Traffic along the Grand Canal
Saturday, April 25, 2009
THURSDAY IN VENICE
We started off the day by going to the produce markets by the Rialto Bridge. I love going to markets everything is so fresh, and we got a chance to see some local Venetians buying their groceries. I bought some fruits and tomatoes. Along with produce there was also several fish markets showcasing all different kinds of fish. I saw the ink fish that I had eaten the night before for dinner.
The produce market opens around 6 in the morning and the other stands selling anything from Venetian glass and t-shirts open later in the morning. We got to the market around nine, so by the time we were done buying our fruits other vendors were beginning to open. I decided that this would be souvenir day. I bought my first Venetian glass souvenir, a wine bottle stopper. Then I bought some specialty pasta and a belt for Tim. We returned to the hotel after the market to put our goods down and made our lunches for the day with our fresh ingredients.
We decided the rest of the day would be dedicated to island hopping since there are about six different smaller islands around Venice. We took the Vaparetti to Murano, which is an island famous for its glass artwork. Everywhere you look in Venice you can see this type of Murano glass. There is store after store filled with jewelry, glasses, platters, chandeliers, and tons of other glass objects. Our tour book told us that to prevent fires in the glass making factories on Venice they moved all the factories to Murano. We got a tour of a factory, and we watched one of the artists make a horse sculpture and a vase. After our watching the artist, of course they take you to the show room where you can purchase all the glass you want. This glass was super expensive there were glasses that were 60 euros each! Obviously we did not buy anything from this store. We continued our wandering around the island stopping in several glass shops. This is where I went a little crazy. By the time we were ready to eat lunch I had bought seven necklaces!
We ate lunch in a little park and then walked to St. Maria’s Church. This church had the most beautiful mosaic marble floor I had ever seen. The floors were covered in every color of marble.
We got on the Vaparatti and headed to Ledo after the church. Ledo is a skinny little island, about a mile and half long and a half mile wide. Even though this Island was so tiny, there were cars and roads. It was shocking to see cars because Venice does not have any roads. Ledo is the little beach town of Venice. Unfortunately as soon as we got off the Vaparetti the sun disappeared and was replaced by a hazy misty yuckiness. We walked the half-mile down to the beach side. There was not too much of a view, but we passed the time picking up seashells for Jeanie. I got quite good at deconking the baby conk shells that had washed up on shore. The little conks just came out with tiny tug or two. Nobody else could get the conks out, so I felt quite privileged with my skill. Jeanie and I collected a good grocery-size bag full of shells before we headed back to the other side of the Island to get the Vap back to Venice.
Once we were back in Venice, I continued buying more glass stuff. I bought four more glass wine bottle stoppers, so if you are reading this you might be the luck recipient of one of these Venetian treasures. We did not really get hungry until around nine that night, but unfortunately by the time we got our act together most of the restaurants were closing. Andrea, Jeanie, and I ordered a pizza for 13 euros, which was awesome price for a dinner for three in Venice. While Andrea was waiting for the pizza with Karen, Jeanie and I decided we had to have gelato. We went in search of an open gelataria and found one and brought back gelato for everyone. I had this delicious pistachio cherry flavor. We bought some really shitty, cheap wine and brought the pizza back to our hotel to have our little feast. The pizza was amazing and spicy! It was strange tasting something spicy since nothing in Spain has any spice to it.
The produce market opens around 6 in the morning and the other stands selling anything from Venetian glass and t-shirts open later in the morning. We got to the market around nine, so by the time we were done buying our fruits other vendors were beginning to open. I decided that this would be souvenir day. I bought my first Venetian glass souvenir, a wine bottle stopper. Then I bought some specialty pasta and a belt for Tim. We returned to the hotel after the market to put our goods down and made our lunches for the day with our fresh ingredients.
We decided the rest of the day would be dedicated to island hopping since there are about six different smaller islands around Venice. We took the Vaparetti to Murano, which is an island famous for its glass artwork. Everywhere you look in Venice you can see this type of Murano glass. There is store after store filled with jewelry, glasses, platters, chandeliers, and tons of other glass objects. Our tour book told us that to prevent fires in the glass making factories on Venice they moved all the factories to Murano. We got a tour of a factory, and we watched one of the artists make a horse sculpture and a vase. After our watching the artist, of course they take you to the show room where you can purchase all the glass you want. This glass was super expensive there were glasses that were 60 euros each! Obviously we did not buy anything from this store. We continued our wandering around the island stopping in several glass shops. This is where I went a little crazy. By the time we were ready to eat lunch I had bought seven necklaces!
We ate lunch in a little park and then walked to St. Maria’s Church. This church had the most beautiful mosaic marble floor I had ever seen. The floors were covered in every color of marble.
We got on the Vaparatti and headed to Ledo after the church. Ledo is a skinny little island, about a mile and half long and a half mile wide. Even though this Island was so tiny, there were cars and roads. It was shocking to see cars because Venice does not have any roads. Ledo is the little beach town of Venice. Unfortunately as soon as we got off the Vaparetti the sun disappeared and was replaced by a hazy misty yuckiness. We walked the half-mile down to the beach side. There was not too much of a view, but we passed the time picking up seashells for Jeanie. I got quite good at deconking the baby conk shells that had washed up on shore. The little conks just came out with tiny tug or two. Nobody else could get the conks out, so I felt quite privileged with my skill. Jeanie and I collected a good grocery-size bag full of shells before we headed back to the other side of the Island to get the Vap back to Venice.
Once we were back in Venice, I continued buying more glass stuff. I bought four more glass wine bottle stoppers, so if you are reading this you might be the luck recipient of one of these Venetian treasures. We did not really get hungry until around nine that night, but unfortunately by the time we got our act together most of the restaurants were closing. Andrea, Jeanie, and I ordered a pizza for 13 euros, which was awesome price for a dinner for three in Venice. While Andrea was waiting for the pizza with Karen, Jeanie and I decided we had to have gelato. We went in search of an open gelataria and found one and brought back gelato for everyone. I had this delicious pistachio cherry flavor. We bought some really shitty, cheap wine and brought the pizza back to our hotel to have our little feast. The pizza was amazing and spicy! It was strange tasting something spicy since nothing in Spain has any spice to it.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Wednesday in Venice
We started the next day bright and early with a 9:30 am tickets for the Academia Museum. This museum houses some of the most famous Italian painters such as Bellini and Tintoretto. We found a Rick Steven tour book of Venice in our hotel, which turned out to be god send because it gave a detailed tour of the museum explaining the paintings understandable.
We took a gondola ride after the museum, which was slightly over priced but we were realizing that everything in Venice was overpriced. Our gondolier told us about some of the most famous buildings as he paddled us through the Grand Canal and along the smaller canals. He showed us the house where Marco Polo use to live. While he paddled through the canals he hummed a tune to himself. It would have been quite romantic if Tim was there, but it was just us girls on the gondola
We stopped to try Italian pastries after the gondola ride. I tried one that was covered in peanuts and dipped in chocolate. It was amazing of course. Andrea's pastry was even better though. She got a green pastry was covered with pistachio nuts and chocolate pieces. It was incredible. We walked to St. Mark’s square again to eat our packed lunches by the sea. I switched it up and had a tuna fish sandwich instead of peanut butter. After lunch everyone was enjoying the sun so much nobody wanted to leave, so we all took a little siesta by the sea.
After our nap we decided we should get up and walk around. We walked all the way to the other side of the Island, which actually is not that far because we learned through our randoming wandering you can’t really get lost in Venice. If you try and get lost, you usually just end up back at St. Mark’s Square. This was perfect for our group, because we prefered to wander than be glued to map looking for streets. There are not streets signs in Venice so maps were just directional guidelines if anything. Along our walk we past an old man on a rowing machine. It looked like he was trying to simulate rowing on the water because the machine was facing the water.
We ended up back at St. Mark’s square, surprise surprise and took a Vap to a San Giogino Church which was a famous, picturesque church that we spotted across the Grand Canal from St. Mark’s Square. After the San Giogino we went back to the St. Mark’s Square and visited the museum in St. Mark’s Basilica. The Basilica was really beautiful because everything in the basilica was mosaic. The walls were covered with mosaic frescos and the floors were intricate marble designs. I have never seen so many different colors of marble in my life. The museum showcased a bunch of religious artifacts and information about the how all the mosaics were created. The museum also had a look out with a view of St. Mark’s Square.
After the museum we rode the Vaparetti along the Grand Canal. We rode the Vap all the way from the bottom of the Grand Canal to the top getting a full tour of the famous water way. Our Rick Steve’s tour book came in quite handy by giving us a play by play of all the important palaces along the Canal. It amazed me how old some of these buildings were, even though Venice is slowly sinking these building still stand regally against the crowded water ways.
We stopped back at the hotel after the Grand Canal tour to grab warmer clothes because it was started to get misty and chilly. Our search for reasonably priced restaurant was not turning up any options that met our table cloth and ambient lighting requirement we had created in Rome. I remember a restaurant that we had walked in morning, but we had done about million things, so I really had to jog my memory until I remembered that the restaurant was by the Academia Museum. My memory served me correct and we instantly decided on this restaurant after looking at the prices. We learned that a pasta dish under 10 euros was a good deal in Venice. I decided to try something different at dinner and ordered a Venetian fish speciality. I can’t remember the Italian name but the dish had cuttle fish and squid. The cuttle fish has ink so the fish and squid was served in the black sauce made from the ink. I told the waiter I was not afraid and once I got past the black sauce I really enjoyed by dish. I got the adventuresome award for the day with my order.
We took a gondola ride after the museum, which was slightly over priced but we were realizing that everything in Venice was overpriced. Our gondolier told us about some of the most famous buildings as he paddled us through the Grand Canal and along the smaller canals. He showed us the house where Marco Polo use to live. While he paddled through the canals he hummed a tune to himself. It would have been quite romantic if Tim was there, but it was just us girls on the gondola
We stopped to try Italian pastries after the gondola ride. I tried one that was covered in peanuts and dipped in chocolate. It was amazing of course. Andrea's pastry was even better though. She got a green pastry was covered with pistachio nuts and chocolate pieces. It was incredible. We walked to St. Mark’s square again to eat our packed lunches by the sea. I switched it up and had a tuna fish sandwich instead of peanut butter. After lunch everyone was enjoying the sun so much nobody wanted to leave, so we all took a little siesta by the sea.
After our nap we decided we should get up and walk around. We walked all the way to the other side of the Island, which actually is not that far because we learned through our randoming wandering you can’t really get lost in Venice. If you try and get lost, you usually just end up back at St. Mark’s Square. This was perfect for our group, because we prefered to wander than be glued to map looking for streets. There are not streets signs in Venice so maps were just directional guidelines if anything. Along our walk we past an old man on a rowing machine. It looked like he was trying to simulate rowing on the water because the machine was facing the water.
We ended up back at St. Mark’s square, surprise surprise and took a Vap to a San Giogino Church which was a famous, picturesque church that we spotted across the Grand Canal from St. Mark’s Square. After the San Giogino we went back to the St. Mark’s Square and visited the museum in St. Mark’s Basilica. The Basilica was really beautiful because everything in the basilica was mosaic. The walls were covered with mosaic frescos and the floors were intricate marble designs. I have never seen so many different colors of marble in my life. The museum showcased a bunch of religious artifacts and information about the how all the mosaics were created. The museum also had a look out with a view of St. Mark’s Square.
After the museum we rode the Vaparetti along the Grand Canal. We rode the Vap all the way from the bottom of the Grand Canal to the top getting a full tour of the famous water way. Our Rick Steve’s tour book came in quite handy by giving us a play by play of all the important palaces along the Canal. It amazed me how old some of these buildings were, even though Venice is slowly sinking these building still stand regally against the crowded water ways.
We stopped back at the hotel after the Grand Canal tour to grab warmer clothes because it was started to get misty and chilly. Our search for reasonably priced restaurant was not turning up any options that met our table cloth and ambient lighting requirement we had created in Rome. I remember a restaurant that we had walked in morning, but we had done about million things, so I really had to jog my memory until I remembered that the restaurant was by the Academia Museum. My memory served me correct and we instantly decided on this restaurant after looking at the prices. We learned that a pasta dish under 10 euros was a good deal in Venice. I decided to try something different at dinner and ordered a Venetian fish speciality. I can’t remember the Italian name but the dish had cuttle fish and squid. The cuttle fish has ink so the fish and squid was served in the black sauce made from the ink. I told the waiter I was not afraid and once I got past the black sauce I really enjoyed by dish. I got the adventuresome award for the day with my order.
Venice
The next morning we were off to Venice. The train ride was around four hours, which was plenty of time to recover from the night before. We pulled into the train station around midday. Because Venice is completely surrounded by water, they only way to get around on the island is by boat. Instead of having a bus system or cars, Venice has kind of like a public boat transportation system called the Vaparetti. The Vaparetti or as we liked to call it for the short the Vap, would take you all around the Island. Just like a metro or a bus line, it has stops where the boats would dock to let people off and on. In order to ride the Vaparetti you have to buy a ticket that you swipe before you can get on the boat, just like the metro. We all bought three day tickets so we could use throughout of tour of Venice.
With our tickets in hand we got on our first Vaparetti and took it to the stop for our hotel. I distinctly remember this first ride because I was amazed at the palaces along the Grand Canal that look like they are just floating in the water. There were bridges everywhere, linking together streets over little canals. It was like nothing I had ever seen before.
Our hotel was decorated in a Venetian style with glass chandeliers and soft pastels and florals. I shared the double room with Andrea, which was a fine room but nothing compared to the triple room that Karen, Jeanie and Victoria were in. The triple had two giant rooms with a queen size bed in one room and two twins in the other with a table and chairs. The bathroom was also quite spacious too. The only complaint I have about the hotel was that every time Andrea or I took a shower in our tiny bathroom, we would flood everything because the lip on the shower would overflow. We made a joke about how just like we flooded the bathroom, Venice also flooded when there was a high tide too. The shower situation was made up by the fact that the hotel had free wi-fi, which seems to make everything better. So far Italy is more technologically advanced than Spain!
After putting our stuff down in the hotel we set out for the center of Venice, St. Mark’s Square. We walked around the square for awhile going into St. Mark’s Basilica, checking out Doge’s Palace, window shopping and just enjoying the Venetian sites. We walked all around the main square and then past the extreme touristy section to a quite street. We found a grocery store on this street and stocked up for the week. As we were walking around we kept our eyes pealed for a decently priced restaurant. Venice is beautiful and unique, but tourist are definitely scammed because everything on the Island is incredible expensive especially restaurants. We settled on a pizzaria called Chin Chin. The name reminded us of the waiter that kept bring us lemoncello shots saying Ching Ching. We all ordered pizzas. I thoroughly enjoyed my eggplant pizza and nothing was fried on it thankgod!
After dinner we headed back to the hotel to put our food down. We went back out afterwards to walk around at night. We walked to the Rialto Bridge, which is the most famous bridge in Venice. Then we wandered back toward St. Mark’s Square to check out the happenings at night. On the square there were string ensembles playing music for the people dining at the outdoor cafes. We quickly learned, after glancing at the menu that these outdoor cafes’s on the Square were extremely overpriced. A coffee alone was around 8 euros. I don’t think any coffee is worth 12 dollars! We also learned that string ensembles and orchestra concerts were very popular tourist attractions because Venice was home to several famous composers such as Vivaldi.
With our tickets in hand we got on our first Vaparetti and took it to the stop for our hotel. I distinctly remember this first ride because I was amazed at the palaces along the Grand Canal that look like they are just floating in the water. There were bridges everywhere, linking together streets over little canals. It was like nothing I had ever seen before.
Our hotel was decorated in a Venetian style with glass chandeliers and soft pastels and florals. I shared the double room with Andrea, which was a fine room but nothing compared to the triple room that Karen, Jeanie and Victoria were in. The triple had two giant rooms with a queen size bed in one room and two twins in the other with a table and chairs. The bathroom was also quite spacious too. The only complaint I have about the hotel was that every time Andrea or I took a shower in our tiny bathroom, we would flood everything because the lip on the shower would overflow. We made a joke about how just like we flooded the bathroom, Venice also flooded when there was a high tide too. The shower situation was made up by the fact that the hotel had free wi-fi, which seems to make everything better. So far Italy is more technologically advanced than Spain!
After putting our stuff down in the hotel we set out for the center of Venice, St. Mark’s Square. We walked around the square for awhile going into St. Mark’s Basilica, checking out Doge’s Palace, window shopping and just enjoying the Venetian sites. We walked all around the main square and then past the extreme touristy section to a quite street. We found a grocery store on this street and stocked up for the week. As we were walking around we kept our eyes pealed for a decently priced restaurant. Venice is beautiful and unique, but tourist are definitely scammed because everything on the Island is incredible expensive especially restaurants. We settled on a pizzaria called Chin Chin. The name reminded us of the waiter that kept bring us lemoncello shots saying Ching Ching. We all ordered pizzas. I thoroughly enjoyed my eggplant pizza and nothing was fried on it thankgod!
After dinner we headed back to the hotel to put our food down. We went back out afterwards to walk around at night. We walked to the Rialto Bridge, which is the most famous bridge in Venice. Then we wandered back toward St. Mark’s Square to check out the happenings at night. On the square there were string ensembles playing music for the people dining at the outdoor cafes. We quickly learned, after glancing at the menu that these outdoor cafes’s on the Square were extremely overpriced. A coffee alone was around 8 euros. I don’t think any coffee is worth 12 dollars! We also learned that string ensembles and orchestra concerts were very popular tourist attractions because Venice was home to several famous composers such as Vivaldi.
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