Canal Love

11/30/09

 

Up @ 7:00, I went to get the car and it took a long time in the rain.  Without coffee, we headed for Venice, Steven driving while I navigated.  En route, we had a great conversation about a number of things concerning relationship-like matters.  Nice.  It took us many tries to get out.  But we did, and two-plus hours later, I was on my iPhone trying to reach the Molino Stucky Hilton Venice.  Alessandro answered and after I called back, e-mailed me the directions (thanks, we've already got it covered). 

 

Into the big car park at the Venice Harbor we parked and with our bags (ever-growing in girth and weight, not unlike ourselves) got onto the public water taxi (I got our tickets again by using Italian!) and three stops later, in a grey and windy day, but very excited.  We got out at Palanca, and walked several meters to our hotel.  Okay, this hotel is unbelievable.  It's a five-star Hilton, and stands alone on the lagoon across from Venice, looking like a major attraction all its own.

 

Room 424-while we don't have a great view, if you stand in the corner you can see Venezia.  The hotel must have been some big factory at some point in its life. The bellman took us on a tour to the gym-we had to go outside, across a courtyard.  Gym?  It's really a spa.  Sa-wank.

 

Steven went on line and looked up "Cheap eats in Venice" and we marked some on our map and off we go to Venice!  We have our own private (O.K., if no one else is on the dock with us from the hotel) water taxi to San Marco. The great thing about staying where we are is you get great views of Venice from the water without having to pay for it!

 

We landed on the San Marcos dock at Venice. The first thing you see is the incredible Palazzo Ducco. This is where the doges, Venetian rulers, lived during their rule. It also housed all of the governmental chambers and prisons. I found this strange to have prisoners live where the king does but, no one asked me.

 

The outside of the palazzo is very different from other Italian architecture. It looks more Middle Eastern (Moorish). That is because Venice wanted to pay homage to their Ottoman roots and show independence from Rome.

 

Enough of the history lesson we needed food. The restaurant we chose was off the beaten path. The sky was about to open up any minute so expediency was at the utmost. We dashed through all the tourist traps. They are very tempting though; Italians do have style. Over the Grand Canal and finally Via di San Leonardo. Wonderful smells coming from all the shops made our mouths water, especially the Pasticceria (pastry shops). I felt my knees wobble at some of the delightful desserts on display but, “…You must eat your dinner before dessert!”  We moved on!

 

We finally found our restaurant. It is called Fred e Lucca. There were two people in the place when we arrived, both were at the bar. The place only had two people working there. Quickly the restaurant started filling with patrons, most were at the bar drinking the €, 80 wine or beer we read about online. The place really livened up and having a corner table to watch it all, we were enjoying ourselves.

 

Our waiters brought out the antipasti we ordered. It was full all types of seafood- great and very tasty. Actually, it was the best food I had on the trip so far. We could tell we had picked the right spot. Soon our main course arrived. Larry ordered pasta with olive oil and garlic (aglio e olio) and I ordered pasta con pomodoro.  Our plates were full and we dug in. Fantastic. It was a challenge to finish it all but, somehow we managed (see Larry’s bulging waistline comment).  It was the best time. All the while patrons were streaming in and out, placing their 1 euro on the counter, throwing back a glass of cheap something and out the door they would go. We were joking, the husband pouring out the milk, “Honey, the cat needs more milk.  No, I’ll go…” we could have hung out there for a long while but, those pastry shops were calling.

 

We paid our tab and asked to take a picture with our waiters. A nice French lady did the honors. On our way out, our waiters treated us to limoncello; A lemon liqueur. Talk about strong. Whew! I could barely drink it but, it made us warm as we dashed out into cold and rain looking for dessert.

 

We got our desserts and headed back to the hotel via water taxi. We disembarked and headed inside with our booty, pistachio cake and chocolate nougat log. We grabbed the computer; it was time to start the travel blog.

 

We were sitting in the very swank sitting area of our hotel eating our dessert, checking email, and working on the travel blog. A good day…off to bed.

 

 

Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit.  Happy December!  Up @ 8:00 and downstairs for an incredible breakfast.  Even champagne if we wanted but of course we are serious travelers…

Lots of food and maps and info about our Venice day.  They warned us at the front desk that today was considered a “high water day” and some of the squares might be flooded.  And when we got there from our water taxi, we could see that that was true.  Now it made sense why the night before they were setting up a lot of raised platforms throughout the streets.  And why many were wearing knee-high galoshes (didn’t know if we’d missed a fashion trend).

 

The first three hours were spent going through the Museo Archiologico and then the rest of the Palazzo Ducco, including the Bridge of Sighs (as the prisoners saw their last glimpse of freedom) and the prisons.

 

From there it was up to the top of the campanile with all of Venice laid out before (and after) us.  We have found a good system to find someone (usually a couple) who is taking their pictures, ask if they would like one of us to take it, then they are “happy” to return the favor.

 

Down, we went into the Basilica di San Marco-an incredible structure consisting of four domes covered in hundreds of thousands of gold tiles.  Up the stairs was one of the most impressive sights-the four horses from Constantinople that used to sit on the front (2 on each side) of the balustrade.  They were delivered to Venice in 1204 but were originally cast in 224 B.C.  Wow-history right there.

 

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering and photographing.  Back to the hotel, Steven had to do some of his on-line class (project management) so I went up to the roof garden and pool and bar as the full moon rose over Venice!  Magic.

 

While working on my class, the travel blog, and checking email I noticed I got an email from our pet sitter informing us that there had been a huge wind storm in Glen Ellen and that the dogs escaped two days ago and Rafa was still missing.

 

Long story short the fugitive ended up in the Santa Rosa Animal Control facility. After several email exchanges and several phone calls, we got him back home. That made the trip exciting in a different way that is for sure.

 

Back into Venice for a final evening, we spent the whole night looking for “Arte della Pizza” but couldn’t find it.  When we finally did…that’s it?  O.K.  We took our pizza back to a cold marble bench in San Marco Square and had it before getting back on our taxi to the hotel.  We choose the Zurich photos for the blog.

 

12/2/09

 

Up @ 7:00, I felt like getting dressed up today as we are going to arrive in Florence.  Another great breakfast and with all of our bags, the long walk along the Grand Canal to the public transit/water taxi.  It was a great ride; beautiful sunny day, the wind felt great and the transfer from that back to our car was really easy!  Florence. Here we come.  We only made one wrong (or to say we didn’t make it) turn, but after righting ourselves, arrived in Florence, to the craziness that is Goggle maps vs. reality and road closures, et al.  But the Hotel Kraft is going to be really nice.