Accommodations: This Venice apartment was my favorite place to stay on the whole trip! Partly because Mimi, our hostess/my new Facebook friend, was awesome! Before we arrived, she was communicative and very helpful. Once we got there, she continued to be super helpful, and has a totally fun, spunky personality you can't help but adore. When she met my mom (who walks with a cane) and I at Rilato Bridge, she proceeded to help me lug our heavy suitcases to the apartment in the rain so my mom didn't have to worry about them. Once in the apartment, she showed us how everything worked (saying "Attenzione!" whenever something was important, like the sign we needed to look for to find the alley to our apartment, and the fact that the heater should not go up past #4 on the dial). She also showed us where the umbrellas and galoshes were in case we needed them -- I chuckled at this Friday night; Saturday morning, I was praising Mimi's preparedness! She gave us tips on great restaurants nearby and even helped us book a private water taxi to take us to the airport when we left. The apartment itself is very clean and totally cute/my Pottery Barn-esque style and has a deep bathtub -- a total luxury based on the three other places we stayed in with tiny showers.
Day 10 (continued):
After getting rid of the evil rental car in Florence, we hopped a train to Venezia (that's Venice to you non-Italian speakers). It was raining and this was a 2-hour train ride, so I was sleepy by the time we arrived. Once we got off the train, I found a place to buy tickets for the Vaporetto N.2 and then we hopped on the water taxi, met Mimi at Rilato Bridge and got settled in our apartment before heading out to find someplace to eat. The only place nearby that was open (the trend continues) was the restaurant at the nearby Hotel Malibran, which was very busy with lots of hungry Americans. It had been a while, so I ordered a pizza -- the "Quattro Stagioni" -- with tomatoes, mozzarella, ham, mushrooms, artichoke and olives. It arrived and each of the toppings was in a pile in a different part of the pizza. Weird. So I spread them all around and turned it into an American supreme pizza ;) I can report that the wine in Venice also has alcohol (yay!). And for dessert we ordered what sounded like creme brulee' and looked like creme brulee' with berries on top, but was missing the actual brulee', cracking through which is half the fun. It was still yummy though.
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| Creme brulee, minus the brulee', at Hotel Malibran |
Day 11:
I was woken up at 6:30am by something that was a cross between church bells tolling and a what I imagine bomb warning sirens sounded like in London during the world wars. My mom didn't hear it at all. After looking out the window, I began to wonder if it was a flood alarm, as there was about 4-5 inches of water in the courtyard downstairs. Those galoshes Mimi had in the cabinet were all of the sudden a godsend! We would have dry, non-dorky looking feet today versus all the other tourists who had to buy plastic things with trash bags attached to stick on their sneakers and tie around their legs.
By the time we were dressed and ready to venture out, the courtyard water line was down to 1-2 inches, and once we got out onto the main thoroughfare on higher ground, there were no puddles, but it continued to sprinkle on and off throughout the morning. We headed out with our end-goal being Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square). But on our way we looked at Venetian glass, lace, linens and discovered amazingly beautiful, incredibly detailed carnival masks all over the place. Here are a few examples:
As we got closer to St. Mark's Square, we happened upon the Hard Rock Cafe - Venice in front of a giant gondola parking dock. I went in to buy my friend Diana her HRC shot glass (she collects them from around the world), and then it started raining harder, so we decided to stay for a lunch of burgers and fries. I felt right at home here... I can't imagine why ;)
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| Richie Sambora's 1968 Fender Telecaster Deluxe, used on the 2003 "Bounce" tour. |
After lunch, we walked down a tiny corridor and exited in the middle of Piazza San Marco, which was full of tourists posing for photos with pigeons and on the raised plank walkways.
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| Piazza San Marco, looking towards St. Mark's Basilica |
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| Me, in Mimi's rain boots, in front of St. Mark's Basilica |
The line to get into the Basilica was reeeeeeally long. And it started raining again, so rather than see another church, we opted to see a palace instead -- the Palazzo Ducale, or Doge's Palace next door. The Doges' were figurehead leaders of Venetian government from the 800s until the late 1700s. The Doges' and their families lived on the second floor of the palace, and the third floor was used for government council chambers and courtrooms. The palace is attached to the old Venetian prison by the famous "Bridge of Sighs." We spent about 2.5 hours walking through the various rooms, looking at old paintings, furniture and the armory, filled with old swords, suits of armor, spears and early pistols. It was fascinating to walk the halls where so many people had been centuries before.
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| The Palazzo Ducale Courtyard |
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| Yet another intricately designed Italian ceiling inside the Doge's Palace. |
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| View of Venetian homes from a window of the Doge's apartments. |
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| View of water taxis and gondolas docked on the lagoon, seen from the Doge's apartments. |
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| View from the "Bridge of Sighs" of the lagoon. This is the last view of freedom many prisoners saw and sighed over (get it?) on their way from the Palazzo Ducale courtrooms to prison. |
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| Me, in the courtyard of the Doge's Palace. |
After touring the palace, we walked back out in Piazza San Marco and headed towards the docks to catch a water taxi back to Rilato. But this is what we saw instead... a giant cruise ship leaving the lagoon, which was quite an insane contrast to the gondolas rowing by.
By the time we got back to Rilato, we were a little hungry, but not ready for dinner (it was only 5pm). So we stopped for hot drinks (tea for Mom, cocoa for me) and pastries. Once we got back to the apartment, it was dark and cold. We decided to eat in and drink the wine we'd purchased in Tuscany. So I went out for take-out panini's from a nearby pizzeria, which were surprisingly delish.
Day 12:
Our last full day in Italy. And the day that Italy switched from Daylight Savings Time. Once again, I was woken up by the crazy bell/siren/gong thing. But there was no flood in the courtyard today, which was surprising because it was raining, and continued to rain most of the day. There was also a freezing cold wind blowing. I felt really sorry for the people running in the Venice Marathon, which Mimi had mentioned to us on Friday. Today's only "to do" was going over to the local internet cafe to print our boarding passes and to finish up our shopping, as the day before had been spent mostly browsing/price comparing. Mom wanted to buy a lace tablecloth and to go get some beautiful after-dinner drink glasses, each in a different color, she'd found at a shop in the corner of Piazza San Marco. So, that meant we had to walk back there... did I mention it was raining and cold? By the time we purchased her glasses, my nose and toes were froze (even in the galoshes) so we headed back to the apartment for some hot tea and to rest before going out for our last Italian dinner. We were going to eat at a fancy restaurant Mimi recommended and charge it to my dad's credit card (shhhhh.). But.... wait for it... they didn't open till 8pm. So we went back to Hotel Malibran, which once again was the only place open at 7pm. This time, I had a salad and lasagna bolognese, and a yummy lemon torte for dessert. After dinner it was time to pack and prep to catch our private water taxi at 10am the next morning.
Day 13:
Our last morning in Italy and our first sunny day in Venice. So sad... I would have loved to explore the city without an umbrella and my rain jacket's hood tied tight around my face. Oh well. Once we got on our private water taxi, which is a story I'm not allowed to tell (at least in print.. lol), we had a quick 20 minute tour of the Grand Canal and lagoon on our trek across it to Marco Polo Airport. This was one of the most fun and exciting parts of our trip and well worth the pretty penny (or euros) it cost!
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| Gondolas docked on the Grand Canal |
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| Isola di San Michele, the cemetery island in the Venetian Lagoon |
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| Our private water taxi, driven by Gianluca, heading back to Venice after dropping us at the airport dock |
Our trip home was kind of stressful. We had just a one-hour layover in London, and the wheelchair that was supposed to be waiting for us to quickly wheel Mom through security and to our next gate wasn't waiting. We had to go to special services and request it. Ten minutes later, we got a golf cart instead, which taxied us under the airport runways in underground tunnels (which was kind of cool) to another terminal, where we went through security, and then I got picked for a second security check at the gate. But we made it in time for our flight. Then, once on the plane, I found myself seated next to a nice young man who talked to himself and continually drummed his fingers on his legs. And got up. And sat down. And drummed on his legs. And got up. And sat down. For 11 hours. Thank god for earbuds and British Airways' movie library.
Two weeks after we left Venice (ie: last Sunday, 11/11/12), Mimi posted this video of the "acqua alta" in Venice on her Facebook page. CRAZY. I was walking in many of those exact spots in Piazza San Marco just two weeks before this happened, posing in galoshes and complaining about the rain and cold wind. Ha! In retrospect, what we had to deal with was nothing. This is so sad... the city really is going to sink one day. And it's so beautiful.
I prefer to remember it like this instead :)
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| My Venice "calendar shot" of one of the canals, complete with a gondolier in a striped shirt :) |
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