Buon Giorno da Venizia! I’m so very excited to be here, and it’s gorgeous!!! The flight was mostly uneventful and though we were delayed about an hour leaving Philly but we did make up the time and somehow made it into Venice 10 minutes early. I was quite impressed with my 27 lb bag, though Kim actually packed a carry on! Wow. Sat next to two nice and normal people on the flights, and surprisingly managed to get a little bit of sleep on the way here.. maybe a few hours with a two hour straight shot. Kim slept a bit too, so we were tired, but revved up on adrenaline and ready to go! Amazingly, my bag was not the last bag off the plane, or even close, and it was smooth sailing to the vaporetti.
There’s no way to arrive in Venice except by water, so we did just that. The Vaporetti had several stops, in Murano, where the famous venitian glass is made, Lido, where a guy that we were talking with from LA who was working the three week venice film festival was headed to. The water was choppy from the storm in and gave the docks quite a smack upon arrival! The jolt only served to ensure we stayed well awake, and we headed off into the sea of people at Piazza San Marco to find out hotel.
Kim suggested to stop at the tourist office to get directions. Well, I usually will walk for hours before doing so, but it seemed like a really smart idea so we did. Or so you’d think. We got a map (again, seemed smart at the time!) and headed in the right direction. 10 minutes of walking through the crowded piazza, up and down stairs over the bridges spanning the smaller canals and no hotel. We stop and ask for directions again… and again.. and again. Oh yes, our first experience in Venice, like that of SO many other people, was of getting completely lost in the maze of Venice. We finally realized that we trekked well past our destination, backtracked and did eventually make it in. Whew!
Checked in and our room would be ready in one hour, so we decided to head out for lunch. But not before I decided to “clear up “ the room confusion. I had originally booked a single, and when Kim made plans to join, I booked a double. Well, when I checked in they said they had a twin. So I explained that I requested a double room. Ok, so we head out to lunch. We got two paninis which were great and loaded up on water as it’s very hot and humid, and wandered a bit to get our bearings. Went back to the room and apparently a double is one bed. Whoops! Well, the hotel staff was quite open and accepting of our request, but it wasn’t exactly the right one! :o) Cleared that up (the right time, this time!!) washed up and changed, and headed out again. We of course had to try some gelato (when in Rome, right? Or Venice anyways.) Yum. Of course.
We decided to head to Dusoduro and the Peggy Guggenheim museum. On the way we heard a rumble of thunder followed by another. “nah, it won’t happen” I said. It was a gorgeous and quaint walk through a quiet neighborhood to find the museum. It’s funny, as there’s a lot of hand-written signs in strange random places here. So, don’t look for street names, just keep an eye out for a small hand written sign! Then you come to a dead end, and … no sign! Guess your way and hope you see another, and maybe you will. If not, backtrack as you likely went the wrong way and voila! It’s a riot. The walk was nice though, again going over small canals and the grand canal on the Accademia Bridge. The museum was formerly the private residence of Peggy Guggenheim, american heiress. She had not one but three picassos, which was impressive. Also had several Pollocks. The museum was neat as it showed pictures of her posing in her house (back when it was her house) so you had the perspective of this artwork she had in her private residence. The art wasn’t really our taste, but by the time we got the museum it started POURING so we were glad for the cover. There was a special exhibit too which was avante garde ultra modern junkyard—not sure how to describe it but it was kind of interesting actually!
We ventured out in the rain and got rather soaked. I was regretting not having my flip flops (they were part of the ‘I need to lighten my bag’ mission, and missed packing several other things. As a matter of fact, Kim and I have been laughing about it. I think I win the ‘prize’ if there were one, of things forgotten. Worst of all was my battery charger and spare for my camera (resting quietly in the outlet being recharged as we speak!!) Drat. I also forgot my license, or more accurately, grabbed my AAA card instead. Mother, before you start squawking, I mean, providing your supportive opinion, I will say that as reminiscent of New Orleans as this is, I DID manage to remember my passport, which is far more important. Thankfully we didn’t plan on driving!!!! As we were walking we saw probably 25 gondolas covered and sitting in one of the waterways. The rain died down as we were there, so the gondoliers all started walking onto their boats, uncovering them, and readying them to take out people. It was really funny to see all the guys with their striped shirts balancing on the boats!
Oh, one thing I did forget to mention is the fires. So, a few weeks before I went to Costa Rica in February, I found out that there was a pretty major earthquake, right in the region we were going. Being ever responsible, I decided it made sense to NOT see what is going on in Venice and Florence. After all, why find that kind of thing out? Well, get to the airport and the super friendly (bastard) guy who checked me in pipes in “hey, did you hear about the fires just outside of Venice?” I won’t document my reply…
We walked around for a couple of hours dodging into stores when the rain got heaviest, ogling the Murano glass that’s to be seen everywhere. We came upon the Rialto bridge and checked it out, then headed off to find a trattoria for some dinner. We found a cute little place after a bit of wandering, and had a surprisingly good dinner. Kim had porcini pizza and I had fresh made tagiatelli pasta. Yum. We had some barbera wine then headed back to our hotel.. which we didn’t realize was maybe a few doors down! We had no idea we were so close.
We got to the room all set to send our messages, but unfortunately the wireless connection isn’t working in the room. At least we have Kim’s little netbook that we can write this up in the room and run downstairs to send (I hope.. guess we’ll find out in a minute!) We’re both exhausted and it’s been a long day. Getting to bed early so we can get up early to head out to see the town. We decided what we’ll do tomorrow.. but you need to wait until then to read all about it!!
Venice is really beautiful. Narrow and windy streets, and as was suggested to me before I came here, maps are largely irrelevant here. They're good for direction and perspective, but that's mostly it! Following a map led us well out of our way, and to several dead ends. The city is very quaint and it's a lot of fun to wander down the narrow alleyways to see what new adventures are lurking just ahead! I'm looking forward to exploring further tomorrow!
Arrivederce!
Sam
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