Venice July 29, 2011 — Venice, Italy
What a beautiful thing, to wake up in Venice! As in most European cities, things don't really get going until around 9 a.m. so for those who are up early (as we typically are) you have the city to yourself. Other than people making deliveries or a few other early rising tourists, it's very quiet and a great time of day to wander around. The downside, of course, is that coffee drinkers can't get that first cup of coffee until later than usual.
After everyone was ready, we headed for Piazza San Marco. It was a beautiful, sunny morning. When we got to Piazza San Marco, we took a few obligatory pictures and then found a cafe on the waterfront to have some coffee. What a perfect spot to sit and relax and just enjoy being there. To get to this cafe, we had to first cross a bridge that gave us a view of the Bridge of Sighs, known for being the bridge condemned prisoners had to cross once sentenced, to get to the prison.
The cafe we were seated at was just across from the boat dock for boats heading to all parts of the lagoon. After our coffee, we bought some tickets for a ride over to the island of Murano, known for its glass making. It was a fun ride over to Murano, giving us a tour of some of the other parts of Venice along the way. Once on the island, we passed quite a few glass shops and even a couple of places where they were making glass. Murano clearly has a different pace than Venice. It was quiet with a lot less people around. After wandering around a bit, we came up to the main canal of Murano, which was very picturesque. It had numerous shops and cafes, bridges over the canal, and flowers on many of the balconies.
We ate lunch in a small cafe on the canal, apparently owned and operated by a mountain climber. He had pictures of himself and his climbing partners all over the walls of the cafe. Lunch was really tasty. Everyone had a wrap or panini. It was great being in another local place, this one filled with locals.
After lunch, we strolled along the main canal in Murano to get back to the boat docks for a return to Venice. It's a lot of fun getting around by boat and on this particular boat, we met our Captain (Franco) and when Sue told him she was from Chicago, he mentioned that he had a brother in Chicago (Stefano) who had a pizza place in Wrigleyville, near Wrigley Field. The name of the place is Pizza Rustica and said we should stop in and have some pizza when we get back home. Of course, we said we would (and that we expected discounted, if not free, pizza since we knew his brother!) We had a lot of laughs with Franco on the way back into Venice. We had our picture taken with him as well. He gave us his email address so we could forward the pictures to him, which we did. We also plan to bring the pictures with us to Pizza Rustica to get that free pizza!
Franco delivered us back to Venice and Piazza San Marco. From there, we made our way back to our apartment (after a few stops for shopping!) for a little break for Dad. While Dad stayed in the apartment to rest, the rest of us made our way to the Academia Bridge and the Church of Santa Maria della Salute. It was a nice walk through a few campos and streets. The Academia Bridge offers great views up the Grand Canal to Santa Maria della Salute, so we stopped for some pictures. After picture taking, we just happen to find a gelato place on the waterfront. As you might guess, we indulged (Lynn’s treat!). We then continued on through the streets and stumbled into an art exhibition from the Arab Worlds. It was very interesting and free. We came to the very tip of the island we were on (Dorosodoro) and at the tip, there was a statue of a naked boy holding a frog. There was also one security guard whose job it was to make sure nobody touched the statue. He told us he didn’t particularly like this part of his job, as it was very stressful.
We then visited the Church of Santa Maria della Salute, which is pictured in many Venice postcards. As is usually the case, it was a beautiful church. We enjoyed walking through it and looking at the art inside (mostly from around 1650, give or take). The more we saw of Venice, the more we understood just how prosperous this city was in its prime. There truly is no other city on Earth like this one.
Wandering back through the city, we found ourselves back in the apartment in no time. While we took a break, we decided for dinner we would just wander around until we found a place we liked. We landed in a nice place between our apartment and San Marco. Again, I think every meal has been a great one on this trip, and this one was no different. We usually start with a toast to show our appreciation for how lucky we are to have these opportunities, or to raise a glass to Dad, without whom these trips would not be happening.
After dinner, and with the sun setting, we all climbed in for a gondola ride on the Grand Canal. We boarded just by the Rialto Bridge and our ride included not only the Grand Canal, but a number of the smaller canals as well. Jorge joined us on the Gondola and seemed to really enjoy it. We passed a number of historic buildings, including the home of Marco Polo. After we were dropped off, Dad realized he didn’t have his notebook with him and thought it may have fallen out on the gondola. As our gondola had already left with another group of passengers, we had to wait for it to return before we could look for it. The short of it is that the notebook had been in the apartment the whole time!
This evening, Sting was playing in Piazza San Marco so, after dropping Dad back at the apartment, the rest of us headed over there to check it out. There was quite a crowd there and we arrived just as Sting took the stage. We stayed for the first three songs then made our way to the front of the piazza (around the corner from the Sting show, and listened to a classical ensemble that we liked the night before. We also noticed that with the tide coming in, Piazza San Marco begins to take on water. It was lapping over the banks of the canal as well as coming up through the drains in the piazza. It wasn’t too bad though and we could easily avoid it.
It was a perfect day in Venice!
