enjoy!
here
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Day 40
Wednesday Sept 5
6:45am - woke up even though I'd set my alarm for 7:10. Booooooo.
7:40am - went to breakfast and ate pretty quickly. Didn't bother getting a cappuccino and the regular girl wasn't there anyway.
8:00amish - went to get the bus - and I could see my breath!!! Oh my! Anyway, got on the D bus and took it to the station. Took about 20 min. Tried to find the SITA bus station, I knew it was somewhere "to the left" of the station looking at it LOL!! Walked around a bit and finally found it. Hooray. Got a return ticket - 13 euros. Well I think it was just 6.50 each way and no discount for return. Whatever. It was a comfy coach so well worth the money. Not like taking a city bus or something like that
8:50am - bus leaves for Siena. Pretty ride but I think I doze off during a lot of it LOL.
10:15am - bus was supposed to arrive at 10:05 but was delayed a bit due to inexplicable traffic on the windy little roads up to the town. One of the advantages of taking the bus was that it arrives a lot closer to the town center than the train. And luckily there are little signs everywhere, like in Venice, telling you where to go. I decided to head for the Duomo first and get that out of the way, then check out the big big square. But first I wanted to find a little pottery shop someone had suggested on TripAdvisor. Found it, absolutely gorgeous hand-painted stuff in the Sienna style. Most of it was very expensive too, but I got a couple cute little magnets.
10:30amish - make it to the Duomo and walk right in. Admission was 6 euros, more than usual because right now they have the intricate marble floor designs uncovered. They are quite beautiful. I guess they are mostly old testament images but some were Siena-related I think. Some pretty paintings and a little chapel with 2 nice statues by Bernini. AGAIN there were signs ALL OVER THE PLACE TO NOT USE FLASH and everyone was using flash. Roarrrrrrrr. Anyway. But I guess if people don't tell them not to, they just keep doing it. I just wish people would realize the flash RUINS THE ART. This is really a pet peeve of mine. And the tour groups. When you can only walk through a little roped off area and the tour has stopped TAKING UP THE WHOLE PATHWAY, IT'S REALLY ANNOYING! Anyway I spent about an hour or so inside the church. Didn't bother going into the museum or Baptistry or whatever else there was there in the huge complex. As I left the church, the line now stretched REALLY long. Wow, I was glad I went in when I did.
11:45amish - made my way to the main square, Il Campo. Wow, it's huge. Lots of people bustling about, relaxing, sunbathing (even though it was cool, the sun was bright and skies blue). Wandered around it and the streets leading off it. Tons of little shops in Siena selling local specialty panforte (like a dense fruitcake, some shop had some samples and I found it absolutely nasty), little things of various tuscan wines and olive oils, lots of limoncello (which I found odd because it's not a Tuscan thing - guess they know the tourists like it?), lots of pottery, etc.
12:30pm - got hungry and was too lazy to try to figure out a nice place, so I had "fast food" pizza at a place on Il Campo - I could sit by the door and look onto the square and for 6.30 I got a huge piece of pizza (it was like 1/4 of a big American-size pizza), a drink and some fries. Pizza wasn't bad either! It was "pizza diavola" aka pizza with spicy salami aka pepperoni. I had wanted to try it to see what it was like so I figured probably ok to try at a place like this. Not bad. Not as spicy as pepperoni. Btw pepperoni pizza in Italy would just be roasted bell peppers or something. Heh.
1:00pm - walked around a bit more, into the little grocery/wine/enoteca shops and just looked around. Made it to a San Domenico (pardon my spelling) church, which was free to get into. Big and empty inside but some pretty almost modern-looking stained glass windows. Ok so the church is for Saint Catherine. But like, in the church in a display case, you can see a thing with her THUMB. Um, EW much? And then apparently in a little side chapel, above it is her actual head?? Okay, that just creeped me out. So I had to leave.
2:00pmish - I knew I wasn't too far from the bus station now, so I tried to find it. Somehow ended up at the stadium and had difficulty finding my way out LOL. Anyway found this set of stairs that let out to the street and bam right there was the station. Nice. 2:20pm and the next "rapida" bus was leaving at 2:50. so found a shady spot to sit, because I figured what would I do for just a few min.
2:50pm =- took the bus back, once again pretty sure I fell asleep on and off for a good portion of the ride. This old American couple behind me were interesting. The man was giving commentary on things and if I had had to listen to it for much longer I probably would've smacked him :D
3:55pm - bus arrived early, so I went to the train station where the city buses leave and found the bus to Fiesole, bus 7. Left at 4:20pm, not bad. Guess what, annoying old couple got on LOL. Luckily because I got on there at the station I got a seat. The bus got very full as it made its way up the hill. And it was UP A HILL. Didn't love it too much.
4:50pm - arrived at Fiesole, and couldn't really find the views. Then I felt some drops, it was starting to drizzle. The bus was leaving again at 5pm so after about 5 minutes up there, I just hopped back on. It was not for me. LOL. Unfortunately I had to stand but a half hour later I was back at the station and the D bus left right near it so I waited for that.
5:45pm - caught the D bus back to the hotel right around 6pm. Relaxed for a little bit
6:40pmish - went down to confirm the bus with the girl at the desk and she drew me a picture LOL They are so helpful and nice here. Was time for the "happy hour" so I had some olives (duh) and some other Americans were there. This couple was talking about Skype so we started chatting. They live just outside Houston and sounds like they have a lot of money and travel a lot, so yeah.
7:30pm - caught the Bus 23 to the Duomo to find a place to eat. I had the names of a few places around there that were supposed to be good, so I picked a direction. By the San Lorenzo church I found Regginella - they had all kinds of pastas, pizzas, etc. This is what I had heard, and it was true - the waiters were hilarious. They had the radio on and kept changing the station and were singing and dancing along. OK so most of the people eating there were tourists and speaking English but the waiters were funny about it. This british woman next to me said her meal was "simply spiffing" and the waiter was so amused he kept going around saying it LOL. I had a "tomato salad" which was some tomato with a little lettuce, carrots, and olives in the middle, and some pasta. Pretty tasty, total 17 euros including water. The waiter asked where I was from and I said I grew up near Boston, then he tried speaking in a Boston accent. When I told him it sounded more like a NY accent he tried to sound all Sopranos, then the people next to me were from Kansas and he starts going "howdy y'all" and then he says "no that's more Texas" LOL!!!!!! OK so it wasn't the best food ever but it was reasonably priced and the place was fun.
8:45pmish - was going to find one of the "Famous" gelato places but it was kinda chilly and then I couldn't even find it, so I walked down to across the ponte vecchio to see if I could catch the D bus. By now it was 9:25. Last D bus leaves the Ponte Vecchio at 9:15. Of course. LOL
9:30pm - start walking along the river in the hopes some other bus might be coming. Made it to the next bridge after the ponte vecchio, only a few minutes, and saw a bus 13 coming across the bridge. I knew bus 13 went to the square where my hotel is, so I ran and caught it. HOORAY! Back to hotel by 9:40.
Flickr was down tonight so I dunno when I'll be able to get pictures up from yesterday and today
6:45am - woke up even though I'd set my alarm for 7:10. Booooooo.
7:40am - went to breakfast and ate pretty quickly. Didn't bother getting a cappuccino and the regular girl wasn't there anyway.
8:00amish - went to get the bus - and I could see my breath!!! Oh my! Anyway, got on the D bus and took it to the station. Took about 20 min. Tried to find the SITA bus station, I knew it was somewhere "to the left" of the station looking at it LOL!! Walked around a bit and finally found it. Hooray. Got a return ticket - 13 euros. Well I think it was just 6.50 each way and no discount for return. Whatever. It was a comfy coach so well worth the money. Not like taking a city bus or something like that
8:50am - bus leaves for Siena. Pretty ride but I think I doze off during a lot of it LOL.
10:15am - bus was supposed to arrive at 10:05 but was delayed a bit due to inexplicable traffic on the windy little roads up to the town. One of the advantages of taking the bus was that it arrives a lot closer to the town center than the train. And luckily there are little signs everywhere, like in Venice, telling you where to go. I decided to head for the Duomo first and get that out of the way, then check out the big big square. But first I wanted to find a little pottery shop someone had suggested on TripAdvisor. Found it, absolutely gorgeous hand-painted stuff in the Sienna style. Most of it was very expensive too, but I got a couple cute little magnets.
10:30amish - make it to the Duomo and walk right in. Admission was 6 euros, more than usual because right now they have the intricate marble floor designs uncovered. They are quite beautiful. I guess they are mostly old testament images but some were Siena-related I think. Some pretty paintings and a little chapel with 2 nice statues by Bernini. AGAIN there were signs ALL OVER THE PLACE TO NOT USE FLASH and everyone was using flash. Roarrrrrrrr. Anyway. But I guess if people don't tell them not to, they just keep doing it. I just wish people would realize the flash RUINS THE ART. This is really a pet peeve of mine. And the tour groups. When you can only walk through a little roped off area and the tour has stopped TAKING UP THE WHOLE PATHWAY, IT'S REALLY ANNOYING! Anyway I spent about an hour or so inside the church. Didn't bother going into the museum or Baptistry or whatever else there was there in the huge complex. As I left the church, the line now stretched REALLY long. Wow, I was glad I went in when I did.
11:45amish - made my way to the main square, Il Campo. Wow, it's huge. Lots of people bustling about, relaxing, sunbathing (even though it was cool, the sun was bright and skies blue). Wandered around it and the streets leading off it. Tons of little shops in Siena selling local specialty panforte (like a dense fruitcake, some shop had some samples and I found it absolutely nasty), little things of various tuscan wines and olive oils, lots of limoncello (which I found odd because it's not a Tuscan thing - guess they know the tourists like it?), lots of pottery, etc.
12:30pm - got hungry and was too lazy to try to figure out a nice place, so I had "fast food" pizza at a place on Il Campo - I could sit by the door and look onto the square and for 6.30 I got a huge piece of pizza (it was like 1/4 of a big American-size pizza), a drink and some fries. Pizza wasn't bad either! It was "pizza diavola" aka pizza with spicy salami aka pepperoni. I had wanted to try it to see what it was like so I figured probably ok to try at a place like this. Not bad. Not as spicy as pepperoni. Btw pepperoni pizza in Italy would just be roasted bell peppers or something. Heh.
1:00pm - walked around a bit more, into the little grocery/wine/enoteca shops and just looked around. Made it to a San Domenico (pardon my spelling) church, which was free to get into. Big and empty inside but some pretty almost modern-looking stained glass windows. Ok so the church is for Saint Catherine. But like, in the church in a display case, you can see a thing with her THUMB. Um, EW much? And then apparently in a little side chapel, above it is her actual head?? Okay, that just creeped me out. So I had to leave.
2:00pmish - I knew I wasn't too far from the bus station now, so I tried to find it. Somehow ended up at the stadium and had difficulty finding my way out LOL. Anyway found this set of stairs that let out to the street and bam right there was the station. Nice. 2:20pm and the next "rapida" bus was leaving at 2:50. so found a shady spot to sit, because I figured what would I do for just a few min.
2:50pm =- took the bus back, once again pretty sure I fell asleep on and off for a good portion of the ride. This old American couple behind me were interesting. The man was giving commentary on things and if I had had to listen to it for much longer I probably would've smacked him :D
3:55pm - bus arrived early, so I went to the train station where the city buses leave and found the bus to Fiesole, bus 7. Left at 4:20pm, not bad. Guess what, annoying old couple got on LOL. Luckily because I got on there at the station I got a seat. The bus got very full as it made its way up the hill. And it was UP A HILL. Didn't love it too much.
4:50pm - arrived at Fiesole, and couldn't really find the views. Then I felt some drops, it was starting to drizzle. The bus was leaving again at 5pm so after about 5 minutes up there, I just hopped back on. It was not for me. LOL. Unfortunately I had to stand but a half hour later I was back at the station and the D bus left right near it so I waited for that.
5:45pm - caught the D bus back to the hotel right around 6pm. Relaxed for a little bit
6:40pmish - went down to confirm the bus with the girl at the desk and she drew me a picture LOL They are so helpful and nice here. Was time for the "happy hour" so I had some olives (duh) and some other Americans were there. This couple was talking about Skype so we started chatting. They live just outside Houston and sounds like they have a lot of money and travel a lot, so yeah.
7:30pm - caught the Bus 23 to the Duomo to find a place to eat. I had the names of a few places around there that were supposed to be good, so I picked a direction. By the San Lorenzo church I found Regginella - they had all kinds of pastas, pizzas, etc. This is what I had heard, and it was true - the waiters were hilarious. They had the radio on and kept changing the station and were singing and dancing along. OK so most of the people eating there were tourists and speaking English but the waiters were funny about it. This british woman next to me said her meal was "simply spiffing" and the waiter was so amused he kept going around saying it LOL. I had a "tomato salad" which was some tomato with a little lettuce, carrots, and olives in the middle, and some pasta. Pretty tasty, total 17 euros including water. The waiter asked where I was from and I said I grew up near Boston, then he tried speaking in a Boston accent. When I told him it sounded more like a NY accent he tried to sound all Sopranos, then the people next to me were from Kansas and he starts going "howdy y'all" and then he says "no that's more Texas" LOL!!!!!! OK so it wasn't the best food ever but it was reasonably priced and the place was fun.
8:45pmish - was going to find one of the "Famous" gelato places but it was kinda chilly and then I couldn't even find it, so I walked down to across the ponte vecchio to see if I could catch the D bus. By now it was 9:25. Last D bus leaves the Ponte Vecchio at 9:15. Of course. LOL
9:30pm - start walking along the river in the hopes some other bus might be coming. Made it to the next bridge after the ponte vecchio, only a few minutes, and saw a bus 13 coming across the bridge. I knew bus 13 went to the square where my hotel is, so I ran and caught it. HOORAY! Back to hotel by 9:40.
Flickr was down tonight so I dunno when I'll be able to get pictures up from yesterday and today
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Day 39
Tuesday September 4
7:45amish - woke up, blahblahblah
9:00am - went to breakfast.
9:30am - set out to find the Cascine Park market - supposedly very good and only on Tuesday mornings. Well. It was pouring. POURING. I thought my umbrella would be enough. It was not. I got on the D bus and went out pretty much to the end and would walk the rest of the way. Well. Great plan in nice weather. Not great in not nice weather. Walked part of the way there and was so wet (I mean, my pants were wet from top to bottom and my feet were squishing. Seriously. Not good.), I couldn't do it anymore. Really wanted to see this market, but I wouldn't have enjoyed it anyway. Waited for a bus when I saw a stop. Got off at the station and waited for one of the buses that would take me to the hotel.
10:30amish - made it back to the hotel and changed. Felt so good to be dry LOL. Dried out and stuff for a while and went back out.
11:30am - took the D bus a few stops to the Pitti Palace. Bought both tickets - one to see the apartments of the palace and the other to see the treasury and gardens - 20.50 euros total. Ouch. Really they should have a single ticket that will get you into everything. But whatever. It was indoors. LOL. The apartments were nice, different from the ones before because of all the Renaissance art plastered all over the walls. Every ceiling was ornate, the next one more so than the last. Very pretty. Finished seeing this and quickly walked through the modern art gallery included on that ticket. As much as I am not a fan of art, I am less a fan of modern art, I was there maybe 10 min tops LOL.
12:30pm - went to a little place near the Palace called La Mangiatoia or something like that. They had really cheap food. The waiter was really nice. When I attempted to order, he says, where are you from? And I'm like, DUDE THIS GUY IS BRITISH LOL!!! So I tell him from the US and I say where are YOU From. And then he tells me his life story about living half his life in Italy and blahblah and then after I order he comes back and tells me all about how he's moving to Seattle and all these things. It was pretty funny LOL. I had pasta and roasted chicken. Both very good and probably too much food - the chicken was a quarter chicken and was very tasty and juicy and tender. Total for everything including soda and cover was 11 euros, left 12 on the table. And of course, the sun was out and skies were blue.
1:15pm - went back to the palace. Went to the Treasury and saw all the silver and gold stuff and the jewels. There was one crown that was diamonds and huge purple stones. It was amazingly beautiful. Went through this and out to the Boboli Gardens. Also beautiful, but uphill lol. Walked up and tried to find the Bardini gardens - I was walking uphill on the side of a hill (great views of the city, but still not so fun for a heights-hater like myself lol), finally I saw signs for it. Found the building and a lady asked to see my ticket and then I try to find the gardens and… I'm not sure I ever actually did. I started going down this windy gravelled path down to the city, whatever. My feet were hurting at this point of course and I was annoyed, and had no choice but to walk lol. So finally I ended up at this empty building. I was like, am I supposed to be here? But I didn't see anywhere else to GO. Finally I reached the ground level and there was a girl setting at the desk. I just walked out and saw on the sign outside the door "Bardini Gardens" or whatever. OK so I HAD been in the right place. Still no idea what I saw or did or where I was. Ah well, it was an… experience LOL.
3:00pm ish - I ended up near Ponte alle Grazie so I decided to go over the bridge back to Santa Croce area. Found the famous Vivoli gelato place and got a little cup of chocolate "ricci" (dunno what that means) and coffee. Very good but the one I stumbled upon was better, and a bigger cup for less money.
3:30pmish - Went to the Santa Croce church just a block or so away. Entry is 5 euros but it's more like a museum than a church. Statues by Donatello, tombs of people like Michelangelo and Galileo among others, some famous chapels, etc. I actually spent a good bit of time there seeing everything. Very pretty. But OMG, right at the entrance it SO CLEARLY SAYS NO FLASH PHOTOS. And SO MANY PEOPLE TOOK FLASH PHOTOS. I don't know why this annoys me so much but gosh, it is just so disrespectful, not to mention the fact that the flash actually ruins the art.
4:45pmish - Anyway, I was going to catch the bus back to the hotel for a while before dinner. After wandering around, I realized that the buses take a different route back than they do going from the hotel because of all the narrow one-way streets and such. So I make it back to the river and cross the Ponte alle Grazie and a bus whizzes by me (there are 3 or so that would take me back to the hotel). Then another. Then a third. So I've missed all 3 and they only run about every 15 minutes give or take. I actually get to a stop and see that they've all arrived early! Ah well. I decide to just keep walking, there was nowhere to sit so standing there waiting would be just as painful for my feet than carrying on walking.
5:00pmish - barely able to move my feet :p got back to the hotel. Someone new there, well, new to me. She hands me my key as I walk in. WTF. These people are psychic :p So I just chill, relax, look up restaurants online for later, etc.
6:45pm - go get on the D bus to Ponte Vecchio. Stay on the same side of the river as the hotel (the south side). Go a very short way to the Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco (white boar), which was spoken so highly of on TripAdvisor. OK it's a little bit of a nicer place, but I'm entitled sometimes. Plus… … … THEY HAD PRIME RIB ON THE MENU. Game over. Place is so cute inside. I was there early, right before 7, so it was empty (but I thought I'd have to get there super early to be able to get into this place from what I had read). Great service, the guys were nice. When one game to get my order he asks in Italian and I say meekly "do you speak English?" and he says "yes but I speak Italian better" LOL!! So I had that (16 euros for a nice cut of tasty beef about an inch thick, with delicious CRISPY roasted SKINLESS potatoes!) and water and "fettunta" aka a fancy italian name for delicious garlic bread drenched in unbelievable olive oil. Next to me were these two adorable older ladies who had just arrived. They're from Santa Fe. One was named Lois (SERIOUSLY MOTHER STOP FOLLOWING ME AROUND PLEASE THANKS :p), the other Miriam. They were so funny and very nice. We chatted throughout our meals. At the end they put 2 cover charges on my bill (an extra 2 euros, but still), and I ask the guy and he says "but you are only one!" and laughs. Fixed it no problem. Total 23.50, ok expensive, but it was PRIME RIB :D So naturally, one of the better meals I've had on the whole trip.
8:15pm - leave restaurant and walk back to the bus stop (about a 1 min walk), sit and wait for about 10 min. While I'm waiting, these two guys at the base of the ponte vecchio who are selling some crap on a couple sheets scurry and pack up their stuff and run away. Then I see two cops come down the bridge. LOL! I forgot to write about it but I saw the exact same thing happen yesterday when I was waiting for the Duomo to open. I wonder why, maybe selling on the street like that is illegal even if you're not selling knock-offs. Either way it was funny. Yesterday, the cops were on motorcycle so if they had wanted to catch the guys they could obviously have done so, but they didn't. Interesting for sure. Anyway, bus came at 8:25 and took it to the hotel in about 5 min.
9:30pm - laundry time :( And I have a lot to do too.
11:00pm - should be going to bed early because I want to try to go to Siena by bus earlyish tomorrow, but we'll see LOL
7:45amish - woke up, blahblahblah
9:00am - went to breakfast.
9:30am - set out to find the Cascine Park market - supposedly very good and only on Tuesday mornings. Well. It was pouring. POURING. I thought my umbrella would be enough. It was not. I got on the D bus and went out pretty much to the end and would walk the rest of the way. Well. Great plan in nice weather. Not great in not nice weather. Walked part of the way there and was so wet (I mean, my pants were wet from top to bottom and my feet were squishing. Seriously. Not good.), I couldn't do it anymore. Really wanted to see this market, but I wouldn't have enjoyed it anyway. Waited for a bus when I saw a stop. Got off at the station and waited for one of the buses that would take me to the hotel.
10:30amish - made it back to the hotel and changed. Felt so good to be dry LOL. Dried out and stuff for a while and went back out.
11:30am - took the D bus a few stops to the Pitti Palace. Bought both tickets - one to see the apartments of the palace and the other to see the treasury and gardens - 20.50 euros total. Ouch. Really they should have a single ticket that will get you into everything. But whatever. It was indoors. LOL. The apartments were nice, different from the ones before because of all the Renaissance art plastered all over the walls. Every ceiling was ornate, the next one more so than the last. Very pretty. Finished seeing this and quickly walked through the modern art gallery included on that ticket. As much as I am not a fan of art, I am less a fan of modern art, I was there maybe 10 min tops LOL.
12:30pm - went to a little place near the Palace called La Mangiatoia or something like that. They had really cheap food. The waiter was really nice. When I attempted to order, he says, where are you from? And I'm like, DUDE THIS GUY IS BRITISH LOL!!! So I tell him from the US and I say where are YOU From. And then he tells me his life story about living half his life in Italy and blahblah and then after I order he comes back and tells me all about how he's moving to Seattle and all these things. It was pretty funny LOL. I had pasta and roasted chicken. Both very good and probably too much food - the chicken was a quarter chicken and was very tasty and juicy and tender. Total for everything including soda and cover was 11 euros, left 12 on the table. And of course, the sun was out and skies were blue.
1:15pm - went back to the palace. Went to the Treasury and saw all the silver and gold stuff and the jewels. There was one crown that was diamonds and huge purple stones. It was amazingly beautiful. Went through this and out to the Boboli Gardens. Also beautiful, but uphill lol. Walked up and tried to find the Bardini gardens - I was walking uphill on the side of a hill (great views of the city, but still not so fun for a heights-hater like myself lol), finally I saw signs for it. Found the building and a lady asked to see my ticket and then I try to find the gardens and… I'm not sure I ever actually did. I started going down this windy gravelled path down to the city, whatever. My feet were hurting at this point of course and I was annoyed, and had no choice but to walk lol. So finally I ended up at this empty building. I was like, am I supposed to be here? But I didn't see anywhere else to GO. Finally I reached the ground level and there was a girl setting at the desk. I just walked out and saw on the sign outside the door "Bardini Gardens" or whatever. OK so I HAD been in the right place. Still no idea what I saw or did or where I was. Ah well, it was an… experience LOL.
3:00pm ish - I ended up near Ponte alle Grazie so I decided to go over the bridge back to Santa Croce area. Found the famous Vivoli gelato place and got a little cup of chocolate "ricci" (dunno what that means) and coffee. Very good but the one I stumbled upon was better, and a bigger cup for less money.
3:30pmish - Went to the Santa Croce church just a block or so away. Entry is 5 euros but it's more like a museum than a church. Statues by Donatello, tombs of people like Michelangelo and Galileo among others, some famous chapels, etc. I actually spent a good bit of time there seeing everything. Very pretty. But OMG, right at the entrance it SO CLEARLY SAYS NO FLASH PHOTOS. And SO MANY PEOPLE TOOK FLASH PHOTOS. I don't know why this annoys me so much but gosh, it is just so disrespectful, not to mention the fact that the flash actually ruins the art.
4:45pmish - Anyway, I was going to catch the bus back to the hotel for a while before dinner. After wandering around, I realized that the buses take a different route back than they do going from the hotel because of all the narrow one-way streets and such. So I make it back to the river and cross the Ponte alle Grazie and a bus whizzes by me (there are 3 or so that would take me back to the hotel). Then another. Then a third. So I've missed all 3 and they only run about every 15 minutes give or take. I actually get to a stop and see that they've all arrived early! Ah well. I decide to just keep walking, there was nowhere to sit so standing there waiting would be just as painful for my feet than carrying on walking.
5:00pmish - barely able to move my feet :p got back to the hotel. Someone new there, well, new to me. She hands me my key as I walk in. WTF. These people are psychic :p So I just chill, relax, look up restaurants online for later, etc.
6:45pm - go get on the D bus to Ponte Vecchio. Stay on the same side of the river as the hotel (the south side). Go a very short way to the Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco (white boar), which was spoken so highly of on TripAdvisor. OK it's a little bit of a nicer place, but I'm entitled sometimes. Plus… … … THEY HAD PRIME RIB ON THE MENU. Game over. Place is so cute inside. I was there early, right before 7, so it was empty (but I thought I'd have to get there super early to be able to get into this place from what I had read). Great service, the guys were nice. When one game to get my order he asks in Italian and I say meekly "do you speak English?" and he says "yes but I speak Italian better" LOL!! So I had that (16 euros for a nice cut of tasty beef about an inch thick, with delicious CRISPY roasted SKINLESS potatoes!) and water and "fettunta" aka a fancy italian name for delicious garlic bread drenched in unbelievable olive oil. Next to me were these two adorable older ladies who had just arrived. They're from Santa Fe. One was named Lois (SERIOUSLY MOTHER STOP FOLLOWING ME AROUND PLEASE THANKS :p), the other Miriam. They were so funny and very nice. We chatted throughout our meals. At the end they put 2 cover charges on my bill (an extra 2 euros, but still), and I ask the guy and he says "but you are only one!" and laughs. Fixed it no problem. Total 23.50, ok expensive, but it was PRIME RIB :D So naturally, one of the better meals I've had on the whole trip.
8:15pm - leave restaurant and walk back to the bus stop (about a 1 min walk), sit and wait for about 10 min. While I'm waiting, these two guys at the base of the ponte vecchio who are selling some crap on a couple sheets scurry and pack up their stuff and run away. Then I see two cops come down the bridge. LOL! I forgot to write about it but I saw the exact same thing happen yesterday when I was waiting for the Duomo to open. I wonder why, maybe selling on the street like that is illegal even if you're not selling knock-offs. Either way it was funny. Yesterday, the cops were on motorcycle so if they had wanted to catch the guys they could obviously have done so, but they didn't. Interesting for sure. Anyway, bus came at 8:25 and took it to the hotel in about 5 min.
9:30pm - laundry time :( And I have a lot to do too.
11:00pm - should be going to bed early because I want to try to go to Siena by bus earlyish tomorrow, but we'll see LOL
Monday, September 3, 2007
Day 38
Monday September 3
8:10am - woke up finally. Bright!
9:00amish - went to breakfast, there was like NO ONE in the room lol. Very pretty room lots of tables (take note again Axel hotel LOL), nice buffet of pastries and cakes, croissants, bread, yogurts, some cold cuts, juice, cereals, normal stuff. A girl came and offered a cappuccino so I got one. It was yummy, more milk and creamier than at the place in Venice.
Set out for the day, got a bus 3-day pass from the front desk, they will just put the 12 euros on my hotel tab, how convenient. Got my slip for my free lunch, cool. He even walked outside with me to show me EXACTLY where the Bus D left lol. One was there so I hopped on and took it to the Ponte Vecchio. Walked across and up to the Duomo.
9:40am - Duomo opens at 10, the line was pretty short so I was like, whatever I'll just wait. Opened up at 10, got right in. The lady in front of me was wearing spaghetti straps and I swear, she saw the sign with the RED LINE through the TANK TOP picture (no reading skills necessary), and then seemed surprised and as if she didn't understand when the man told her "you have to cover your shoulders." then people were taking pictures with flash. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh. So anyway, it's huge inside, but kind of empty.
Anyway. Walked around a bit more, found the Palazzo Vecchio and went in. The line wasn't long but they were doing security checks and it was taking FOREVER. This couple in front of me were clearly American and arguing about something. They had a train to catch in a while or something like that. So we finally get inside after about 10-15 min and the couple goes up to the ticket window and is like "it COSTS? All THAT and it COSTS? We only have about 15 minutes" I was like, well yes, of course it costs. Anyway, I am 25 so I got a 4.50 ticket. Pictures with no flash were allowed, cool. The most impressive thing about it was the ceilings. Every room had an ornate painted pretty ceiling. Neat. Not all that much terribly different from some of the other palaces in Venice and Vienna (ok, I'm not an art person please keep that in mind lol), but enjoyable nonetheless. Up on the 2nd floor there were beautiful views of Florence and the hills too, almost worth the price of admission right there).
11:00amish - after about 45 min in the Palazzo Vecchio I made it over to the Bargello - the statue museum. Everyone says it's quiet and under-visited. I don't like paintings, but statues are nice. So I went over. Admission only 4 euros to see some really famous artists' stuff. Cool. It was indeed pretty quiet there even though some of the other biggie museums are closed. Interesting, I wonder why people want to wait hours to see the Uffizi but not bother to go into the Bargello at all - there are Donatello statues and lots of other stuff. Anyway, it is very pretty inside with a courtyard, after looking at the ground floor statues I sat and just soaked it in for a few, then went upstairs. They are restoring Donatello's bronze David statue and they had it right there kind of as a "restoration exhibit" with a brochure explaining the whole process. Too bad to not be able to see the statue but interesting to see the restoration process.
Something annoying is that all over the place it said NO PICTURES, but people were taking pictures - WITH FLASH - all over the place. Arrrrgh. But the security people were right there and not doing anything about it. Ah well. Too bad to see people using flash on works of art from the 1400s and stuff, though. Sat in the courtyard again for a few and set off to the Ponte Vecchio to make my jewelry decision so that I could stop going back and wanting more and more :p
11:45amish - walked up and down, saw one shop with a really neat-looking ring for 70 euros. I thought if I bought that, I could even get something else maybe! Went into the shop I found the nice earrings in yesterday. They were a little more than I was thinking, just under 150 euros. Not enough to get the tax back and too much to buy those and the ring. Thanked the woman for helping me and set off to find the Trattoria Bordino for my free lunch.
12:20pm - went in the trattoria and showed my little slip. Got seated at a big round table with a bunch of guys speaking italian - a communal table in the middle. OK cool. Adorable little restaurant with brick interior, bottles of wine all around, dessert table off to the side. Really really cute. Another girl got seated next to me so at least there was another female LOL. Got a "menu" on a piece of paper - 2 choices, one was 7 euros and the other was…. BISTECCA ALLA FIORENTINA!!! Mmmm mmmmm mmm… only 10 euros, so I figure either it will be small or crappy, but considering most places only offer it for 2 people, and I wasn't paying for this one, I might as well try. Well. It was smallish (but more than enough for lunch!) and SO GOOD. Ahh mmmm so tasty. And with a nice little salad too. And all free, even better! Can't beat that! Probably the best lunch I've had on my entire trip and I didn't pay for it lol. When the guy took my plate I said I was from the hotel david and blahblah and he asked if I liked the Italian atmosphere with the big table in the middle and stuff and I said yes of course!
1:10pmish - set off on the south side of the river down Borgo San Jacopo. Passed a bunch of the restaurants that have come highly recommended on TripAdvisor, will probably return. Passed the Santo Spirito areas and just kept wandering down along the streets parallel to the river.
2:00pmish - found Gelateria la Carraria and it looked good so I had some. A 2-flavor cup was only 1.50. I had something like "Fendante" and chocolate mousse. Oh god. I don't know what Fendante was, but it was an extremely dark rich chocolate. And the chocolate mousse was light and tasted just like, well, chocolate mousse. Oh god, it was good.
Found a line D bus stop and one was coming in about 2 minutes so I waited and hopped on. Got off at the Ponte Vecchio and went back to the jewelry place with the ring. The guy was nice and unlike most of the stores someone else was actually buying something. Had him take out the ring and another one, which was cheaper but not as nice. That one was too big anyway but the one I had seen earlier fit. It is like a greek style (see pic). He didn't have any particularly smashingly beautiful earrings but he did have this tri-colored chiseled and all glittery bracelet. Too pretty to pass up, really unique and pretty and I liked the tri-color. All 18k gold and so yellow, we don't have gold like that in the US! So I broke down and bought both - at least, buying them in the same place, you can get the tax back, so he showed me the form and filled out most of it for me and told me what I had to do at the airport to get the money back. Shouldn't be too hard and will be at least 20 euros worth, so that's cool. So now I won't go back there, and I won't think about it anymore LOL. I really like what I got, I've never seen anything like either of them before :) And I don't think the prices were TOO Bad (if you ignore the exchange rate of course :D )
3:00pmish - hopped on the D bus which was just pulling up and came back to the hotel for a bit. Did more today than I expected so why not relax a little. Got back to the hotel, and I see that the maids put my dirty laundry in a plastic bag for me (usually I have been doing it myself but had been feeling lazy this morning lol). How nice of them to do that lol.
5:09pm - caught the bus 13 from the square right outside the hotel up to the Piazzale Michelangelo. Wow. The view. Wow. Walked around the square just snapping away.
Walked up to the San Miniato al Monte church, up a looooooooot of stairs lol. More people were there than I expected, but I wouldn't call it "busy" walked in and heard some chanting. Well I'm not Catholic so I really have no idea what it was lol. Went down behind the altar to the back where a lot of people were either sitting and watching or standing and praying or whatever with them. Sat and watched/listened for a while, it was beautiful and peaceful. Walked around the rest of the church complex and sat on the steps in the shade and just relaxed, looked at the view below, etc.
6:30pmish - went to the Ristorante Michelangelo - considering its location and the view, pretty reasonably priced. The guy said I couldn't order food til 7, I was like, fine, I can just sit and drink and enjoy the view from the terrace. So I ordered a glass of wine (soda was SIX EUROS WHAT THE CRAP) and they brought some cracker/pretzels with it and enjoyed it. Then at 7, ordered a good old pizza margherita. I figured, I was paying enough for the wine (5 euros) and the cover charge (3 euros) that I could go cheap on the meal. Pizza was fine but it was perfectly round and evenly made so I'm guessing it may have been frozen. Ah well, it was worth it for the view right at sunset! Total, 15 euros.
7:30pmish - took some more pictures around the square at sunset, looked at the bus 13 schedule to get one back, and got some homemade gelato from the restaurant I ate at - they had a gelato thing, got a cup of what they called "Cacao" (cocoa) - was a very rich chocolate, very tasty. Hopped on the bus around 7:45. Had looked at the stops listed on the sign at the stop in the Piazzale, thought it was 3 stops, but it made stops in between, and in the buses in Florence there are no stop guides. Oy vey. So, after the bus crossed the river, I knew I was a little bit screwed. LOL. So I got off and figured that across the street, there would be a bus going back in the opposite direction. There was, bus 12. It was going to come in a few minutes at 8:15 (thank god) and would go back up to the piazzale before coming back down to my stop, Ferucci. So I get on, it goes all the way up, blahblah and then on the way down. It stopped once, then I saw it whiz by another stop. So I hit the "stop" button and prayed it would be at the right place. When I saw the "hotel david" writing on top of the fence, I was so grateful LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, 8:45pm - back at the hotel and veeeeery tired.
8:10am - woke up finally. Bright!
9:00amish - went to breakfast, there was like NO ONE in the room lol. Very pretty room lots of tables (take note again Axel hotel LOL), nice buffet of pastries and cakes, croissants, bread, yogurts, some cold cuts, juice, cereals, normal stuff. A girl came and offered a cappuccino so I got one. It was yummy, more milk and creamier than at the place in Venice.
Set out for the day, got a bus 3-day pass from the front desk, they will just put the 12 euros on my hotel tab, how convenient. Got my slip for my free lunch, cool. He even walked outside with me to show me EXACTLY where the Bus D left lol. One was there so I hopped on and took it to the Ponte Vecchio. Walked across and up to the Duomo.
9:40am - Duomo opens at 10, the line was pretty short so I was like, whatever I'll just wait. Opened up at 10, got right in. The lady in front of me was wearing spaghetti straps and I swear, she saw the sign with the RED LINE through the TANK TOP picture (no reading skills necessary), and then seemed surprised and as if she didn't understand when the man told her "you have to cover your shoulders." then people were taking pictures with flash. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh. So anyway, it's huge inside, but kind of empty.
Anyway. Walked around a bit more, found the Palazzo Vecchio and went in. The line wasn't long but they were doing security checks and it was taking FOREVER. This couple in front of me were clearly American and arguing about something. They had a train to catch in a while or something like that. So we finally get inside after about 10-15 min and the couple goes up to the ticket window and is like "it COSTS? All THAT and it COSTS? We only have about 15 minutes" I was like, well yes, of course it costs. Anyway, I am 25 so I got a 4.50 ticket. Pictures with no flash were allowed, cool. The most impressive thing about it was the ceilings. Every room had an ornate painted pretty ceiling. Neat. Not all that much terribly different from some of the other palaces in Venice and Vienna (ok, I'm not an art person please keep that in mind lol), but enjoyable nonetheless. Up on the 2nd floor there were beautiful views of Florence and the hills too, almost worth the price of admission right there).
11:00amish - after about 45 min in the Palazzo Vecchio I made it over to the Bargello - the statue museum. Everyone says it's quiet and under-visited. I don't like paintings, but statues are nice. So I went over. Admission only 4 euros to see some really famous artists' stuff. Cool. It was indeed pretty quiet there even though some of the other biggie museums are closed. Interesting, I wonder why people want to wait hours to see the Uffizi but not bother to go into the Bargello at all - there are Donatello statues and lots of other stuff. Anyway, it is very pretty inside with a courtyard, after looking at the ground floor statues I sat and just soaked it in for a few, then went upstairs. They are restoring Donatello's bronze David statue and they had it right there kind of as a "restoration exhibit" with a brochure explaining the whole process. Too bad to not be able to see the statue but interesting to see the restoration process.
Something annoying is that all over the place it said NO PICTURES, but people were taking pictures - WITH FLASH - all over the place. Arrrrgh. But the security people were right there and not doing anything about it. Ah well. Too bad to see people using flash on works of art from the 1400s and stuff, though. Sat in the courtyard again for a few and set off to the Ponte Vecchio to make my jewelry decision so that I could stop going back and wanting more and more :p
11:45amish - walked up and down, saw one shop with a really neat-looking ring for 70 euros. I thought if I bought that, I could even get something else maybe! Went into the shop I found the nice earrings in yesterday. They were a little more than I was thinking, just under 150 euros. Not enough to get the tax back and too much to buy those and the ring. Thanked the woman for helping me and set off to find the Trattoria Bordino for my free lunch.
12:20pm - went in the trattoria and showed my little slip. Got seated at a big round table with a bunch of guys speaking italian - a communal table in the middle. OK cool. Adorable little restaurant with brick interior, bottles of wine all around, dessert table off to the side. Really really cute. Another girl got seated next to me so at least there was another female LOL. Got a "menu" on a piece of paper - 2 choices, one was 7 euros and the other was…. BISTECCA ALLA FIORENTINA!!! Mmmm mmmmm mmm… only 10 euros, so I figure either it will be small or crappy, but considering most places only offer it for 2 people, and I wasn't paying for this one, I might as well try. Well. It was smallish (but more than enough for lunch!) and SO GOOD. Ahh mmmm so tasty. And with a nice little salad too. And all free, even better! Can't beat that! Probably the best lunch I've had on my entire trip and I didn't pay for it lol. When the guy took my plate I said I was from the hotel david and blahblah and he asked if I liked the Italian atmosphere with the big table in the middle and stuff and I said yes of course!
1:10pmish - set off on the south side of the river down Borgo San Jacopo. Passed a bunch of the restaurants that have come highly recommended on TripAdvisor, will probably return. Passed the Santo Spirito areas and just kept wandering down along the streets parallel to the river.
2:00pmish - found Gelateria la Carraria and it looked good so I had some. A 2-flavor cup was only 1.50. I had something like "Fendante" and chocolate mousse. Oh god. I don't know what Fendante was, but it was an extremely dark rich chocolate. And the chocolate mousse was light and tasted just like, well, chocolate mousse. Oh god, it was good.
Found a line D bus stop and one was coming in about 2 minutes so I waited and hopped on. Got off at the Ponte Vecchio and went back to the jewelry place with the ring. The guy was nice and unlike most of the stores someone else was actually buying something. Had him take out the ring and another one, which was cheaper but not as nice. That one was too big anyway but the one I had seen earlier fit. It is like a greek style (see pic). He didn't have any particularly smashingly beautiful earrings but he did have this tri-colored chiseled and all glittery bracelet. Too pretty to pass up, really unique and pretty and I liked the tri-color. All 18k gold and so yellow, we don't have gold like that in the US! So I broke down and bought both - at least, buying them in the same place, you can get the tax back, so he showed me the form and filled out most of it for me and told me what I had to do at the airport to get the money back. Shouldn't be too hard and will be at least 20 euros worth, so that's cool. So now I won't go back there, and I won't think about it anymore LOL. I really like what I got, I've never seen anything like either of them before :) And I don't think the prices were TOO Bad (if you ignore the exchange rate of course :D )
3:00pmish - hopped on the D bus which was just pulling up and came back to the hotel for a bit. Did more today than I expected so why not relax a little. Got back to the hotel, and I see that the maids put my dirty laundry in a plastic bag for me (usually I have been doing it myself but had been feeling lazy this morning lol). How nice of them to do that lol.
5:09pm - caught the bus 13 from the square right outside the hotel up to the Piazzale Michelangelo. Wow. The view. Wow. Walked around the square just snapping away.
Walked up to the San Miniato al Monte church, up a looooooooot of stairs lol. More people were there than I expected, but I wouldn't call it "busy" walked in and heard some chanting. Well I'm not Catholic so I really have no idea what it was lol. Went down behind the altar to the back where a lot of people were either sitting and watching or standing and praying or whatever with them. Sat and watched/listened for a while, it was beautiful and peaceful. Walked around the rest of the church complex and sat on the steps in the shade and just relaxed, looked at the view below, etc.
6:30pmish - went to the Ristorante Michelangelo - considering its location and the view, pretty reasonably priced. The guy said I couldn't order food til 7, I was like, fine, I can just sit and drink and enjoy the view from the terrace. So I ordered a glass of wine (soda was SIX EUROS WHAT THE CRAP) and they brought some cracker/pretzels with it and enjoyed it. Then at 7, ordered a good old pizza margherita. I figured, I was paying enough for the wine (5 euros) and the cover charge (3 euros) that I could go cheap on the meal. Pizza was fine but it was perfectly round and evenly made so I'm guessing it may have been frozen. Ah well, it was worth it for the view right at sunset! Total, 15 euros.
7:30pmish - took some more pictures around the square at sunset, looked at the bus 13 schedule to get one back, and got some homemade gelato from the restaurant I ate at - they had a gelato thing, got a cup of what they called "Cacao" (cocoa) - was a very rich chocolate, very tasty. Hopped on the bus around 7:45. Had looked at the stops listed on the sign at the stop in the Piazzale, thought it was 3 stops, but it made stops in between, and in the buses in Florence there are no stop guides. Oy vey. So, after the bus crossed the river, I knew I was a little bit screwed. LOL. So I got off and figured that across the street, there would be a bus going back in the opposite direction. There was, bus 12. It was going to come in a few minutes at 8:15 (thank god) and would go back up to the piazzale before coming back down to my stop, Ferucci. So I get on, it goes all the way up, blahblah and then on the way down. It stopped once, then I saw it whiz by another stop. So I hit the "stop" button and prayed it would be at the right place. When I saw the "hotel david" writing on top of the fence, I was so grateful LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, 8:45pm - back at the hotel and veeeeery tired.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Day 37
Sunday September 2
6:45am - woke up before the alarm :( laid in bed for a while and finished packing up
8:05am - went to breakfast. There was an american couple from Virginia there. We chatted a bit.
8:35am - checked out of the hotel and went to the vaporetto. Waited til 8:52 and took the #82 to the train station.
9:20am - arrived at the train station and tried to find out how the heck to get to Mestre. Tried 2 different ticket machines and they would not give me a ticket! Finally I found an information office and not many people in line. Asked the guy, how the heck do I get to Mestre. He tells me the souvenir shop would sell the tickets (the line at the desk was so incredibly long I would miss my train if I waited in that line to take a 10 minute train to Mestre lol
Bought the big one euro ticket to Mestre and hopped on a train to leave at 9:46. No problem. A couple people sat outside me and I felt really badly asking them to move so I could get off but oh well.
9:56am - arrived at Mestre and carried my bag down the stairs to the monitors to find my train. Lo and behold it was leaving from the same platform I'd just gotten off of. Oh well, it wasn't that many stairs and I wasn't in a rush. Went back up and sat down for a while and just waited.
10:35amish - train came and I realized, the printout she gave me cut off my seat, so I rushed and sat down right on the platform and opened up my computer to find the email LOL. Found it, found carriage 8 and went on my merry way. In a berth of 4 seats with a table in between, seated with a mom and 2 kids, power outlets, an electric shade on the window, reclining seats, very nice for 2nd class. Plus the way the seats are organized, there is space in between them for luggage, so since I took a small suitcase (HOORAY FINALLY IT WAS WORTH IT), it fit nicely and I have foot space haha.
11:05amish - train stops in Padova (Padua) and a couple (American perhaps?) get on and find people in their seats in the berth next to us. There's this old guy and he realizes his ticket is from yesterday, right as the ticket dude was coming by to check. I felt badly for him, then again maybe he did it on purpose?
1:25pm - uneventful train ride. Arrive pretty much on time, grab my suitcase and get off. Find the signs to Taxi and hop in without having to wait. Ask the guy in Italian how much it would cost to get to my hotel, don't have a clue what his response was LOL. But I hopped in, he seemed nice. It ended up taking less than 10 minutes and costing 9.90. I gave him 11. On the way we passed the center of town, I think the Duomo, and the line stretched around the building and down the street. Oy vey!
1:40pmish - get out of the taxi and the guy at the hotel opens the door and comes down the 3 steps and takes my bag. OK I can tell this place is gonna be awesome :) Check in and he doesn't even ask for a credit card. Then he shows me on a map where I am and where the buses are and all that. Cool. I'm in room 8 on the first floor. And he gave me the wireless info too! Nice!
And oh it is lovely. It's a double for single use so the bed is bigger, the room is bigger. Wood floors and furniture, high ceiling with a remote-controlled a/c. bathroom is a bit small but perfectly fine. Nice closet, tv, fridge, and a little balcony!!!!! Oh I will have to sit out there sipping something at some point :) the prices for the minibar are so reasonable - only a euro for water. How did I snag such a deal for 75 euros!
Hooked up my computer, connected to the wireless no problem, and deleted all but 7 of the 74 of my emails that had accumulated in the last 4-5 days LOL. Rested for a bit and skyped with my parents and set out to explore a bit. On my way out, the guy handed me a couple papers, one with my Accademia reservation on it and the other for my free lunch. He said, decide when you want to go, hand us the paper we'll write it and make you the reservation. Wow, nice. It's a little place near the Ponte Vecchio. Cool :)
3:00pmish - walked towards the Ponte Vecchio, figured I'd test out the walk and see how long it actually is. Beautiful views of hills one way and into florence's center the other. Took pictures along the way of course. Crossed the Arno river at the Ponte alla Grazie (the one before the Ponte Vecchio), found the Piazza Santa Croce - huge church! Wandered a bit and it was getting busier. Found Vivoli's gelateria (one of the more famous ones here) and it was closed :( Found a little café that was open and got a cup of Chocolate and coffee for 2 euros - I'd barely eaten anything all day! Mmmmm it was good. The chocolate had chocolate chips in it and the coffee had coffee beans throughout it (ok they were bitter but.. Still tasty).
Wandered and found the Piazza della Signoria, one of the bigger squares. I wads just standing there soaking it in when a guy comes up and tries to ask if I knew where the Uffizi was. I replied in English and he was like "OMG you're American" LOL!!! Then I saw he was wearing a Connecticut shirt so I say, UConn? And he's like, yes. And I say "my mom went there" so we start chatting - his wife was on the phone with family. Turns out they had just come from Venice on a train slightly later than mine. So we look at my handy popout map and see that the Uffizi is right there. Then they invite me to go in with them, they had some kind of complimentary tickets. I was tired, feet starting to hurt again, and the last thing I wanted to do was look at some art. So I thanked them but declined. They were like, since we are here would you take a picture of us. Of course I did and the woman offered to take a picture of me, I was like oh sure why not! Anyway they were very sweet and I forget their names but it was nice to chat for a few.
I kept wandering and found the Ponte Vecchio. Oh my god. Half the stores were closed but still, the gold. It was everywhere and unlike the Murano glass which by and large wasn't my style, I could buy hundreds of things here. I will have a hard time finding something to buy, I mean just one thing. LOL!! I did see one pair of earrings at one place that I couldn't see the price but didn't think they'd be TOO outrageous, and they were gorgeous. I'll go back sometime during the week when all the stores are open, and somehow I will make my mind up!
Anyway, now I was back across the bridge, I set back towards the hotel. Saw a little market that was open, got a bottle of water and some salami to snack on.
5:00pmish - made it back to the hotel. Walk is about 15-20 min, not a bad walk and certainly pretty, but I think I will be utilizing the bus, especially since a 3-day pass is only 12 euros. The front desk was now manned by a girl, who says hi and is like "Room 8?" and I am like "how did you know that?!!!" and she's laughing and goes "I know" LOL. How cool.
Relax for a while.
6:45pmish - go down and ask her if there are any places open for dinner. She shows me a couple that I had actually heard about and where they were. Very cool. She tells me to go into the garden for the happy hour thing. They have red and white wine and some kind of juice. Green olives, 2 kinds of corn nuts (yes mom corn nuts LOL), and some little savory pastries and stuff. I had some olives and a glass of juice, and just sat in the cute little garden for a bit.
7:05pm - went back in, remembered to give the girl the thing for my lunch, she said she could book it for tomorrow. Cool. I will be near there - it is right by the Ponte Vecchio anyway. Hopefully there will be something I want to eat? LOL.
Wandered, looked at the places she suggested that were open. All within maybe a 5 min walk from the hotel down the street.
7:20pm - decided on Trattoria Gigi for 3 reasons: 1) it was open, 2) it came highly recommended from people at tripadvisor and 3) it had something non-pasta, non-pizza that I'd want to eat. Perfect! Very adorable inside, high arched bricked ceilings, etc. Had the "pollo frito" aka, FRIED CHICKEN! Ahhaha. Yummmmmm. I think, what it was, was a hacked up bone-in chicken breast breaded and fried in olive oil. Whatever it was, it was good. Maybe slightly overcooked, but it wasn't pasta or pizza so it was good, plus even though it was something normal, it was still Italian because of the batter and olive oil. Plus I had never eaten pieces of fried chicken with the bone in, so it was an experience. It came with some kind of "fried vegetables" which were like, squash or zucchini blossoms or something. Tasted it and honestly it just tasted like the batter. When she took away my plate she said something that I imagine was "you didn't like it?" LOL Anyway total was 17.50 euros including water and cover. Not bad for a nice meal in a nice little place. I left 2 euros on the table as tip, I'm still not sure what I am supposed to be doing where this is concerned, so I guess I will just kinda keep winging it lol.
8:10pmish - came back to the hotel, the girl at the desk asked if I had a nice dinner so I told her yes and where I went.
10:55pm - today's pictures will be up tomorrow, I am tired!
6:45am - woke up before the alarm :( laid in bed for a while and finished packing up
8:05am - went to breakfast. There was an american couple from Virginia there. We chatted a bit.
8:35am - checked out of the hotel and went to the vaporetto. Waited til 8:52 and took the #82 to the train station.
9:20am - arrived at the train station and tried to find out how the heck to get to Mestre. Tried 2 different ticket machines and they would not give me a ticket! Finally I found an information office and not many people in line. Asked the guy, how the heck do I get to Mestre. He tells me the souvenir shop would sell the tickets (the line at the desk was so incredibly long I would miss my train if I waited in that line to take a 10 minute train to Mestre lol
Bought the big one euro ticket to Mestre and hopped on a train to leave at 9:46. No problem. A couple people sat outside me and I felt really badly asking them to move so I could get off but oh well.
9:56am - arrived at Mestre and carried my bag down the stairs to the monitors to find my train. Lo and behold it was leaving from the same platform I'd just gotten off of. Oh well, it wasn't that many stairs and I wasn't in a rush. Went back up and sat down for a while and just waited.
10:35amish - train came and I realized, the printout she gave me cut off my seat, so I rushed and sat down right on the platform and opened up my computer to find the email LOL. Found it, found carriage 8 and went on my merry way. In a berth of 4 seats with a table in between, seated with a mom and 2 kids, power outlets, an electric shade on the window, reclining seats, very nice for 2nd class. Plus the way the seats are organized, there is space in between them for luggage, so since I took a small suitcase (HOORAY FINALLY IT WAS WORTH IT), it fit nicely and I have foot space haha.
11:05amish - train stops in Padova (Padua) and a couple (American perhaps?) get on and find people in their seats in the berth next to us. There's this old guy and he realizes his ticket is from yesterday, right as the ticket dude was coming by to check. I felt badly for him, then again maybe he did it on purpose?
1:25pm - uneventful train ride. Arrive pretty much on time, grab my suitcase and get off. Find the signs to Taxi and hop in without having to wait. Ask the guy in Italian how much it would cost to get to my hotel, don't have a clue what his response was LOL. But I hopped in, he seemed nice. It ended up taking less than 10 minutes and costing 9.90. I gave him 11. On the way we passed the center of town, I think the Duomo, and the line stretched around the building and down the street. Oy vey!
1:40pmish - get out of the taxi and the guy at the hotel opens the door and comes down the 3 steps and takes my bag. OK I can tell this place is gonna be awesome :) Check in and he doesn't even ask for a credit card. Then he shows me on a map where I am and where the buses are and all that. Cool. I'm in room 8 on the first floor. And he gave me the wireless info too! Nice!
And oh it is lovely. It's a double for single use so the bed is bigger, the room is bigger. Wood floors and furniture, high ceiling with a remote-controlled a/c. bathroom is a bit small but perfectly fine. Nice closet, tv, fridge, and a little balcony!!!!! Oh I will have to sit out there sipping something at some point :) the prices for the minibar are so reasonable - only a euro for water. How did I snag such a deal for 75 euros!
Hooked up my computer, connected to the wireless no problem, and deleted all but 7 of the 74 of my emails that had accumulated in the last 4-5 days LOL. Rested for a bit and skyped with my parents and set out to explore a bit. On my way out, the guy handed me a couple papers, one with my Accademia reservation on it and the other for my free lunch. He said, decide when you want to go, hand us the paper we'll write it and make you the reservation. Wow, nice. It's a little place near the Ponte Vecchio. Cool :)
3:00pmish - walked towards the Ponte Vecchio, figured I'd test out the walk and see how long it actually is. Beautiful views of hills one way and into florence's center the other. Took pictures along the way of course. Crossed the Arno river at the Ponte alla Grazie (the one before the Ponte Vecchio), found the Piazza Santa Croce - huge church! Wandered a bit and it was getting busier. Found Vivoli's gelateria (one of the more famous ones here) and it was closed :( Found a little café that was open and got a cup of Chocolate and coffee for 2 euros - I'd barely eaten anything all day! Mmmmm it was good. The chocolate had chocolate chips in it and the coffee had coffee beans throughout it (ok they were bitter but.. Still tasty).
Wandered and found the Piazza della Signoria, one of the bigger squares. I wads just standing there soaking it in when a guy comes up and tries to ask if I knew where the Uffizi was. I replied in English and he was like "OMG you're American" LOL!!! Then I saw he was wearing a Connecticut shirt so I say, UConn? And he's like, yes. And I say "my mom went there" so we start chatting - his wife was on the phone with family. Turns out they had just come from Venice on a train slightly later than mine. So we look at my handy popout map and see that the Uffizi is right there. Then they invite me to go in with them, they had some kind of complimentary tickets. I was tired, feet starting to hurt again, and the last thing I wanted to do was look at some art. So I thanked them but declined. They were like, since we are here would you take a picture of us. Of course I did and the woman offered to take a picture of me, I was like oh sure why not! Anyway they were very sweet and I forget their names but it was nice to chat for a few.
I kept wandering and found the Ponte Vecchio. Oh my god. Half the stores were closed but still, the gold. It was everywhere and unlike the Murano glass which by and large wasn't my style, I could buy hundreds of things here. I will have a hard time finding something to buy, I mean just one thing. LOL!! I did see one pair of earrings at one place that I couldn't see the price but didn't think they'd be TOO outrageous, and they were gorgeous. I'll go back sometime during the week when all the stores are open, and somehow I will make my mind up!
Anyway, now I was back across the bridge, I set back towards the hotel. Saw a little market that was open, got a bottle of water and some salami to snack on.
5:00pmish - made it back to the hotel. Walk is about 15-20 min, not a bad walk and certainly pretty, but I think I will be utilizing the bus, especially since a 3-day pass is only 12 euros. The front desk was now manned by a girl, who says hi and is like "Room 8?" and I am like "how did you know that?!!!" and she's laughing and goes "I know" LOL. How cool.
Relax for a while.
6:45pmish - go down and ask her if there are any places open for dinner. She shows me a couple that I had actually heard about and where they were. Very cool. She tells me to go into the garden for the happy hour thing. They have red and white wine and some kind of juice. Green olives, 2 kinds of corn nuts (yes mom corn nuts LOL), and some little savory pastries and stuff. I had some olives and a glass of juice, and just sat in the cute little garden for a bit.
7:05pm - went back in, remembered to give the girl the thing for my lunch, she said she could book it for tomorrow. Cool. I will be near there - it is right by the Ponte Vecchio anyway. Hopefully there will be something I want to eat? LOL.
Wandered, looked at the places she suggested that were open. All within maybe a 5 min walk from the hotel down the street.
7:20pm - decided on Trattoria Gigi for 3 reasons: 1) it was open, 2) it came highly recommended from people at tripadvisor and 3) it had something non-pasta, non-pizza that I'd want to eat. Perfect! Very adorable inside, high arched bricked ceilings, etc. Had the "pollo frito" aka, FRIED CHICKEN! Ahhaha. Yummmmmm. I think, what it was, was a hacked up bone-in chicken breast breaded and fried in olive oil. Whatever it was, it was good. Maybe slightly overcooked, but it wasn't pasta or pizza so it was good, plus even though it was something normal, it was still Italian because of the batter and olive oil. Plus I had never eaten pieces of fried chicken with the bone in, so it was an experience. It came with some kind of "fried vegetables" which were like, squash or zucchini blossoms or something. Tasted it and honestly it just tasted like the batter. When she took away my plate she said something that I imagine was "you didn't like it?" LOL Anyway total was 17.50 euros including water and cover. Not bad for a nice meal in a nice little place. I left 2 euros on the table as tip, I'm still not sure what I am supposed to be doing where this is concerned, so I guess I will just kinda keep winging it lol.
8:10pmish - came back to the hotel, the girl at the desk asked if I had a nice dinner so I told her yes and where I went.
10:55pm - today's pictures will be up tomorrow, I am tired!
Day 36
Saturday September 1
7:00am - woke up :( but stayed in bed and watched tv for an hour before taking a shower and going to breakfast, etc. I could see out the window that it was clear and beautiful out
9:10am - went to breakfast. While I was there, the girl working the front desk in the mornings asked me if I was all set for my departure tomorrow. I said yes my train leaves just before 11am blahblah and then I mention it leaves from Mestre (the train station 10 min by train away from Venice itself, on the mainland). She tells me something to the effect of "omg that's awful Mestre is a pain to get to but one leaves from the Venice station at 11:23!" Ok I KNOW before I booked my ticket a couple months ago that I checked all the trains and there was definitely NOT one leaving from the Venice station. Anyway she pretty much demands that I log in to my email from the front desk so she can get my codes and try to change my reservation for me LOL. She tried, but it said no space. No problem, I will just leave here extra early and figure it out. But it was awfully sweet of her to try, then she printed out my train information and also the times of the trains connecting the Venice station to the mestre station. What kindness and service! :)
Anyhoo, 9:45am - went to the vaporetto stop to get the boat to the glassmaking island Murano. One was leaving at 10:01 but another direct boat was leaving at 10:15. The first one was so full so a lot of us just waited. It was hard because the waiting thingy is on the water and it was all rocking back and forth today like crazy. Really thought I was gonna be sick and was really glad I didn't have all that much for breakfast lol.
10:15 - get on the boat, line 5 (which I had not seen in any of my materials anyway), gets to Murano in like a half hour. It was a very rocky ride, argggggh. I got off at the third stop on Murano (called Colonna) because it looked like it was a better one on my map. A lot of people got off at the first one and I think probably by mistake because it looked farther from the main drag. Anyway.
You get off and are immediately bombarded by glass shops. My goal was to buy a little something to take back that wasn't so terribly fragile I mean all the stuff is gorgeous but #1: you don't know what's real and what's Chinese, #2 a lot of it is quite expensive and #3 it's fragile and I really just don't need it. Problem is that 95% of the stuff in the shops is all the same. Reminded me of Arizona and the Native American jewelry/pottery stuff. It's literally a whole canal lined up on BOTH sides with shop after shop after shop. So I just wandered up one side, crossed, and wandered the other side going into any shop with a more interesting display window. Most of the jewelry (earrings specifically, which is what I was mostly looking for) was not on real metal - I could tell because they were anywhere between 3 and 10 or so euros. Plus I would think if something was on real silver, it would say. Once in a while it did, but not often. Finally I found a shop that had a few little pairs of simple little dangly glass beads and the thing said it was silver .925. They were only 16 euros too. So if I couldn't find anything I liked better I would go back and confirm they were made on murano.
1:00pmish - Kept wandering. Feet killing. Getting really hungry. Kept walking trying to find a place to eat. Didn't want anything too huge but needed something. Finally all the way up at the northern part of the island I found a little Osteria (Osteria del Duomo or something, which is funny since it wasn't by a church lol) that had cheap pastas and whatnot. Had spaghetti and a side order of nice big green olives and some water. Total was 12 euros including a little tip, just left it on the table and went.
2:00pmish - wandered into more shops. Found some pretty things but nothing that really blew me away so on my way to the Faro vaporetto stop I went back to that other place and the purple (oh, did I mention they were purple? Or did I even have to? ;)) earrings were still there. I asked the girl if they were made in Murano and she said yes everything in the shop was guaranteed and she did say they're made out of silver although I am still a bit suspicious because of the price. Anyway, bought them and she put a little sticker that said "certificate of authenticity" or something similar, so at least they are cute and should be real handmade little glass beads. Just a little something :)
2:30pmish - got on the LN vaporetto to go to Burano from the Faro stop. This boat was a lot bigger and thus a lot more stable. It took oh, about a half hour or so to get to Burano. Lots of people on the boat but it was big enough to be able to sit down thankfully.
3:15pmish - Burano is very cute. Lots of brightly-colored houses along the main drag that are kept in really good condition. I must admit, I didn't really get off the touristy streets, but I still found it relatively quaint and charming. Burano is famous for lace and since I don't particularly like lace I didn't even look in those shops but it was odd that so many shops were also selling Murano glass, just like in Venice itself. There was actually one shop that was selling really pretty Murano jewelry and there were a couple of nice pairs of silver earrings, but I didn't really need another and I'll be buying gold stuff in Florence anyway, so no need ;) Kept wandering a little, went up to the other end of the main street and walked back. Got a lemon granita which was not nearly as good as the one yesterday (didn't taste as much like real fruit), and
4:15pm - made it back to the vaporetto stop. I was going to go to the third of the islands, Torcello, but it was already after 4pm and I was tired and knew I had to pack later, so I just found the one to get back to Piazza San Marco, which was easy because that's where the crowd was lol. The LN line again but towards San Marco. Tons of people, I was like oh crap what if I miss the boat it only leaves every half hour or hour or something. Anyway a HUGE boat pulled up around 4:25 and emptied out. So it was a triple decker type boat so no problem getting a seat etc.
At the first stop, which was a half hour from Burano but still a ways away from San Marco, this Italian family (parents and an adult son) sat near me. OMG you hear about the Italian guys who never leave home but I had never actually experienced one, in italy. But OMG LMAO!! The guy had this book (and I mean a thick magazine type thing) full of watches and he kept showing them to his mom and she kept saying "Belissimo!" or something. OMG It was so hilarious and the dad only got any attention when he sneezed. It's hard to explain but it was so funny. AT one point I swear, the son leaned across the aisle and kissed his mom on the cheek. LOL and I think in between observing this cultural quirk, I dozed on and off LOL.
5:45pm - I didn't realize it was going to take over an hour to get back! Well it did lol. Got off and found a couple more shops around the area near my hotel, it was all pretty much the same as what I'd seen on Murano itself. Borrrrrriiinggggg.
6:10pm - back to the hotel for a little while. Started packing to make it easier on myself later.
7:00pm - went out in search for dinner. Looked at a couple of menus for 2 places right off the Rialto bridge area that were highly recommended. They both looked good but nothing that really jumped out at me for the price (a bit more expensive considering the location). So I went back to that pizza place I had tried to go to on my first night here that never opened.
7:20pm - It was opened and busy and I got a table in their lovely little courtyard. Had a margherita pizza and a coke, total was just over 11 euros, pizza was quite good, yummy charred crust. By the time I left (just before 8) people without reservations were waiting. And there were a lot of locals there (including a big party for… a birthday maybe?), so I think it was a good choice. No english menu, which was kind of nice. What I didn't understand was that they had an inside with several tables but none were being used. I mean yes it was a gorgeous night but hey give people the option of sitting inside if they don't want to wait. Anyway.
8:10pm - found my favorite gelato place on the way back and got a cup of chocolate. Wandered back and took one last look through Piazza San Marco.
8:30pmish - back at the hotel, will just chill, finish packing, and watch some tennis and will have an early night to bed because I'm tired and I will need my energy for Florence, which I'm sure will be hotter. And hopefully I will have internet there (hotel's supposed to have free wireless) so that I can update all this good stuff and keep in touch.
7:00am - woke up :( but stayed in bed and watched tv for an hour before taking a shower and going to breakfast, etc. I could see out the window that it was clear and beautiful out
9:10am - went to breakfast. While I was there, the girl working the front desk in the mornings asked me if I was all set for my departure tomorrow. I said yes my train leaves just before 11am blahblah and then I mention it leaves from Mestre (the train station 10 min by train away from Venice itself, on the mainland). She tells me something to the effect of "omg that's awful Mestre is a pain to get to but one leaves from the Venice station at 11:23!" Ok I KNOW before I booked my ticket a couple months ago that I checked all the trains and there was definitely NOT one leaving from the Venice station. Anyway she pretty much demands that I log in to my email from the front desk so she can get my codes and try to change my reservation for me LOL. She tried, but it said no space. No problem, I will just leave here extra early and figure it out. But it was awfully sweet of her to try, then she printed out my train information and also the times of the trains connecting the Venice station to the mestre station. What kindness and service! :)
Anyhoo, 9:45am - went to the vaporetto stop to get the boat to the glassmaking island Murano. One was leaving at 10:01 but another direct boat was leaving at 10:15. The first one was so full so a lot of us just waited. It was hard because the waiting thingy is on the water and it was all rocking back and forth today like crazy. Really thought I was gonna be sick and was really glad I didn't have all that much for breakfast lol.
10:15 - get on the boat, line 5 (which I had not seen in any of my materials anyway), gets to Murano in like a half hour. It was a very rocky ride, argggggh. I got off at the third stop on Murano (called Colonna) because it looked like it was a better one on my map. A lot of people got off at the first one and I think probably by mistake because it looked farther from the main drag. Anyway.
You get off and are immediately bombarded by glass shops. My goal was to buy a little something to take back that wasn't so terribly fragile I mean all the stuff is gorgeous but #1: you don't know what's real and what's Chinese, #2 a lot of it is quite expensive and #3 it's fragile and I really just don't need it. Problem is that 95% of the stuff in the shops is all the same. Reminded me of Arizona and the Native American jewelry/pottery stuff. It's literally a whole canal lined up on BOTH sides with shop after shop after shop. So I just wandered up one side, crossed, and wandered the other side going into any shop with a more interesting display window. Most of the jewelry (earrings specifically, which is what I was mostly looking for) was not on real metal - I could tell because they were anywhere between 3 and 10 or so euros. Plus I would think if something was on real silver, it would say. Once in a while it did, but not often. Finally I found a shop that had a few little pairs of simple little dangly glass beads and the thing said it was silver .925. They were only 16 euros too. So if I couldn't find anything I liked better I would go back and confirm they were made on murano.
1:00pmish - Kept wandering. Feet killing. Getting really hungry. Kept walking trying to find a place to eat. Didn't want anything too huge but needed something. Finally all the way up at the northern part of the island I found a little Osteria (Osteria del Duomo or something, which is funny since it wasn't by a church lol) that had cheap pastas and whatnot. Had spaghetti and a side order of nice big green olives and some water. Total was 12 euros including a little tip, just left it on the table and went.
2:00pmish - wandered into more shops. Found some pretty things but nothing that really blew me away so on my way to the Faro vaporetto stop I went back to that other place and the purple (oh, did I mention they were purple? Or did I even have to? ;)) earrings were still there. I asked the girl if they were made in Murano and she said yes everything in the shop was guaranteed and she did say they're made out of silver although I am still a bit suspicious because of the price. Anyway, bought them and she put a little sticker that said "certificate of authenticity" or something similar, so at least they are cute and should be real handmade little glass beads. Just a little something :)
2:30pmish - got on the LN vaporetto to go to Burano from the Faro stop. This boat was a lot bigger and thus a lot more stable. It took oh, about a half hour or so to get to Burano. Lots of people on the boat but it was big enough to be able to sit down thankfully.
3:15pmish - Burano is very cute. Lots of brightly-colored houses along the main drag that are kept in really good condition. I must admit, I didn't really get off the touristy streets, but I still found it relatively quaint and charming. Burano is famous for lace and since I don't particularly like lace I didn't even look in those shops but it was odd that so many shops were also selling Murano glass, just like in Venice itself. There was actually one shop that was selling really pretty Murano jewelry and there were a couple of nice pairs of silver earrings, but I didn't really need another and I'll be buying gold stuff in Florence anyway, so no need ;) Kept wandering a little, went up to the other end of the main street and walked back. Got a lemon granita which was not nearly as good as the one yesterday (didn't taste as much like real fruit), and
4:15pm - made it back to the vaporetto stop. I was going to go to the third of the islands, Torcello, but it was already after 4pm and I was tired and knew I had to pack later, so I just found the one to get back to Piazza San Marco, which was easy because that's where the crowd was lol. The LN line again but towards San Marco. Tons of people, I was like oh crap what if I miss the boat it only leaves every half hour or hour or something. Anyway a HUGE boat pulled up around 4:25 and emptied out. So it was a triple decker type boat so no problem getting a seat etc.
At the first stop, which was a half hour from Burano but still a ways away from San Marco, this Italian family (parents and an adult son) sat near me. OMG you hear about the Italian guys who never leave home but I had never actually experienced one, in italy. But OMG LMAO!! The guy had this book (and I mean a thick magazine type thing) full of watches and he kept showing them to his mom and she kept saying "Belissimo!" or something. OMG It was so hilarious and the dad only got any attention when he sneezed. It's hard to explain but it was so funny. AT one point I swear, the son leaned across the aisle and kissed his mom on the cheek. LOL and I think in between observing this cultural quirk, I dozed on and off LOL.
5:45pm - I didn't realize it was going to take over an hour to get back! Well it did lol. Got off and found a couple more shops around the area near my hotel, it was all pretty much the same as what I'd seen on Murano itself. Borrrrrriiinggggg.
6:10pm - back to the hotel for a little while. Started packing to make it easier on myself later.
7:00pm - went out in search for dinner. Looked at a couple of menus for 2 places right off the Rialto bridge area that were highly recommended. They both looked good but nothing that really jumped out at me for the price (a bit more expensive considering the location). So I went back to that pizza place I had tried to go to on my first night here that never opened.
7:20pm - It was opened and busy and I got a table in their lovely little courtyard. Had a margherita pizza and a coke, total was just over 11 euros, pizza was quite good, yummy charred crust. By the time I left (just before 8) people without reservations were waiting. And there were a lot of locals there (including a big party for… a birthday maybe?), so I think it was a good choice. No english menu, which was kind of nice. What I didn't understand was that they had an inside with several tables but none were being used. I mean yes it was a gorgeous night but hey give people the option of sitting inside if they don't want to wait. Anyway.
8:10pm - found my favorite gelato place on the way back and got a cup of chocolate. Wandered back and took one last look through Piazza San Marco.
8:30pmish - back at the hotel, will just chill, finish packing, and watch some tennis and will have an early night to bed because I'm tired and I will need my energy for Florence, which I'm sure will be hotter. And hopefully I will have internet there (hotel's supposed to have free wireless) so that I can update all this good stuff and keep in touch.
Day 35
Friday August 31
8:15am - woke up, woohoo!!
9:05am - went down to breakfast. Today there were other people there thankfully, and we were all offered omelets and fresher rolls. WTF? Did I just get the shaft yesterday? LOL! Anyhoo, ate, went back upstairs to my room to use the restroom, come back down and who do I encounter? Creepy guy. I told him to leave me alone, and when I check out I am going to complain. Honestly, this hotel is too nice to have crap people like that harassing its female guests. I'm pretty sure he means no harm, but seriously.
9:45amish - catch the vaporetto 82 across the lagoon one stop to the island/church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Huge church that gets a whole island to itself! It's pretty impressive inside but not hugely ornate or anything. Catch the vaporetto back.
10:00amish - Find the San Zaccaria church just a couple blocks from my hotel. Pretty inside. Someone plopped a 50 cent coin into a little machine, and it lights up all the paintings around the perimeter, pretty neat.
Then I did a Rick Steves walking tour for like an alternative way to get from San Marco to the Rialto bridge, a little longer than the way I'd been going but you get to see some different stuff, so, cool. Took about a half hour. Saw some interesting things and this cool tower-y thing off and hidden away in a tiny little square. Made it to Rialto and took the vaporetto one stop to the S. Toma stop I missed last night.
11:30amish - walked the couple blocks from the vaporetto to the Frari church, one of the biggest in the city and it has famous art. You have to pay 2.50 to get in but it's more like a museum than most churches, so I didn't mind (of course, the biggest and best one of all, San Marco, is even free. But whatever.). The inside is huge but mostly empty (I think they even have concerts in it sometimes) but all around the edges is art. There's a wooden Donatello sculpture and some paintings. Snapped some pictures (signs were unclear as to whether you couldn't take pictures or couldn't use flash - anyway I never use flash inside the churches but some people did rudely take flash pictures and didn't get in trouble soooo)
Noonish - left the church and wandered a bit. Walked the few blocks to Campo di San Margherita, one of the biggest squares in the city, where I had wanted to have lunch. Read a lot about this one pizza place, so found it, grabbed a table outside (it was raining but warm enough and huge umbrellas completely protect you). Had a pizza and a bellini - a drink made with white peach puree and prosecco (italian champagne) - it was only 5 euros as compared to 13 euros at the place that invented it - Harry's Bar (over by San Marco). Anyway it was yummy - both the pizza and the drink. Total was 14 euros all told. Not bad for a nice lunch outside on a nice peaceful local-y square. Had a "Grrr damn Americans" moment when the people next to me sat down and one of the guys asks "what beers ya got on tap???" the patient waiter proceeded to show them on the menu where it said beers and specifically said which ones were in a bottle *rolls eyes* And people wonder why we have a bad reputation abroad.
1:30pmish - Wandered around through this area called Dorsoduro - a lot of the experts on the Venice forum of TripAdvisor say it's their favorite, so I wanted to wander a bit. At the other end of the square there was a little gelato shop, I got a lemon granita (aka slush but made with real fruit). Very tasty. Around the corner found one of the other famous mask shops, Ca'Macana. I bought myself another one LOL. It was only 15 Euros though, not so bad. And they are so pretty and unique and hand-made. Hard to pass them up.
Just kept wandering. Followed signs to the Accademia (an art museum) because I knew that’s where I could get the boat back to the hotel or wherever else I wanted to go. Definitely a cute area - a lot less touristy, cute shops, lots of families and locals, etc. Was nice to wander and by now the rain had cleared up so the weather was also vastly improving.
2:30pmish - came upon one of the very highly recommended restaurants in the whole city, Taverna San Trovaso. Looked at the menu outside, which is huge and extensive and reasonably-priced for such a well-reviewed place. Wandered in and asked if I could make a reservation for later. He looked kind of bemused and said "for 7 o'clock?" And I was all "7:30?" It was funny LOL as if he knew the american would want to eat early. Anyhoo, made my reservation and found the vaporetto stop and got on in the direction of my hotel's stop. But then I was like, what am I going to do. So I just decided to stay on the boat all the way to the Lido - Venice's beaches (well they are on a totally separate island but yeah lol). On the way there, they actually checked tickets for once. Hooray for my cheap 3-day pass. I wonder if anyone got caught.
3:00pmish - boat arrives at lido and I am like, it's different here. Then I figured out why. There are ROADS. Meaning cars, bikes, buses, etc. I hated it. LOL!! Had to figure out when to cross the street again, had to be careful of bikers and crazy cabbies again. Lido may be nice and fancy (currently the ultra posh Venice Film Festival is going on, but I didn't see anyone famous :() and it may have the beaches, but it has NONE of the charm. Anyway I walked the app. 10 minutes to the other side of the island to the beach. It was really windy and quiet. Pretty beach though I suppose. Sat for a while til the wind was getting so annoying I was like getting sand inside my socks just sitting there, so I left and walked back up. On the way I stopped at a Billa supermarket and bought a 3-pack of little bottles of premade bellinis - for 4.15. I'm sure it won't be as good as the fresh one but hey 3 bottles for less than the price of one in the restaurant sooo.
4:02pm - got on the Line N vaporetto - a much bigger fancier nicer 2-level boat but still part of the public transport system, and it took about 15 min to get from Lido to the Zaccaria stop.
4:30pm - back in the hotel relaxing and doing some laundry before getting the vaporetto for dinner.
6:30pm - leave for dinner, catch the 6:32pm 82 vaporetto and hop on instead of waiting another 20 minutes. 2 stops and about 10 min later I am at the Accademia stop. It's really not too far a walk, but if you saw the Accademia bridge that I'd have to cross to get there… no way.
6:50pm - walk the 2-3 minutes down a couple alley/streets to the restaurant, it isn't even open yet. I sit down nearby on some steps down to the canal and just enjoy the scene, people-watch, rest the feet (though they're not feeling too terrible happily), just live in the moment… for about 15 min, then my impatience took over ;) Walked around a bit, found the Tavernas sister restaurant down the street and around the corner, I assumed it would be more expensive but not really. Some differences in the menu but the items that were the same had the same price.
7:15pm - getting impatient and hungry so I just went in. It was pretty empty, and I was surprised since I was expecting it to be like lining up out the door. I knew the place was going to be reasonable as soon as I saw the drinks and a bottle of water was only 1.50 - less than half of some other places! Anyway, I decided to order the "Touristic menu" for 20 euros - 3 courses. Spaghetti, steak and fries, and dessert. Plus the 2 euro cover charge included. Hey, a girl can splurge sometimes :) I've had a lot of pizza already so I had to take a bit of a break, even though this place's pizza is supposed to be good and was also reasonably priced. Anyway So if I were to order all that stuff separately off the menu it'd be about 30 euros.
Anyway, the plate of spaghetti was ginormous and that and the bread would probably have been enough. The steak was okay, meat is not Venice's specialty and I knew that - it was a little thin and thus a little overcooked, but still a welcome departure from the pizza/pasta I'd had since I arrived! I was pretty much stuffed but was not going to skip dessert that I was paying for anyway, so they give me a dessert menu and usually with these menus you get the dessert of the day or whatever, but no, here you get to choose from the whole (extensive) dessert menu. Anyway I asked the waiter what he recommended and he was like "I like it all" but said he especially liked the tiramisu and a couple other things. I just went for the tiramisu in Amanda's honor (': It was unbelievable. The menu called it a "venetian" dessert but I don't know if that's actually true or not. Anyhoo, total was 21.50 and since the menu said service wasn't included (weird) I left 3.50 on the table because the service was excellent. In fact when I was ordering, I ordered the water and by the time I placed my food order, someone else had brought me the bottle of water LOL. So it was worth it. Very good restaurant and very reasonably priced for the overall quality, especially for this expensive city. Something that was interesting is that they brought me the check without me asking - surprising after all I had heard about how hard it can be in Italy sometimes to get the check lol. Not that it was a problem, I wanted it, but it surprised me.
8:30pm - caught the 82 vaporetto the 2 stops back to Zaccaria and took a few pictures here and there and made it back to the hotel to just relax for the night, catch up on some blogging and watch some tennis!
8:15am - woke up, woohoo!!
9:05am - went down to breakfast. Today there were other people there thankfully, and we were all offered omelets and fresher rolls. WTF? Did I just get the shaft yesterday? LOL! Anyhoo, ate, went back upstairs to my room to use the restroom, come back down and who do I encounter? Creepy guy. I told him to leave me alone, and when I check out I am going to complain. Honestly, this hotel is too nice to have crap people like that harassing its female guests. I'm pretty sure he means no harm, but seriously.
9:45amish - catch the vaporetto 82 across the lagoon one stop to the island/church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Huge church that gets a whole island to itself! It's pretty impressive inside but not hugely ornate or anything. Catch the vaporetto back.
10:00amish - Find the San Zaccaria church just a couple blocks from my hotel. Pretty inside. Someone plopped a 50 cent coin into a little machine, and it lights up all the paintings around the perimeter, pretty neat.
Then I did a Rick Steves walking tour for like an alternative way to get from San Marco to the Rialto bridge, a little longer than the way I'd been going but you get to see some different stuff, so, cool. Took about a half hour. Saw some interesting things and this cool tower-y thing off and hidden away in a tiny little square. Made it to Rialto and took the vaporetto one stop to the S. Toma stop I missed last night.
11:30amish - walked the couple blocks from the vaporetto to the Frari church, one of the biggest in the city and it has famous art. You have to pay 2.50 to get in but it's more like a museum than most churches, so I didn't mind (of course, the biggest and best one of all, San Marco, is even free. But whatever.). The inside is huge but mostly empty (I think they even have concerts in it sometimes) but all around the edges is art. There's a wooden Donatello sculpture and some paintings. Snapped some pictures (signs were unclear as to whether you couldn't take pictures or couldn't use flash - anyway I never use flash inside the churches but some people did rudely take flash pictures and didn't get in trouble soooo)
Noonish - left the church and wandered a bit. Walked the few blocks to Campo di San Margherita, one of the biggest squares in the city, where I had wanted to have lunch. Read a lot about this one pizza place, so found it, grabbed a table outside (it was raining but warm enough and huge umbrellas completely protect you). Had a pizza and a bellini - a drink made with white peach puree and prosecco (italian champagne) - it was only 5 euros as compared to 13 euros at the place that invented it - Harry's Bar (over by San Marco). Anyway it was yummy - both the pizza and the drink. Total was 14 euros all told. Not bad for a nice lunch outside on a nice peaceful local-y square. Had a "Grrr damn Americans" moment when the people next to me sat down and one of the guys asks "what beers ya got on tap???" the patient waiter proceeded to show them on the menu where it said beers and specifically said which ones were in a bottle *rolls eyes* And people wonder why we have a bad reputation abroad.
1:30pmish - Wandered around through this area called Dorsoduro - a lot of the experts on the Venice forum of TripAdvisor say it's their favorite, so I wanted to wander a bit. At the other end of the square there was a little gelato shop, I got a lemon granita (aka slush but made with real fruit). Very tasty. Around the corner found one of the other famous mask shops, Ca'Macana. I bought myself another one LOL. It was only 15 Euros though, not so bad. And they are so pretty and unique and hand-made. Hard to pass them up.
Just kept wandering. Followed signs to the Accademia (an art museum) because I knew that’s where I could get the boat back to the hotel or wherever else I wanted to go. Definitely a cute area - a lot less touristy, cute shops, lots of families and locals, etc. Was nice to wander and by now the rain had cleared up so the weather was also vastly improving.
2:30pmish - came upon one of the very highly recommended restaurants in the whole city, Taverna San Trovaso. Looked at the menu outside, which is huge and extensive and reasonably-priced for such a well-reviewed place. Wandered in and asked if I could make a reservation for later. He looked kind of bemused and said "for 7 o'clock?" And I was all "7:30?" It was funny LOL as if he knew the american would want to eat early. Anyhoo, made my reservation and found the vaporetto stop and got on in the direction of my hotel's stop. But then I was like, what am I going to do. So I just decided to stay on the boat all the way to the Lido - Venice's beaches (well they are on a totally separate island but yeah lol). On the way there, they actually checked tickets for once. Hooray for my cheap 3-day pass. I wonder if anyone got caught.
3:00pmish - boat arrives at lido and I am like, it's different here. Then I figured out why. There are ROADS. Meaning cars, bikes, buses, etc. I hated it. LOL!! Had to figure out when to cross the street again, had to be careful of bikers and crazy cabbies again. Lido may be nice and fancy (currently the ultra posh Venice Film Festival is going on, but I didn't see anyone famous :() and it may have the beaches, but it has NONE of the charm. Anyway I walked the app. 10 minutes to the other side of the island to the beach. It was really windy and quiet. Pretty beach though I suppose. Sat for a while til the wind was getting so annoying I was like getting sand inside my socks just sitting there, so I left and walked back up. On the way I stopped at a Billa supermarket and bought a 3-pack of little bottles of premade bellinis - for 4.15. I'm sure it won't be as good as the fresh one but hey 3 bottles for less than the price of one in the restaurant sooo.
4:02pm - got on the Line N vaporetto - a much bigger fancier nicer 2-level boat but still part of the public transport system, and it took about 15 min to get from Lido to the Zaccaria stop.
4:30pm - back in the hotel relaxing and doing some laundry before getting the vaporetto for dinner.
6:30pm - leave for dinner, catch the 6:32pm 82 vaporetto and hop on instead of waiting another 20 minutes. 2 stops and about 10 min later I am at the Accademia stop. It's really not too far a walk, but if you saw the Accademia bridge that I'd have to cross to get there… no way.
6:50pm - walk the 2-3 minutes down a couple alley/streets to the restaurant, it isn't even open yet. I sit down nearby on some steps down to the canal and just enjoy the scene, people-watch, rest the feet (though they're not feeling too terrible happily), just live in the moment… for about 15 min, then my impatience took over ;) Walked around a bit, found the Tavernas sister restaurant down the street and around the corner, I assumed it would be more expensive but not really. Some differences in the menu but the items that were the same had the same price.
7:15pm - getting impatient and hungry so I just went in. It was pretty empty, and I was surprised since I was expecting it to be like lining up out the door. I knew the place was going to be reasonable as soon as I saw the drinks and a bottle of water was only 1.50 - less than half of some other places! Anyway, I decided to order the "Touristic menu" for 20 euros - 3 courses. Spaghetti, steak and fries, and dessert. Plus the 2 euro cover charge included. Hey, a girl can splurge sometimes :) I've had a lot of pizza already so I had to take a bit of a break, even though this place's pizza is supposed to be good and was also reasonably priced. Anyway So if I were to order all that stuff separately off the menu it'd be about 30 euros.
Anyway, the plate of spaghetti was ginormous and that and the bread would probably have been enough. The steak was okay, meat is not Venice's specialty and I knew that - it was a little thin and thus a little overcooked, but still a welcome departure from the pizza/pasta I'd had since I arrived! I was pretty much stuffed but was not going to skip dessert that I was paying for anyway, so they give me a dessert menu and usually with these menus you get the dessert of the day or whatever, but no, here you get to choose from the whole (extensive) dessert menu. Anyway I asked the waiter what he recommended and he was like "I like it all" but said he especially liked the tiramisu and a couple other things. I just went for the tiramisu in Amanda's honor (': It was unbelievable. The menu called it a "venetian" dessert but I don't know if that's actually true or not. Anyhoo, total was 21.50 and since the menu said service wasn't included (weird) I left 3.50 on the table because the service was excellent. In fact when I was ordering, I ordered the water and by the time I placed my food order, someone else had brought me the bottle of water LOL. So it was worth it. Very good restaurant and very reasonably priced for the overall quality, especially for this expensive city. Something that was interesting is that they brought me the check without me asking - surprising after all I had heard about how hard it can be in Italy sometimes to get the check lol. Not that it was a problem, I wanted it, but it surprised me.
8:30pm - caught the 82 vaporetto the 2 stops back to Zaccaria and took a few pictures here and there and made it back to the hotel to just relax for the night, catch up on some blogging and watch some tennis!
Day 34
Thursday August 30
6:30am - woke up :( :( :( :(
8:05am - went down to breakfast. There was no one there so I went into the restaurant where there was a guy. Told me to sit anywhere. Breakfast is some prepackaged nasty toast "biscuits" (they shouldn't bother) with butter and jam on the table, some yogurt (blech), and then he brings out juice and a couple croissants which were good. He asked if I wanted coffee or a cappuccino or something and of course, I would want a cappuccino LOL. So he made me one. That was nice.
8:20am - walked over to the Rialto market - had a bit of trouble finding it but once I did, it was smaller than I expected. Just a few rows of stalls selling mostly the same stuff at fairly cheap prices, but still it was all beautiful. Then next to it is the huge fish market where most of the restaurants in town get their stuff. I bought some plums, a couple nectarines, and a couple kinds of tomato (a big one and a few little cherry ones) - all for 2.90. then at another place I bought some of what look like concord grapes, for 1 euro. Mmmm. Fruit.
Walked back to the hotel and put the stuff away. Creepy dude was washing the floor outside, hurrah. Left and went to Piazza San Marco.
9:45am - figured I should get in the line for the Basilica San Marco since my Doge's Palace tour until 10:25. if the line went fast I'd be able to see the church and then go around the corner to the palace. The line went fast. Was inside by about 10:05. Wow, it's unreal inside. All the mosaics and gold. Apparently they light it up from time to time and then it's REALLY amazing but not til later in the day I think. Anyway bought a couple postcards of the inside for a big 80 cents since no pictures allowed.
10:20am - go into the special line for the Doge's Palace (which I can see from my hotel), which lets me bypass the regular line, nice. The guy tells me the 10:45am tour is canceled and that we all go into the 11.35am tour. He says the 10:45am one doesn't run during the summer. I am like ohkkaaaaayyyy why did they let me reserve it then LOL. Anyway no problem I paid (10 euros instead of 16 because of my rolling card, so the card just paid for itself and then some), got my ticket and sticker, and had an hour to waste. Was going to sit on the bench in the shade in the piazza and just people-watch but I was like no, I'd much rather shop!!! So since everything is so close, I went back to that beautiful mask shop and bought myself a gorgeous little purple one (duh) for 22 euros - not bad since it's 100% handmade. She was very nice and told me that because it's papier-mâché (OneNote corrected the spelling with the accents, I am not that good ;)), I don't have to worry about it breaking. Hooray! She packed it up nicely with bubble wrap and all and I was on my way. On the way back I found another mask/glass store selling little hand-painted magnets. Bought one for 3.30. Very cute and, of course, purple :p Wandered in and out of a few more shops and dropped the stuff off at the hotel since it is so close to the Palace anyway. Very convenient.
11:15ish - skip the line again and go into the courtyard where the tour started. Now I realized that I could have explored the rest of the Palace (the tour I was going on only takes you to specific parts that the regular ticketholders can't go but you can then go explore the rest of the palace on the same ticket, so it's really quite a good deal). No problem I will just do it after. Sat in the shade til the tour started.
11:35am - tour started. A short (ok, even shorter than ME) Italian girl who kept apologizing for her English (which was really perfectly adequate) starts the tour, explains things along the way, and we get to see the "secret" parts of the palace, which was also criminal and civil law courts, data centers, and prisons. Pretty neat really. You go ALLLLLL the way up to to the top floor and actually above the ceiling under the roof. This was a bit scary. You get to see some of the offices (which were dark and so stuffy, can't imagine it on an even hotter day), and the prisons where Casanova was kept and how he escaped. All pretty interesting. While we were on the tour somewhere it started POURING. I mean it was raining so hard that she had to close some of the windows up top because it was raining in. It was also thundering and I presume lightning. And of course, I didn't bring my umbrella OR my jacket with me since it was fine this morning when I left. Oy.
1:00pmish - so the tour ends just before 1 and you are left inside the palace. I wandered around through some of it, across the Bridge of Sighs into the newer prisons, where the Doge actually lived, etc. Considered waiting out the rain in the cafeteria but it was unsurprisingly crazy busy. Bought 3 post cards of some of the pretty interiors for 3 euros since again no pictures, and left. By then it had luckily mostly stopped raining. The Piazza outside was like FLOODING. People were taking pictures with bare feet and water up to their ankles! To get back to the hotel I couldn't take the back way without being ankle-high in water so I walked around the front of the palace and back. The water was at the top of the canals. Amazing, one little storm for a couple hours - granted it was heavy but still - and the place was starting to flood. Can't imagine what happens when a real storm lasting a couple days rolls in. Anyway dropped the stuff off at the hotel and grabbed my umbrella and jacket in case it came back. Set off to head to the Jewish ghetto and find some lunch.
1:30pmish - getting really hungry, the place in Rick Steves's book right up the alley from my hotel that he said was great for lunch appears to have closed, so plan B. Keep wandering, nothing is hitting my eyes as looking great, keep walking towards the ghetto (or so I assumed), found a place finally that had reasonable pastas and the like and no cover. Called the Malibran or something like that. Had spaghetti with garlic and oil, was quite tasty and just enough to eat for a late lunch after 2pm. Pasta was 6 euros, soda (in a bizarro large sized 330ml can) was 4 euros WTF! Water wasn't much cheaper so whatever. Total was 12.20 including an extra 1 euro for tip which I probably shouldn't have left but whatever.
2:30pmish - walked to the Ca d'Oro vaporetto stop not too far away and validated my 72 hour pass. Took the boat 2 stops to S. Marcuola and followed the signs to the Ghetto. It was pouring so hard and the raindrops were so big that it sounded like hail hitting the boat. Luckily by the time I arrived at S. Marcuola, it had mostly stopped.
3:20pm - Found the museum pretty easily after a short walk, just in time for a guided tour starting in a few minutes (every hour on the half hour). Guided tour with admission to the museum was 7 euros with my rolling card (saved another 1.50 euros!). The guy at the ticket desk was the one who held the tour and there was only 3 of us, a couple (maybe from France?) and me. It was so fascinating, perhaps because it was just 4 people, but we got to go into 3 of the old synagogues built in the early 1500s (1520s-1530s or so) and hear about the other 2 (there are 5 and those 2 are still functioning). Only 15 Jews live in the ghetto anymore and only 420 jews live in Venice (though he explained that this is actually the same % of the Venice population as before WWII which is interesting since the city's population has about halved in recent decades). And of course, something I didn't even realize til he said it, the reason the Venice synagogues didn't get ruined during WWII is because Mussolini was an ally of Hitler. Lol duh Debra.
Something most interesting was how well the Jewish population was treated in the 1500s-1700s under the Doge's power. He let them come in and it was actually a larger body (if I recall correctly, the Pope) who required the ghetto to be formed. He explained that it was ghetto because of the German Jews who first settled, they couldn't pronounce the Venetian word for 'foundry' - he joked that if the ghetto area had been a bakery instead, then the word ghetto would be something entirely different. So anyway, they were allowed to build these synagogues on the top floors of the building. And because the population kept growing in the Venice ghetto because, relatively speaking, the Jews were treated really well in Venice compared with the rest of Europe at that time (aka they could pray freely), they were allowed to build up. So the ghetto has the tallest buildings in all of Venice.
Anyhoo, the best thing about the tour was that the guide was so happy and proud to be Venetian, and he says, this is a really diverse city, but here, we are Venetians. And even the synagogues have red curtains in them - the symbol of Venice. So I found that so interesting and kind of heart-warming in a sad way because it is a city in such decline (except for its tourism), yet the people who actually live here are so proud to do so. He said something like "I hope you take a little bit of Venice home with you and that you are not just a tourist" or something like that and I thought it was really beautiful.
4:20pmish - went back to the museum and very briefly looked at the museums exhibits, which were similar to the ones in Vienna just a lot smaller, then to their little café/bookshop and bought a traditional Jewish Venetian cookie (forget the name but it's made with almonds and very tasty) and a cold bottle of water. Then bought a little "guidebook" to the Jewish stuff in Italy. It has lots of pictures inside (couldn't take any in the synagogues) and has stuff about Florence and Rome too so for the price (6.20) I figured I'd actually even use it while I'm here.
Made my way back to the S. Marcuola stop and hopped on the Vaporetto 1 (there are 2 that go down the big main canal, the 1 is slower and the 82 is faster and makes fewer stops).
5:25pm - Got off at the Salute stop across the canal to go into the Santa Maria della Salute church - this huge round beautiful church. Pictures were allowed, just no flash (no problem for me). First church here I've encountered that let you take pictures.
5:45pm - got back on the 1 and went to more stops to my stop, S. Zaccaria. It's weird being on the boat. They are not that stable and I get a teeny bit icky feeling being on them, and even now in my hotel room a half hour later (6:30pm) I kinda feel like I am still rocking. :S
6:40pm - went to the S. Zaccaria dock and caught the 82. Meant to get off at S. Toma, but misread the map and missed it, so got off at the next stop at the Rialto bridge. Found a couple places that came highly recommended off TripAdvisor and other places, might check them out tomorrow or the night after.
7:30pm - Made my way to Campo San Polo, a big square filled with locals, and found the Brrraria la Corte, which also came highly recommended on TripAdvisor and in Rick Steves's book. Had, well, the same meal as last night LOL a lemon soda (limonata) and pizza margherita. Was a little cheaper than last night but a 2 euro cover charge including service, so it washed out. I didn't leave any extra tip because the service was kind of poor. So total 10.30.
8:30pmish - Decided to walk back instead of taking the vaporetto because really it wasn't that far and my feet aren't feeling too bad at the moment. In the Campo San Polo, there was like a temporary movie theater full with stadium seats and ticket windows. Absolutely wild.
Passed, of course, La Botique del Gelato and just had a 1 euro "single" of chocolate. I put "single" in quotes because it's really more than one scoop, aka an amazingly cheap deal for 1 euro.
9pmish - made it to San Marco and took a few pictures with the camera's night scenery mode. Didn't love how the ones I took out yesterday came out.
9:15pm - back at the hotel, really tired. Hope to sleep better tonight.
6:30am - woke up :( :( :( :(
8:05am - went down to breakfast. There was no one there so I went into the restaurant where there was a guy. Told me to sit anywhere. Breakfast is some prepackaged nasty toast "biscuits" (they shouldn't bother) with butter and jam on the table, some yogurt (blech), and then he brings out juice and a couple croissants which were good. He asked if I wanted coffee or a cappuccino or something and of course, I would want a cappuccino LOL. So he made me one. That was nice.
8:20am - walked over to the Rialto market - had a bit of trouble finding it but once I did, it was smaller than I expected. Just a few rows of stalls selling mostly the same stuff at fairly cheap prices, but still it was all beautiful. Then next to it is the huge fish market where most of the restaurants in town get their stuff. I bought some plums, a couple nectarines, and a couple kinds of tomato (a big one and a few little cherry ones) - all for 2.90. then at another place I bought some of what look like concord grapes, for 1 euro. Mmmm. Fruit.
Walked back to the hotel and put the stuff away. Creepy dude was washing the floor outside, hurrah. Left and went to Piazza San Marco.
9:45am - figured I should get in the line for the Basilica San Marco since my Doge's Palace tour until 10:25. if the line went fast I'd be able to see the church and then go around the corner to the palace. The line went fast. Was inside by about 10:05. Wow, it's unreal inside. All the mosaics and gold. Apparently they light it up from time to time and then it's REALLY amazing but not til later in the day I think. Anyway bought a couple postcards of the inside for a big 80 cents since no pictures allowed.
10:20am - go into the special line for the Doge's Palace (which I can see from my hotel), which lets me bypass the regular line, nice. The guy tells me the 10:45am tour is canceled and that we all go into the 11.35am tour. He says the 10:45am one doesn't run during the summer. I am like ohkkaaaaayyyy why did they let me reserve it then LOL. Anyway no problem I paid (10 euros instead of 16 because of my rolling card, so the card just paid for itself and then some), got my ticket and sticker, and had an hour to waste. Was going to sit on the bench in the shade in the piazza and just people-watch but I was like no, I'd much rather shop!!! So since everything is so close, I went back to that beautiful mask shop and bought myself a gorgeous little purple one (duh) for 22 euros - not bad since it's 100% handmade. She was very nice and told me that because it's papier-mâché (OneNote corrected the spelling with the accents, I am not that good ;)), I don't have to worry about it breaking. Hooray! She packed it up nicely with bubble wrap and all and I was on my way. On the way back I found another mask/glass store selling little hand-painted magnets. Bought one for 3.30. Very cute and, of course, purple :p Wandered in and out of a few more shops and dropped the stuff off at the hotel since it is so close to the Palace anyway. Very convenient.
11:15ish - skip the line again and go into the courtyard where the tour started. Now I realized that I could have explored the rest of the Palace (the tour I was going on only takes you to specific parts that the regular ticketholders can't go but you can then go explore the rest of the palace on the same ticket, so it's really quite a good deal). No problem I will just do it after. Sat in the shade til the tour started.
11:35am - tour started. A short (ok, even shorter than ME) Italian girl who kept apologizing for her English (which was really perfectly adequate) starts the tour, explains things along the way, and we get to see the "secret" parts of the palace, which was also criminal and civil law courts, data centers, and prisons. Pretty neat really. You go ALLLLLL the way up to to the top floor and actually above the ceiling under the roof. This was a bit scary. You get to see some of the offices (which were dark and so stuffy, can't imagine it on an even hotter day), and the prisons where Casanova was kept and how he escaped. All pretty interesting. While we were on the tour somewhere it started POURING. I mean it was raining so hard that she had to close some of the windows up top because it was raining in. It was also thundering and I presume lightning. And of course, I didn't bring my umbrella OR my jacket with me since it was fine this morning when I left. Oy.
1:00pmish - so the tour ends just before 1 and you are left inside the palace. I wandered around through some of it, across the Bridge of Sighs into the newer prisons, where the Doge actually lived, etc. Considered waiting out the rain in the cafeteria but it was unsurprisingly crazy busy. Bought 3 post cards of some of the pretty interiors for 3 euros since again no pictures, and left. By then it had luckily mostly stopped raining. The Piazza outside was like FLOODING. People were taking pictures with bare feet and water up to their ankles! To get back to the hotel I couldn't take the back way without being ankle-high in water so I walked around the front of the palace and back. The water was at the top of the canals. Amazing, one little storm for a couple hours - granted it was heavy but still - and the place was starting to flood. Can't imagine what happens when a real storm lasting a couple days rolls in. Anyway dropped the stuff off at the hotel and grabbed my umbrella and jacket in case it came back. Set off to head to the Jewish ghetto and find some lunch.
1:30pmish - getting really hungry, the place in Rick Steves's book right up the alley from my hotel that he said was great for lunch appears to have closed, so plan B. Keep wandering, nothing is hitting my eyes as looking great, keep walking towards the ghetto (or so I assumed), found a place finally that had reasonable pastas and the like and no cover. Called the Malibran or something like that. Had spaghetti with garlic and oil, was quite tasty and just enough to eat for a late lunch after 2pm. Pasta was 6 euros, soda (in a bizarro large sized 330ml can) was 4 euros WTF! Water wasn't much cheaper so whatever. Total was 12.20 including an extra 1 euro for tip which I probably shouldn't have left but whatever.
2:30pmish - walked to the Ca d'Oro vaporetto stop not too far away and validated my 72 hour pass. Took the boat 2 stops to S. Marcuola and followed the signs to the Ghetto. It was pouring so hard and the raindrops were so big that it sounded like hail hitting the boat. Luckily by the time I arrived at S. Marcuola, it had mostly stopped.
3:20pm - Found the museum pretty easily after a short walk, just in time for a guided tour starting in a few minutes (every hour on the half hour). Guided tour with admission to the museum was 7 euros with my rolling card (saved another 1.50 euros!). The guy at the ticket desk was the one who held the tour and there was only 3 of us, a couple (maybe from France?) and me. It was so fascinating, perhaps because it was just 4 people, but we got to go into 3 of the old synagogues built in the early 1500s (1520s-1530s or so) and hear about the other 2 (there are 5 and those 2 are still functioning). Only 15 Jews live in the ghetto anymore and only 420 jews live in Venice (though he explained that this is actually the same % of the Venice population as before WWII which is interesting since the city's population has about halved in recent decades). And of course, something I didn't even realize til he said it, the reason the Venice synagogues didn't get ruined during WWII is because Mussolini was an ally of Hitler. Lol duh Debra.
Something most interesting was how well the Jewish population was treated in the 1500s-1700s under the Doge's power. He let them come in and it was actually a larger body (if I recall correctly, the Pope) who required the ghetto to be formed. He explained that it was ghetto because of the German Jews who first settled, they couldn't pronounce the Venetian word for 'foundry' - he joked that if the ghetto area had been a bakery instead, then the word ghetto would be something entirely different. So anyway, they were allowed to build these synagogues on the top floors of the building. And because the population kept growing in the Venice ghetto because, relatively speaking, the Jews were treated really well in Venice compared with the rest of Europe at that time (aka they could pray freely), they were allowed to build up. So the ghetto has the tallest buildings in all of Venice.
Anyhoo, the best thing about the tour was that the guide was so happy and proud to be Venetian, and he says, this is a really diverse city, but here, we are Venetians. And even the synagogues have red curtains in them - the symbol of Venice. So I found that so interesting and kind of heart-warming in a sad way because it is a city in such decline (except for its tourism), yet the people who actually live here are so proud to do so. He said something like "I hope you take a little bit of Venice home with you and that you are not just a tourist" or something like that and I thought it was really beautiful.
4:20pmish - went back to the museum and very briefly looked at the museums exhibits, which were similar to the ones in Vienna just a lot smaller, then to their little café/bookshop and bought a traditional Jewish Venetian cookie (forget the name but it's made with almonds and very tasty) and a cold bottle of water. Then bought a little "guidebook" to the Jewish stuff in Italy. It has lots of pictures inside (couldn't take any in the synagogues) and has stuff about Florence and Rome too so for the price (6.20) I figured I'd actually even use it while I'm here.
Made my way back to the S. Marcuola stop and hopped on the Vaporetto 1 (there are 2 that go down the big main canal, the 1 is slower and the 82 is faster and makes fewer stops).
5:25pm - Got off at the Salute stop across the canal to go into the Santa Maria della Salute church - this huge round beautiful church. Pictures were allowed, just no flash (no problem for me). First church here I've encountered that let you take pictures.
5:45pm - got back on the 1 and went to more stops to my stop, S. Zaccaria. It's weird being on the boat. They are not that stable and I get a teeny bit icky feeling being on them, and even now in my hotel room a half hour later (6:30pm) I kinda feel like I am still rocking. :S
6:40pm - went to the S. Zaccaria dock and caught the 82. Meant to get off at S. Toma, but misread the map and missed it, so got off at the next stop at the Rialto bridge. Found a couple places that came highly recommended off TripAdvisor and other places, might check them out tomorrow or the night after.
7:30pm - Made my way to Campo San Polo, a big square filled with locals, and found the Brrraria la Corte, which also came highly recommended on TripAdvisor and in Rick Steves's book. Had, well, the same meal as last night LOL a lemon soda (limonata) and pizza margherita. Was a little cheaper than last night but a 2 euro cover charge including service, so it washed out. I didn't leave any extra tip because the service was kind of poor. So total 10.30.
8:30pmish - Decided to walk back instead of taking the vaporetto because really it wasn't that far and my feet aren't feeling too bad at the moment. In the Campo San Polo, there was like a temporary movie theater full with stadium seats and ticket windows. Absolutely wild.
Passed, of course, La Botique del Gelato and just had a 1 euro "single" of chocolate. I put "single" in quotes because it's really more than one scoop, aka an amazingly cheap deal for 1 euro.
9pmish - made it to San Marco and took a few pictures with the camera's night scenery mode. Didn't love how the ones I took out yesterday came out.
9:15pm - back at the hotel, really tired. Hope to sleep better tonight.
Day 33
Wednesday August 29
5:10am - woke up. Arrrrrrrrggggggggh it's so early it hurts LOL
5:35am - checked out, went to the tram and made it to the train station by about 6ish. Found my train on the board - and then looked at the staircase to get to the trains track and it was huge. About 2 flights' worth, and I was like HELLLLLLLL NO. So I went another way and found a way to get there with moving upward ramps. Hooray.
6:05am - train is very nice, broken up into berths of 6 seats. There are power outlets! Bathroom in the car and a restaurant car "next door"
6:30am - train leaves - there is one empty seat in my berth, luckily for my suitcase. Still a little cramped b//c of all my shit but it should be ok.
7:10am - guys come for the tickets - other people in my little group have the internet eticket thingy too. He scanned it into a barcode and gave us a ticket/receipt, easy enough.
7:30am - looks like we are on the side of some kind of mountain or hill or something. Countryside is beautiful. Power outlet doesn't seem to work and I don't know how to get it to work so oh well, no movies or TV shows for me :(
8:30am - hahaha yes the outlet does work, it would help if I were trying to use it with my plug properly put together ;) We must be running late because I think it was supposed to stop at 8:15 or so and didn't. Blah. Oh, yep they just announced the stop. Hooray. Oh and great a lot of people are getting on, if someone gets on in this little berth I am screwed LOL
And here someone comes… this will be a fun few hours. I wonder what people with bigger suitcases do, b/c I saw people get on with them. I mean there is overhead space but really can only fit small stuff.
8:40am - The guy next to me and the guy who got on are talking about how fast I type… in Italian I presume. LOL Ah yes, they mentioned Italian city names I recognized hahaha.
Ok so as it gets later, it's getting darker out… yikes.
9:30am - dunno where we are but it's pouring rain now. Something funny is that out of nowhere the train will just stop, they'll make an announcement, and then it will start again. Obviously, I don't know what they said lol.
Noon - came from an underpass/tunnel to a gorgeous sight of mountains and valleys. Somewhere in northern Italy I guess. Beautiful. It's foggy but not raining, I think we're running close to a half hour late gah. Been watching some episodes of Weeds and the movie Employee of the Month, not exactly fine entertainment but it helps pass the time. The guy next to me looks and laughs whenever I type as if he's amazed. LOL!!! It's kinda embarrassing.
I bet you are wondering how I knew it was italy - well, the names of things I could see out the window started ending in vowels all of a sudden. HAHHAHA!!!
2:10ishpm - finally arrived, almost 45 min late. And who even really knows why, we set off on time! Maybe because of the fog it couldn't go as fast in some parts? Actually in general I thought it was slower than I had anticipated, I thought it would be a much faster train. We'll have to see how the Eurostar Italia ones in a few days compare. Anyway, it's not raining (yay!) and I am like, crap what do I do LOL. So I find the Vaporetto (aka water bus - the only public transport in venice) ticket desks and get my single 6 euro ticket. She tells me I have to go down to the last ticket desk to buy the Rolling Venice card. So I go and get it, it's 4 euros and it makes the 30 euro 72 hour vaporetto card only 18 euros instead of 30, plus I will get a discount at a museum tomorrow, and some other stuff too. Cool. Go wait for the vaporetto and a nice Italian man in broken English asks where I'm from and tells me a boat is coming soon. It was very kind. Get on the vaporetto 82 and stand with my luggage for the whole ride, which was longer than I had thought it was going to be, but I think it took a weird route.
3:00pmish - finally get off the vaporetto and find the tiny little alleyway my hotel is off of. The crowds around Piazza San Marco are enormous but as soon as I turn off onto this little alley, almost everyone disappears. The hotel is in this tiny little courtyard right off San Marco with a view of the back side of the Doge's Palace (way old prison). The sign at the desk said "we are in the restaurant" (they have a restaurant next door) so I go in and it's a bunch of people sitting at a table just chilling. I wave meekly and one of them gets up and welcomes me, fills out a form with my passport info (required in Italy), gives me the keys and a very handy little pocket map the hotel had made up, takes me up to my room (up 2 not-really-as-steep-as-i-was-expecting flights of stairs) and says "it's small but has everything you need" Ok, so it is REALLY small, I'm not sure where to put my suitcase. But it is adorable. Nice and cool with a cute view of the courtyard below and the back of the palace, it has a TV with tons of stations, a safe, little closet, comfy bed, a place to put stuff, outlets, minibar/fridge, and the bathroom is teeny tiny but has a nice-sized shower and a bidet and a sink that I can be able to do laundry in. So he's right. Tiny, but has what I need. He says "we are like a family here so if you need anything just ask" then he tells me "I don’t advise you calling the US with the room phone directly, best to buy a pre-paid card. I just want to be honest." Wow, all this for 90 euros a night? :)
So then the "fun" begins. He has a guy bring up my suitcase and backpack. I feel really badly because both are heavy. But he brings it and I am grateful that I didn't have to do it so I get out a 2 euro coin. I think that's enough. He's a guy of Indian descent (only relevant because I couldn't tell if he was actually Italian or not) and he starts asking me questions and I can't really understand him at all and then he pretty much asks me on a date LOL!!! I nearly fell on the floor and died laughing. I was all "you are sweet, but no" and he was like "are you MARRIED?!?!?" And I am like, that is none of your business. OMG, it was SO BIZARRE LOL!!!! But I wonder if this lovely little hotel has a creep of a bellhop type person LOL. Anyway I relax for a little bit.
4:00pm - set out to see Piazza San Marco. Considering it's about a 2-minute walk away, that was not hard ;) But first, I turned the other way on the alley coming out of my hotel and I had a private secret view of the famous "Bridge of Sighs" - there is no barrier to the water so I carefully leaned out, looked to the left, and there it was - with 9803984509348093 japanese tourists taking pictures from the next bridge, and there was me, all alone. And then to my right was a couple on a gondola. Oh my. And then I had my "OHMYGOD pinch me, I'm in Italy!!!!" moment :p I've been to 6 (7 if you count part of a day in Sweden) countries before this, and none of them had the electricity in the air that there is here. Of course, every place is unique. But this place is REALLY unique. Amsterdam may have more canals than Venice, but this is just different. Even my hotel is in a 15th-century palace, or so the materials say.
One of the first things that hit me is the noises you hear. It's people and pigeons. No cars. None at all whatsoever. No "streets" here, per se. the "roads" are alleys. So once you get off the tourist thoroughfares, it's SO quiet. SO VERY quiet. It's wonderful and peaceful.
So I just wander around. Find a gelato place and have a scoop of chocolate for 1.50. I'm sure it's not the best I'll taste, but I was hot and hungry (all I'd eaten was the pastry I bought and some combos and a granola bar), and you could still taste the real cocoa flavor and that it was homemade and of a much lighter texture than other ice creams. MMm… just wandered, bought a bottle of cold water, and just got lost. Everyone's right, you can't get too lost because there are signs all the time telling you where San Marco is, so finally I just ended up making a circle. The souvenir shops are EVERYWHERE. All selling the same glass stuff, fake masks from China, etc. It's sad. But what's sadder is that most people only see this part of Venice, and I must say, this part of Venice is busy, touristy, and you feel like you are being taken advantage of it. It's a wonder how anyone who just comes on a day trip or cruise and doesn't get more than 3 blocks from San Marco enjoys this city. I can't wait to see some untouristy parts tomorrow! But the stuff is beautiful. I'm going to have to restrain myself with the credit cards in some of the glass shops. They're so pretty but so so fragile and expensive!
5:00pmish - came back to the hotel and had a bit of a snack since I know I won't be able to eat here at least until 7. It's probably good practice for going further south in Italy where I won't be able to eat before like 9 LOL. I was going to just find a place near San Marco that had pizza, but the touristy-ness is so annoying I think I will just follow a Rick Steves suggestion not far from the Rialto bridge, which I don't think is too far a walk if I go directly. And on the way back is a place he says has the best gelato in town. So I can cap my first night in Italy with a perfect pizza and gelato duo. The question is, how many times over the next 14 nights will this be my meal!?! ;) But really, I couldn't imagine starting my time in Italy any other way, could you?
6:20pm - left. Decided not to look at a map too much but just head in the right direction of Rialto (big famous bridge) and map it when necessary. Found it with no problems and ironically enough found the gelato place on the way ;) Across Rialto, there are a ton of shops and souvenir stands and stuff like that, which I know not to buy from, but there was a stand selling all sorts of amazing-looking fruit cups for 1.50. So I bought one that had raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and a couple strawberries in it. Oh my gosh. For the first time in about a month I felt so healthy LOL!!
6:55pm - so with a little help from my map, I find the place in the Rick Steves guide that supposedly has some of the best pizza in the city. Well he said it opened at 7pm, and at 5 til, all the chairs in the patio were up, gates were over the doors, etc. the menu did look nice, but I was thinking it was not gonna be open at 7. Still I sat on a little bridge for about 10 min and went back and still nothing. I was bummed, I really wanted my pizza and I really didn't want to eat it in too touristy a place LOL.
7:10pm - so I start walking back towards San Marco, I knew I saw tons of little restaurants and trattorias that had pizza in their name or on their menus etc. So I just told myself, the first place that had pizzas that weren't overpriced, I'd try. Well the first one had pizza in the name but I didn't see pizza in the menu. Plus the WAITER GUY OUTSIDE WAS FUCKING CREEPY!! I couldn't understand him but he was trying to get me to eat there and I think he said something about do I have plans later!! WHAT THE CRAP!! I said yes LOL! I wasn't expecting this BS til I got further south man!
7:30pmish - So I walked up the street and found cute little Pizzeria Bora Bora, with margherita pizzas for 6 euros and no cover charge, just 12% service included. Perfect. Go in, get my table, really cute and cozy place, painted with "bora bora" esque stuff on the walls. I got a lemonade (which is lemon soda that I am pretty sure they poured out of a can into a glass, how classy) and a margherita pizza. And in about 5 minutes it was on my plate, steaming and still sizzling. NOW I was in Italy :) I don't know if it was because it was so fresh out of the oven it was sizzling on the plate or that it was just because I was sitting in Italy eating it or because I'd had crappy pizzas all across Europe for a month… or maybe it was just THAT good, but damn, it was one of the best pizzas I've ever had (mom and dad, think Bellino's but a better, wood-baked crust, but similar sauce and cheese I think). So, total 10 euros plus 1 left on the table. They were also very nice there and even though the bill was 10.08, they didn't want the 8 cents ;) Anyway, left absolutely stuffed and set out to find the gelateria.
8:00-8:15pmish - took a couple wrong turns and then realized that I'd actually walked right by it (it's a little hole in the wall with no sign!), I found the place. Before I found it I found one of the mask shops that people on TripAdvisor recommended. Oh my gosh. They are just absolutely gorgeous. They happened to still be open so I went in and said I wasn't ready to buy tonight but did they have a business card so I could find it again - she took out a map and said their cards weren't finished yet but she circled where they are on this map. Very helpful. They had little ones with lots of purple, so I think I will be able to get one that I really like that is real and authentic and Venetian and handmade and not too expensive on top of it. Hooray!
Now back to the Gelato. So I found the place. Cheap too! 1.70 for a cup with 2 flavors, so to measure it up to other places, I got chocolate and coffee. And oh wow. Wow wow wow. It's not that it was creamier, because the one we had in Brugge and the one I had in Vienna were really really creamy, but the flavors. They were just so STRONG. You could taste the chocolate and the coffee that had gone into it. Oh gosh, it was good.
So I eat it while walking and don't even use a map to get back to San Marco, just follow the yellow signs (they are so handy because you can just wander and not worry about it). And all of a sudden you will be walking down a side street and the street will end and there you are, in Piazza San Marco. And at night it is lit up and 3 old cafes have little orchestras right out on the patio that you can listen to (by standing or paying about 15 euros for a drink yikes), they kind of duel with each other. When one finished a song, another would start, etc. Anyway, a really magical kind of thing - much less busy, many many fewer pigeons, some of the buildings are lit up. Let's just say I had another *pinch me* moment.
Needless to say, I've died and gone to heaven, aka Italy.
8:45pm - but I am tired so I made it back to the hotel. The entrance to their restaurant is around the corner and it actually looked really busy - or perhaps a group of people were just waiting outside. Looked at the menu earlier and it looked expensive and nothing I'd really want to eat so even with a 15% discount for guests I think I will give it a pass. Anyway I am going in the door when one of the waiters or someone lets me in and then guess who comes out. CREEP DUDE FROM EARLIER. Guess he's really a waiter in the restaurant. Roar. I just ignored him and walked up the stairs :)
So in Austria, I got British Eurosport and in Italy I get German Eurosport. For some reason I am finding this inordinately funny LOL
5:10am - woke up. Arrrrrrrrggggggggh it's so early it hurts LOL
5:35am - checked out, went to the tram and made it to the train station by about 6ish. Found my train on the board - and then looked at the staircase to get to the trains track and it was huge. About 2 flights' worth, and I was like HELLLLLLLL NO. So I went another way and found a way to get there with moving upward ramps. Hooray.
6:05am - train is very nice, broken up into berths of 6 seats. There are power outlets! Bathroom in the car and a restaurant car "next door"
6:30am - train leaves - there is one empty seat in my berth, luckily for my suitcase. Still a little cramped b//c of all my shit but it should be ok.
7:10am - guys come for the tickets - other people in my little group have the internet eticket thingy too. He scanned it into a barcode and gave us a ticket/receipt, easy enough.
7:30am - looks like we are on the side of some kind of mountain or hill or something. Countryside is beautiful. Power outlet doesn't seem to work and I don't know how to get it to work so oh well, no movies or TV shows for me :(
8:30am - hahaha yes the outlet does work, it would help if I were trying to use it with my plug properly put together ;) We must be running late because I think it was supposed to stop at 8:15 or so and didn't. Blah. Oh, yep they just announced the stop. Hooray. Oh and great a lot of people are getting on, if someone gets on in this little berth I am screwed LOL
And here someone comes… this will be a fun few hours. I wonder what people with bigger suitcases do, b/c I saw people get on with them. I mean there is overhead space but really can only fit small stuff.
8:40am - The guy next to me and the guy who got on are talking about how fast I type… in Italian I presume. LOL Ah yes, they mentioned Italian city names I recognized hahaha.
Ok so as it gets later, it's getting darker out… yikes.
9:30am - dunno where we are but it's pouring rain now. Something funny is that out of nowhere the train will just stop, they'll make an announcement, and then it will start again. Obviously, I don't know what they said lol.
Noon - came from an underpass/tunnel to a gorgeous sight of mountains and valleys. Somewhere in northern Italy I guess. Beautiful. It's foggy but not raining, I think we're running close to a half hour late gah. Been watching some episodes of Weeds and the movie Employee of the Month, not exactly fine entertainment but it helps pass the time. The guy next to me looks and laughs whenever I type as if he's amazed. LOL!!! It's kinda embarrassing.
I bet you are wondering how I knew it was italy - well, the names of things I could see out the window started ending in vowels all of a sudden. HAHHAHA!!!
2:10ishpm - finally arrived, almost 45 min late. And who even really knows why, we set off on time! Maybe because of the fog it couldn't go as fast in some parts? Actually in general I thought it was slower than I had anticipated, I thought it would be a much faster train. We'll have to see how the Eurostar Italia ones in a few days compare. Anyway, it's not raining (yay!) and I am like, crap what do I do LOL. So I find the Vaporetto (aka water bus - the only public transport in venice) ticket desks and get my single 6 euro ticket. She tells me I have to go down to the last ticket desk to buy the Rolling Venice card. So I go and get it, it's 4 euros and it makes the 30 euro 72 hour vaporetto card only 18 euros instead of 30, plus I will get a discount at a museum tomorrow, and some other stuff too. Cool. Go wait for the vaporetto and a nice Italian man in broken English asks where I'm from and tells me a boat is coming soon. It was very kind. Get on the vaporetto 82 and stand with my luggage for the whole ride, which was longer than I had thought it was going to be, but I think it took a weird route.
3:00pmish - finally get off the vaporetto and find the tiny little alleyway my hotel is off of. The crowds around Piazza San Marco are enormous but as soon as I turn off onto this little alley, almost everyone disappears. The hotel is in this tiny little courtyard right off San Marco with a view of the back side of the Doge's Palace (way old prison). The sign at the desk said "we are in the restaurant" (they have a restaurant next door) so I go in and it's a bunch of people sitting at a table just chilling. I wave meekly and one of them gets up and welcomes me, fills out a form with my passport info (required in Italy), gives me the keys and a very handy little pocket map the hotel had made up, takes me up to my room (up 2 not-really-as-steep-as-i-was-expecting flights of stairs) and says "it's small but has everything you need" Ok, so it is REALLY small, I'm not sure where to put my suitcase. But it is adorable. Nice and cool with a cute view of the courtyard below and the back of the palace, it has a TV with tons of stations, a safe, little closet, comfy bed, a place to put stuff, outlets, minibar/fridge, and the bathroom is teeny tiny but has a nice-sized shower and a bidet and a sink that I can be able to do laundry in. So he's right. Tiny, but has what I need. He says "we are like a family here so if you need anything just ask" then he tells me "I don’t advise you calling the US with the room phone directly, best to buy a pre-paid card. I just want to be honest." Wow, all this for 90 euros a night? :)
So then the "fun" begins. He has a guy bring up my suitcase and backpack. I feel really badly because both are heavy. But he brings it and I am grateful that I didn't have to do it so I get out a 2 euro coin. I think that's enough. He's a guy of Indian descent (only relevant because I couldn't tell if he was actually Italian or not) and he starts asking me questions and I can't really understand him at all and then he pretty much asks me on a date LOL!!! I nearly fell on the floor and died laughing. I was all "you are sweet, but no" and he was like "are you MARRIED?!?!?" And I am like, that is none of your business. OMG, it was SO BIZARRE LOL!!!! But I wonder if this lovely little hotel has a creep of a bellhop type person LOL. Anyway I relax for a little bit.
4:00pm - set out to see Piazza San Marco. Considering it's about a 2-minute walk away, that was not hard ;) But first, I turned the other way on the alley coming out of my hotel and I had a private secret view of the famous "Bridge of Sighs" - there is no barrier to the water so I carefully leaned out, looked to the left, and there it was - with 9803984509348093 japanese tourists taking pictures from the next bridge, and there was me, all alone. And then to my right was a couple on a gondola. Oh my. And then I had my "OHMYGOD pinch me, I'm in Italy!!!!" moment :p I've been to 6 (7 if you count part of a day in Sweden) countries before this, and none of them had the electricity in the air that there is here. Of course, every place is unique. But this place is REALLY unique. Amsterdam may have more canals than Venice, but this is just different. Even my hotel is in a 15th-century palace, or so the materials say.
One of the first things that hit me is the noises you hear. It's people and pigeons. No cars. None at all whatsoever. No "streets" here, per se. the "roads" are alleys. So once you get off the tourist thoroughfares, it's SO quiet. SO VERY quiet. It's wonderful and peaceful.
So I just wander around. Find a gelato place and have a scoop of chocolate for 1.50. I'm sure it's not the best I'll taste, but I was hot and hungry (all I'd eaten was the pastry I bought and some combos and a granola bar), and you could still taste the real cocoa flavor and that it was homemade and of a much lighter texture than other ice creams. MMm… just wandered, bought a bottle of cold water, and just got lost. Everyone's right, you can't get too lost because there are signs all the time telling you where San Marco is, so finally I just ended up making a circle. The souvenir shops are EVERYWHERE. All selling the same glass stuff, fake masks from China, etc. It's sad. But what's sadder is that most people only see this part of Venice, and I must say, this part of Venice is busy, touristy, and you feel like you are being taken advantage of it. It's a wonder how anyone who just comes on a day trip or cruise and doesn't get more than 3 blocks from San Marco enjoys this city. I can't wait to see some untouristy parts tomorrow! But the stuff is beautiful. I'm going to have to restrain myself with the credit cards in some of the glass shops. They're so pretty but so so fragile and expensive!
5:00pmish - came back to the hotel and had a bit of a snack since I know I won't be able to eat here at least until 7. It's probably good practice for going further south in Italy where I won't be able to eat before like 9 LOL. I was going to just find a place near San Marco that had pizza, but the touristy-ness is so annoying I think I will just follow a Rick Steves suggestion not far from the Rialto bridge, which I don't think is too far a walk if I go directly. And on the way back is a place he says has the best gelato in town. So I can cap my first night in Italy with a perfect pizza and gelato duo. The question is, how many times over the next 14 nights will this be my meal!?! ;) But really, I couldn't imagine starting my time in Italy any other way, could you?
6:20pm - left. Decided not to look at a map too much but just head in the right direction of Rialto (big famous bridge) and map it when necessary. Found it with no problems and ironically enough found the gelato place on the way ;) Across Rialto, there are a ton of shops and souvenir stands and stuff like that, which I know not to buy from, but there was a stand selling all sorts of amazing-looking fruit cups for 1.50. So I bought one that had raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and a couple strawberries in it. Oh my gosh. For the first time in about a month I felt so healthy LOL!!
6:55pm - so with a little help from my map, I find the place in the Rick Steves guide that supposedly has some of the best pizza in the city. Well he said it opened at 7pm, and at 5 til, all the chairs in the patio were up, gates were over the doors, etc. the menu did look nice, but I was thinking it was not gonna be open at 7. Still I sat on a little bridge for about 10 min and went back and still nothing. I was bummed, I really wanted my pizza and I really didn't want to eat it in too touristy a place LOL.
7:10pm - so I start walking back towards San Marco, I knew I saw tons of little restaurants and trattorias that had pizza in their name or on their menus etc. So I just told myself, the first place that had pizzas that weren't overpriced, I'd try. Well the first one had pizza in the name but I didn't see pizza in the menu. Plus the WAITER GUY OUTSIDE WAS FUCKING CREEPY!! I couldn't understand him but he was trying to get me to eat there and I think he said something about do I have plans later!! WHAT THE CRAP!! I said yes LOL! I wasn't expecting this BS til I got further south man!
7:30pmish - So I walked up the street and found cute little Pizzeria Bora Bora, with margherita pizzas for 6 euros and no cover charge, just 12% service included. Perfect. Go in, get my table, really cute and cozy place, painted with "bora bora" esque stuff on the walls. I got a lemonade (which is lemon soda that I am pretty sure they poured out of a can into a glass, how classy) and a margherita pizza. And in about 5 minutes it was on my plate, steaming and still sizzling. NOW I was in Italy :) I don't know if it was because it was so fresh out of the oven it was sizzling on the plate or that it was just because I was sitting in Italy eating it or because I'd had crappy pizzas all across Europe for a month… or maybe it was just THAT good, but damn, it was one of the best pizzas I've ever had (mom and dad, think Bellino's but a better, wood-baked crust, but similar sauce and cheese I think). So, total 10 euros plus 1 left on the table. They were also very nice there and even though the bill was 10.08, they didn't want the 8 cents ;) Anyway, left absolutely stuffed and set out to find the gelateria.
8:00-8:15pmish - took a couple wrong turns and then realized that I'd actually walked right by it (it's a little hole in the wall with no sign!), I found the place. Before I found it I found one of the mask shops that people on TripAdvisor recommended. Oh my gosh. They are just absolutely gorgeous. They happened to still be open so I went in and said I wasn't ready to buy tonight but did they have a business card so I could find it again - she took out a map and said their cards weren't finished yet but she circled where they are on this map. Very helpful. They had little ones with lots of purple, so I think I will be able to get one that I really like that is real and authentic and Venetian and handmade and not too expensive on top of it. Hooray!
Now back to the Gelato. So I found the place. Cheap too! 1.70 for a cup with 2 flavors, so to measure it up to other places, I got chocolate and coffee. And oh wow. Wow wow wow. It's not that it was creamier, because the one we had in Brugge and the one I had in Vienna were really really creamy, but the flavors. They were just so STRONG. You could taste the chocolate and the coffee that had gone into it. Oh gosh, it was good.
So I eat it while walking and don't even use a map to get back to San Marco, just follow the yellow signs (they are so handy because you can just wander and not worry about it). And all of a sudden you will be walking down a side street and the street will end and there you are, in Piazza San Marco. And at night it is lit up and 3 old cafes have little orchestras right out on the patio that you can listen to (by standing or paying about 15 euros for a drink yikes), they kind of duel with each other. When one finished a song, another would start, etc. Anyway, a really magical kind of thing - much less busy, many many fewer pigeons, some of the buildings are lit up. Let's just say I had another *pinch me* moment.
Needless to say, I've died and gone to heaven, aka Italy.
8:45pm - but I am tired so I made it back to the hotel. The entrance to their restaurant is around the corner and it actually looked really busy - or perhaps a group of people were just waiting outside. Looked at the menu earlier and it looked expensive and nothing I'd really want to eat so even with a 15% discount for guests I think I will give it a pass. Anyway I am going in the door when one of the waiters or someone lets me in and then guess who comes out. CREEP DUDE FROM EARLIER. Guess he's really a waiter in the restaurant. Roar. I just ignored him and walked up the stairs :)
So in Austria, I got British Eurosport and in Italy I get German Eurosport. For some reason I am finding this inordinately funny LOL
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