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Published: October 10th 2006
It was a little scary leaving the comfort of our Lucca translators, but we jumped right in. We arrived in Venezia about 6:30 pm, so it was dark. We had a poor map and no real directions to our hotel. It took a few hours, but we finally managed to navigate the canals on the vaparetto (water bus) to our hotel. We thought we were lost, but a helpful waitress made a call to the hotel for directions. It was just around the corner from us!
Venezia is all cement and water; no grass. The dogs do their business wherever, so it's important to watch where we walk. There are no cars or bikes --all traffic is either by foot or boat.
The city is a maze and finding the cheese at the end is impossible! Not a good place for a concrete sequential (Ann). Thankfully, Pat has excellent map reading skills and an incredible sense of direction most of the time. One evening we took the vaparetto out to Lido and did get lost on the way home. Ann was really scared because we got into an area not frequented by tourists. But we survived.
The pigeons
(a.k.a. chickens) in San Marco Square are incredibly gross. There are millions and stupid people feed them. The people (especially women) think it is cute to have the pigeons land and poop on them. Has no one heard of the Bird Flu?
Out in the Adriatic, there are boat lanes marked with street lamps. Boats do everything: produce, building materials, dry goods, etc. There are crane boats, refigerated boats: basically, these are floating semi trucks.
We happened to be in San Marco Square Sunday morning at 9:00 AM when the 3 flags (Venetian flag, Italy flag, and the European flag) were raised by members of the Venetian military. It was very solem event. Following that, the bells started ringing. A very moving moment. Then, the chickens came (equally as moving, but in a different way!)
San Marco Square floods twice a day with high tide. There are raised walkways during that time. The chickens go crazy, flying everywhere.
We toured the Doge Palazzo that morning and learned the history of Venezia. Interesting to know that the relationship between the church and state in the medieval days was strong. The doges ruled both church and state. There
was a time Venezia was separate from the Pope in Roma.
We visited the islands of Murano known for glass making (no photos) and Burano known for lace and colored houses.
Pat quickly became accustomed to having his afternoon Gelati. See the photo. He usually chose a stracciatella (chocolate chip) and cioccolato (chocolate) combination. Once in awhile, Ann talked him into limone which really was our favorite (in her opinion).
Hey DRC, we saw Ritazza coffee here. Either Eurest is Italian or it isn't a private label!
We met a charming Canadian woman traveling alone on the hostel plan. She was probably 65 and back packing through Europe for almost 3 months. Her children wanted her to do what they did and she is! What a courageous and lucky woman. We enjoyed great philosophical conversation with her over dinner on our last night. She was heading to Athens in the morning.
Ciao.
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Lynn Cox
non-member comment
Grazie
"Grazie mille" Pat and Anne for sharing your trip. It is very much "wetting our appetite" for our Italy trip. We'd love to check in more with you when you return and get back to routines and have the space to share yuor enthusiasm. Fall is moving into a colder season here--supposed to get sleet and some slight snow tonight. Last chance for the garden harvest. Take care. Lynn Cox