May 28 ~ Time to Go Home!

Time to say goodbye to Venice.

We had to pull our suitcases over two bridges, onto the vaporetto #51, onto bus #5 and then into the airport. Whew....but it went smoothly. The vaporetto can be jam packed, but that early, ours was empty, so we could fit on with our luggage. After a couple of delays in Venice and then in Frankfurt, Germany, we made it to Denver Friday afternoon. To our poor, old bodies it was 1:00 am.

Favorite Moments in Italy:
• Civita di Bagnoreggio • Venice Boat Festival • meeting people from all over the world • learning a bit of Italian • the train ride from Chiusi to Venice • meeting Ruth's online friend from England, Paticia and her mum, Gertie • the Tuscan hillsides • Ruth's chat with the priest on the trainride - such a kind man • sunsets on the canals in Venice • Daniella Hunt - our tour guide at the Forum/Colosseum • gelato - the best was in Roma • the grounds of Il Poggio in Tuscany • the Scavi Tour at the Vatican (old mausoleums underneath St. Peter's Basilica with St. Peter's bones on display) • Sistine Chapel • Doge's Palace, Venice • our little Fiat rental car in Tuscany • returning the little Fiat rental car • the vaporettos in Venice • the 2 kids from the USA who play with the South Korean Philhamonic - they were visiting Venice to see Stravinski's grave • the churches and cathedrals • the markets everywhere • bike riding in Lido, Venice • the ladies banging pots and pans from their window for the Vogalonga boat race

Our trip to Rome, Tuscany and Venice was just great. We learned so much about Italy, its history, the language, and different cultures. And, as always, it is good to be home!

May 27 ~ Peggy Gugganheim Museum, Venice

Peggy Gugganheim, the niece of Soloman Gugganheim of the New York art gallery lived a Bohemian lifestyle as a female Cassanova. She became a great collector of art, buying directly from the greats like Picasso, Miro, Dali, Kandinsky. She financed Jackson Pollack and helped him achieve fame. Peggy moved to Venice, bought a palace and lived out her life here. After her death, her vast collection was moved into her home. It was quite an amazing display and even more interesting to learn about her life.

After the museum, we hunted down two of Rick Steve’s favorites – an osteria for quick lunch and then the best gelateria in town. Ruth had to try two flavors. We agreed that the gelato in Roma was tops.

We had a wonderful dinner on our own canal. Sat next to three from Montreal and really enjoyed chatting with them. When you are on a cana side restaurant sitting next to someone, it is really like they are at your own table. There was a beautiful golden full moon, but, of course, we had packed the camera already! We made our way home to finish up with our packing.

May 26 ~ Doge's Palace & St. Mark's Basilica, Venice

We took a tour of the Doge’s Palace in San Marco Square. It was an amazing place.

The “family tree” of the Doges names beginning in the 1300’s was on a wall. Truly hard to fathom for people like us from a country with a 200 year history! We read from Rick Steves’ book as we entered the rooms. He has such a fun way of interpreting history. He was a good addition to the written commentary provided by the museum. Rick Steves dubbed one statue of Mars as Paul Newman and we had to agree that it did resemble Paul.

At least from the front. Not sure about the back!

The Venetians had a complex form of city government that provided many checks and balances making it stable over the centuries. Towards the end of their reign, they had a CIA type of unit that was created to protect the citizens. There was an unusual letterbox called the Mouth of Truth where one could anonymously drop a note accusing another of a crime.

We crossed the Bridge of Sighs where the prisoners were taken from the court to the prison, glimpsing their last view of beautiful Venice. Here are two views of the bridge; one from outside and one from inside.

The prison was interesting to wander around in. There were lots of torture devices and weaponry on display, as well. The worst looking was the chastity belt! Wish we could had taken a picture of it.

After the great tour of the Doge’s Palace, we entered St. Mark’s Basilica for a quick visit. Beautiful! Lots of gondoliers waiting outside to take tourists for a ride.

May 25 ~ Lido, Venice

We took the Vaporetto to Lido, which is the strand of land protecting Venice from the open Adriatic Sea. The Lido is like a Southern California beach town. We rented bikes and rode around the island in about 2 hours.

 Tuesday is Market Day at Lido, so we stopped and looked around. Rick liked the panty hose stall.

 We bought a canteloupe, strawberries, some peaches and bananas for breakfast for the next few days. Fun carrying it all home in our backpack. Lido was a very fun day. It was great to have the freedom of being on a bike.

May 24 ~ Murano, Venice

Number 42 Vaporetto took us to Murano, the island of Venetian glass. In the mid 1400’s Venice was a bustling city with nearly 200,000 residents. The trade for goods from the east made Venice very rich. The Venetian glass artists were creating chandeliers, mirrors and other unique works of art. The city passed an ordinance that all glass furnaces must be located on the island of Murano for two reasons. They wanted to protect the city from accidental fires from the many furnaces and they wanted to keep the glass methods a secret from the rest of the world.

Can you believe this outdoor glass piece? Incredible! We toured many galleries looking for a piece that we both liked. We found the style we liked, but needed to find a small size that would fit our pocketbook. Toward the end of the day, we managed to find the one we wanted. We made our way to the Glass Museum and enjoyed looking at pieces from the 15^th century to present time. The museum workers were handling some pieces with white gloves. One worker stepped into the room right near us and tripped, breaking the delicate piece he was carrying. They all picked up the pieces and began putting them in order in the display, as if it was not a big deal, but I am sure it was. We felt bad for the man who dropped the piece.

At lunch canal-side, we sat near a couple from Arvada, CO. We had a great time comparing notes on our travels. As we were leaving, we stopped at the glass blowing demonstration furnace. Two men were decorating a glass. Rick picked out a piece that he wanted to buy. So, now we have two pieces.

May 23 ~ Venice

We went shopping this morning at the market for wine, lettuce, veggies and fruit. Ruth is cooking tonight at home. After stowing away our purchases, we made our way to the Canareggio Canal near our apartment and found that the annual boat festival, the Vogalonga, was coming in parade right down our canal. There were boats of all kinds: gondolas, dragon boats, canoes, kayaks, those long boats with lots of rowers and a drum. They just kept coming and coming in from the lagoon, where the race had taken place. 

Here is some info I found about the Vogalonga: 

Venice's traditional boat race, la Vogalonga (the long row), takes place each year on May 27. This exciting spectacle covers a 30km course starting at St. Mark's Square, going by the islands of the Venetian lagoon, turning around at the beautiful island of Burano and finishing along the Grand Canal. Over 1400 boats of all types with more than 5000 rowers will race in this year's event.

People lined the canal to cheer them into the city. Two older women were banging pots and pans from their second story window for the boats.  Most oats would hold up their oars to honor the ladies as they passed by. That was my favorite part!

 We watched boats go by for a good hour. Very entertaining!

May 22 ~ Venice

Today we took our first Vaporetto ride down the Grand Canal with our seven day pass. It is fun to be able to jump on and off whenever you want, but they are really crowded!

 We boarded the #2 Vaporetto and started our Rick Steves’ tour with our I-Pod. We had pretty bad seats, so we could not see many of his points, but it was still a good way to learn about Venice.

 We checked out San Marco Square and will come back during the week for a tour of the Doge’s Palace and Museum. We then headed to Rialto Bridge and did some window shopping.

 Then went to the Rialto Mercato and shared a ½ liter of vino near the fish market. They had all kinds of unusual fish for sale; cuttle fush, flounder, octopus, pre-skinned eel, Yum.

 We are trying very hard to get into the Italian way, so we snaked our way home through the side streets and corridors and took a nap. After our little nap, we tried, successfully, to locate the wifi hot spot that we had prepaid for the week. The wifi coverage is all along the Grand Canal, at San Marco Piazza and in one small square near a church that is close to our apartment. We found that we can sit on the Tre Archi bridge and have great coverage. So, we took books and took turns with the computer time.

At dinner time (8:30 pm) we ventured further into our neighborhood and found a great pizza restaurant. Actually, they are probably all great, but we enjoyed being serenaded by strolling musicians while having our pizza and vino. We really enjoyed our day and are happy that we will be in Venice for a whole week.

May 22 ~ Venice

May 21 ~ Train Ride to Venice

Reluctantly, we packed the car and left Il Poggio.

We dropped off our fun Fiat rental car at Chiusi and got on the train to Venice. Very relaxing 4.5 hour ride.

 

Stefania met us at the train station and escorted us to our one bedroom apartment in the Canareggio district. We love our little apartment that is tucked away in the city.

 We have to walk through little alleyways and courtyards to reach it. We felt that we should have left a trail of breadcrumbs for our first venture out. In fact, we did get lost on our way home from dinner as it was getting dark. Luckily, a couple came by and redirected us. We think we have it now!.