Venice

For a reason completely unknown, Venice has topped my list of places I wanted to visit for a long time.

As mentioned, we took the train from Cinque Terre to Milan and connected to a train to Venice. This connection was to a high speed train which we were eager to experience. While staying in Orvieto, we saw many high speed trains whiz by on a separate track bound for Rome or Florence, each time one of us exclaiming "holy crap" or "geezus" as it flew by. However, we looked at each other as we left Milan and agreed...this isn't really that fast. Oh well.

We arrived in Venice at night, Ben booked us a surprisingly affordable room right in Venice at Albergo Marin while we were on the train. And by now, you know how good it feels for us to arrive with a room already found. Conveniently it is also near the laundromat, which we needed after the rainy, muddy and then hot and sweaty days prior to our arrival. We both were getting to the end of our clean clothes.

Arriving in Venice was a bit magical in a sense. It is a congested city like so many others, but walking out of the train station you are looking at the grand canal and as your senses and brain all connect you have this realization in the first several minutes that there are no cars here. The city streets are water and boats are moving around, skillfully steered by locals through aquatic traffic jams. Of course you know there are no cars and the streets are canals before you arrive, but you really get a different sense of knowing when experiencing first hand. I think Ben would be content to sit and watch the boats for hours.

Finding our hotel involved a narrow alleyway characteristic of Venice and we found it pretty quickly, the room is tiny and we have the only room that requires we go down the hall to use the bathroom (yes the least expensive, but also the only room available). Everything is clean and convenient.

We take off to the streets of Venice, no destination in mind, but just to get lost and find some dinner. We accomplish both before returning to our room. The next morning is breakfast at the hotel and then laundry next door. Here I am able to help a French woman start her machine, I had no idea what she was saying, but she kept on talking and through hand gestures and a few funny facial expressions we got her machine started.

Our next full day in Venice was also a long stream of us being lost, happily. This led us to a great lunch spot, filled only with locals, and the best spaghetti carbonera we have had in all of Italy. A delicious gelaterias was next door for dessert. Near the Rialto Bridge, we shopped, partially out of interest and partially because the shops and stands are so abundant in this area that you cannot avoid them. We sat in St. Mark's Square and people-watched, pigeon-dodged and listened to an audio tour that I had downloaded previously that described the buildings and history around the dramatic square. Part of the basilica was covered for renovation, but we could see its beauty from the side and I think it is the most interesting massive church we have seen on our trip.

As I type this it is a new sunny day in Venice, May 1, which is a another holiday (labor day). I am typing while sipping a Bellini on a patio with Italians chattering around us, shooing pigeons, and the whole patio applauded at the strong pop of a bottle of champagne at one of the tables. I think they are just celebrating how cool it is to be Italian. This morning we road the vaporetto (like the city bus) on the Grand Canal to enjoy the city from the water, amongst the first onto the boat, we got a pretty decent spot to take photos. After this we returned to our hotel with about 14 minutes to pack and check out of our room. It was a mad dash!

We spent the evening of May 1 at Agriturismo Colombera (old farmhouse gone b&b) in a small town outside of Venice but close to the airport. It is beautifully calm and quiet here and the remodel on the old farmhouse is impeccable.

As of now this blog is current! It is Friday, May 2 and today we are flying to Marseilles in the South of France, which was actually not in our plans. But, we are making good time and have a few more days in our itinerary before Switzerland, so why not? :)

Final Italian bullets

• No matter how long we are in Italy I cannot read the names Donatello or Michaelangelo without first thinking of ninja turtles, art still comes second
• We never saw a bocce game or even a court in Italy, a disappointment for Ben
• Flip flops are not all the rage in Italy and the few times I chose comfort and donned mine I also noticed the odd stares at my feet then up at my face to figure out who the freak show was wearing them. This puts me in a special club with the little Japanese man at the train station coolly wearing an umbrella hat - sometimes we just want to be comfortable and say "screw it" to the stares
• It was a harsh realization that Venice=end of Italy=end of gelato
• We had multiple cafe items served to us with the napkins underneath the food, Ben hates this so don't do it if he is coming to your house for dinner
• Italians do not talk to strangers on the train
• High speed trains rattle a lot
• Few men in Venice wear a fashion scarf (in contrast to other Italian cities)
• Italian homemade pasta is often chewy, similar to undercooked pasta in the US
• Parisians, Hungarians and Croatians seemed more fit - Italian size and weight comparisons are more like what you would see in the US