous atmosphere of Venice busy with tourists, boats, gondolas and markets, all combining to make a very colourful and interesting place. On our way to San Marco we purchased some Opera Concerto tickets for tonight’s performance in the concert hall of Scuola Grande di San Teodoro, in Campo San Salvador. With the concert not starting until 8.30pm we decided to find a nice place for dinner. We found just the place- Restaurant Florida, right near the Rialto Bridge with excellent views of the canals’ forever changing landscape. It was cold by then - 5pm but they had good outdoor heaters and soon we were stripping off layers as we supped on great wine and pondered the “menu turistica”. We also noticed that we could connect to their wi-fi and so Shaun caught up on some emails from his ITouch. After dinner we went to the show. Called Barocco E Opera, it was a one hour 40 minute performance with all the musicians and opera singers dressed in exquisite traditional 18th century Venetian costumes. The show comprised of two acts made up of popular pieces from a number of famous operas. There were some recognisable pieces, particularly from Verdi’s La Traviata and Mozart’s Don Giovanni. We really enjoyed it despite uncomfortable seating. Our position was good but they had uncomfortable director-style chairs with the whole row linked together across the backs. Being all linked together meant that anyone moving in their seat along the row would impact others either side of them. The show finished around 10pm and we walked back to the bus depot for our homeward bound #12 bus.

Date Friday 29th October 2010
City Venice, Italy
Currency NZ $1.00 = $0.54 euro
Climate low 4c - high 17c - fine and sunny

Surprise, surprise - another gorgeous day! We have been so lucky with the weather and it is reasonably important in Venice, as the island is so close to the ocean, that in high tides and wet weather they have to assemble elevated walkways so people aren’t walking through water! We have seen the walkways piled up all around the city but are not being used at the moment, thankfully. We caught the bus back into Piazzale Roma just before lunch. We researched the transport system on the canals and decided that a 12 hour travel card would be a worthwhile investment. Jennie had always wanted to go to see the Murano glass on Isola di Murano. The island is home to a centuries-old tradition of glass making. Once an exclusive product of Venice, glass production moved to Murano in 1291 after furnaces were banned from the city for fire prevention. We can understand the risk, as the glass has to be at 1400 degrees in order for the master to commence work on the glass piece. As our ticket included the outer islands as well as the canals we leapt on a non-stop service across to “mini”-Venice. It is a quaint island with glass factories and stores selling the gorgeous masterpieces everywhere. We watched some masters at work briefly in a factory and were fascinated by the speed in which they create these lovely objects. Although tempted we didn’t buy anything as we have limited space and weight capacity and we are also reluctant to buy something we may break, especially since the piece we liked was priced at 250 euro! We then found a small cafe/snack bar and sat outside in the sun with cappuccinos and our packed lunch (ham and cheese rolls - again!). Once we’d seen enough of the island we made our way back to Venice on the next canal boat. They are really efficient and the timetables are very accurate meaning the service is very reliable. We stopped at the Railway Station stop and immediately changed to another boat to take us along the Canal Grande to Rialto. Here we spent some time looking at the Rialto markets and buying up a few Christmas presents. We walked through the winding , narrow lanes back through to San Marco where we looked enviously through the window of Caffe Florian at those more fortunate souls partaking of “high-tea”. This is the oldest, prettiest and most expensive (cappuccino NZ $15 + 12% service tax!) of Venice’s famous cafes. It has been serving customers since 1720. We noticed the waiters serving the customers were adorned in lovely gold brocade waistcoats, bow ties and crisp white cotton formal shirts and bowties. A four or five piece band, complete with grand piano entertained the guests brave enough to sit outside in the cold. We decided a drink in another famous bar may suit our budget a little better, but when taking our seats in Harry’s Bar, we noticed they didn’t serve wine. They are renowned for their aperitifs, cocktails and martinis and so we left there in search of a vino. In the end we caught a boat back to Piazzale Roma and made a beeline for the Co-op supermarket to get some dinner provisions. We would have a wine back at the hotel instead. The Co-op proved to be a great place to shop - right on the canal next to the Piazzale Roma boat stop. We stocked up and carried our goodies to the bus. We must look strange as tourists on a local bus with a box full of food and drink! The evening was spent packing, catching up on the Abu Dhabi blog and watching TV. We were shocked to see the news regarding the printer cartridge bombs that had been discovered in a number of aircraft originating in Yemen. It was just a few days ago that we were in the Middle East and on a flight heading for the UK. It is sobering to think these activities are happening all around us - but we are fortunate to have escaped any scares on this trip so far. We are now ready for our two week cruise after two and a half months of travelling. We are sometimes getting weary now, ensuring we make the most of every day as it is such a brilliant opportunity to see and do so much. This will be our holiday within the travelling.

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Comments

[Annmaree]

Love Venice
Dont you just LOVE Venice !! Hope the travels are going really well, seems like youve been away for ages !! Love AM xx