Days 10, 11 & 12 - Venice

Venice

Day 10, Aug 10, Drive to Venice.
Colin woke us up at 0430 this morning with a fever and having to pee. Another 24 hours on meds and we should be fever free (I would hope) and he’ll be doing better. We tried to put him back to bed, he told us the sun was up. Shelby said “Are you sure? Go look outside.” So Colin went to the window and opened the curtains and said “Uh oh. Where’s the sun?” LOL “See Colin, we told you it was ridiculously early, now go back to bed!” Nope. He was up and so were we. So we packed up and loaded the car and hit the road. Just after crossing into Austria I asked Shelby where he put my down pillow that I had asked him to leave accessible in the car. He didn’t know where it was and didn’t remember loading it. Apparently it was left at the hotel. I called the hotel but they would not check, too busy said the lady at the desk. Management will be hearing about that later. I was told lost and found works off an email system and I needed to email them the information. Whatever. Driving through Austria and into Italy is BEE-U-TEE-FUL! I was snapping pictures left and right when MY BRAND NEW CAMERA decided to get something dirty inside the lenses and now has a giant blob in the middle of all my pictures. OMG today is NOT going well so far.
When we got closer to Venice we came across an Army post that had a BX so I took my camera in there and showed them the blob and explained I was on vacation and didn’t have the box or anything, but I did have my receipt and it was pretty much brand new. Thankfully they exchanged it for me so I was happy with that. New camera now and the day is getting better.

We finally arrived in Venezia and made our way to the airport so we could park our car. The islands of Venice are not accessible by any means other than boat. There are no cars, taxis or mopeds/bikes on the island at all. Everything from people to goods arrives via boat. When you get there and see how narrow the streets are, if you want to call them streets, you understand. Most streets are a narrow alley way that two people can barely walk side by side down. We parked our car at the airport, took only what we needed for a few days in Venice and then went to the “bus” station to catch a water bus to the island. The bus route is kind of indirect so we were on the boat for about an hour and a half before we got to our stop near Saint Mark’s Square. They have private taxi boats that are much faster and can get you there in 20 minutes, but they are 100 Euro for the ride versus about 15 Euro for the public water bus. We got some great views on the bus though and even got to see a few of the other outer islands like Murano on our way to St. Mark’s. There really are no words to describe Venice. Everywhere you look is a beautiful view. We got totally lost on the way to our hotel (very common and even easier to do) but didn’t mind wandering and checking out the sights. After we finally found our hotel and got settled into our room we went out to find a place for dinner. We soon learned that eating is an event in Italy, and it ain’t cheap either! Many people order appetizers, or antipasti, which of course we did because there were too many good things to pass up. Then comes the first course, or primo, is usually rice, pasta or risotto. When you’ve eaten your big plate of pasta then comes the second course, secondo, which is usually some kind of meat or fish. If you would like a salad that would come next, by that time I cannot imagine how you would have room for salad, or why you would want one for that matter considering skipping it means you are now on to cappuccino/espresso and dessert! By the time dinner was over we were stuffed full and exhausted.

Day 11, Aug 11, Venice.
We woke up pretty late and got ready, then headed out for some breakfast. Italians don’t really do fast food, nor do they do to go stuff. There is ONE McDonald’s (pretty much the only fast food/chain kind of place there) and even that doesn’t open until 10 and does not serve breakfast! Bars are open even in the morning and they all have espresso machines where the people come to get a croissant and a cappuccino for breakfast. They don’t take it to go, they stand around at small round tables (much like they do in Germany) and eat then move on. You can sit down in some places, but if you sit down you are going to pay a cover charge of 1-3 Euro per person for sitting. This is why locals don’t sit, they stand at the bar with their coffee. After our delicious cappuccino and filled croissants we went to St. Mark’s Basilica and waited in the entrance line. All the churches are Catholic and they all have rules to enter. You have to cover your knees and your shoulders, no photography, no noise. You cannot really describe the inside of the Basilica, it is breathtaking. The ceiling of the massive church is all mosaic tile and most are shiny gold, so with the morning light shining in the whole ceiling appeared to glisten and sparkle in the sunlight. I had to buy postcards to take pictures of so that I could post some to try to show you how pretty it is, though no photograph could capture all it’s beauty. It’s incredible to think about such a work of art being built in this day and age, let alone hundreds of years ago. After St. Mark’s Basilica we wandered around and got totally lost. It was nice to get out of the tourist packed streets and just take in the sights. Neither of us cared that we were lost (you can’t really get too far on the island anyway) and we saw other tourists who were also happily lost and not the least bit concerned either. We found a great place to eat lunch, still expensive, but the food…OMG! We didn’t even order off the menu really, we saw a plate of spaghetti with big shrimp/mini lobster looking things come out to the table of locals next to us and told the waiter we want that too. I’m certain we paid more for it than they did but it was worth it. Crazy delicious! We drank a big carafe of wine, ate til we were about to bust and then hit the streets to wander around some more. That afternoon we found a park for Colin to play in and burn off some energy before we ate dinner. Dinner was another amazing event full of wine, seafood, and dessert.

Day 12, Aug 12, Venice.
We got up a little earlier today and headed out to explore. Yesterday we stumbled across a huge fruit/veggie market and fish market that was all being cleaned up and done for the day, so we missed seeing all the goods. Today we started out earlier and headed that way to make sure we could see the market. The fish arrives at the dock fresh out of the water, many still breathing, and gets thrown on ice right there in the square for people to buy. Restaurant chefs and residents come down and buy their fill and couriers deliver the seafood to the restaurants in coolers on wheeled carts that barely fit down the narrow alleys. Delivery men in Venice are in seriously good shape! They have all kinds of shellfish, squid, octopus, fish, you name it. I wish we had a place to go buy seafood like that! After the market we wandered some more, bought some things, found a place for lunch, and wandered some more. We saw some gigantic private yachts docked and cruise ships coming in to port. We overhead someone saying the saw George Clooney on the island that day, so who knows who the boats belong to, but they aren’t residents I’m sure. We took Colin to the park again and snagged a great table on the waterfront at the mouth of the Grand Canal to eat dinner and watch the sun set. Colin was so good, we spent two and half hours at the restaurant eating and drinking! He played with cars and watched people and boats go by, ate his food and when he got bored with that we let him watch Rio (his newest movie obsession) on the iphone and he was happy as could be. It was a great last night in Venice with the food and the views.