Venice

June 20 

Venezia or Bust!

Our first day post-all-night-flying-hangover was a memorable one. Tony knew how much I really wanted to see Venice so he made it happen. We walked out of our lovely apartment at 8am, crossed the street for some breakfast baked goods, walked the three or so blocks to Santa Novella Train Station, and still had time to spare to make the 8:25 train to Florence. I am a HUGE fan of the high-speed trains in Italy. They're convenient, comfortable, and make it easy to sit back, relax, and enjoy the scenery. Or check Facebook. Whatever.

My only complaint about the trains is that when you buy tickets at the kiosk, the seat assignments tend to be a little...random. So, we have to decide who sits with which child and who sits alone and, inevitably, the person sitting solo has a child's ticket and has to explain the situation to the conductor, who has clearly heard this tale too many times and simply nods his head, rolls his eyes a bit, punches your ticket and moves on.

This morning I drew the "solo" assignment for the two-hour train to Venice and I have to say I enjoyed it. Just cool to be an observer, rather than the observed, which we too often are with a mixed race family with children of odd ages. Once in my seat, I immediately got a text from Tony, informing me where to find the charger for my seat. There was only one for two seats, so I immediately plugged in my iPhone. Score! This meant that I could read my book on the ride without worrying about wasting my battery life.

Just after I got settled, my seat mate arrived. A 70-ish Italian senora who was not pleased to find me (or I'm guessing ANYONE next to her). She commenced what I assume was griping in Italian for the better part of the leg to Bologna. I was completely entertained by her, particularly her habit of doing crossword puzzles by simply consulting the answer keys and then filling in the right words. I was a little sorry to see her go.

Pulling into Venice was pretty magical. Crossing the water, you realize, hey this place really is on/under water. Exiting the train station leads you straight to the vaporetto station, where I managed to put us on the wrong route. Instead of heading down the Grand Canal, we took the scenic route around the outside of the island. Although I contend we saw some sights that most people miss.

We exited at San Zaccario and purposely walked away from Piazza San Marco. We were hungry and wanted to eat somewhere away from the touristy area and wanted to savor the Piazza after lunch. We found an excellent restaurant with simple, delicious food, and got our first taste of just how convoluted the streets and alleys can be. It was a challenge just finding our way back to the Piazza.

Oh, the Piazza. So incredibly beautiful, yet so stinking hot. I was okay with it, as heat doesn't bother me too much, but the girls were pretty uncomfortable. We toured the San Marco Basilica, and were very disappointed not to be able to take photos. However, this did lend itself to Tony's favorite moment when an older woman literally slapped down someone's camera to prevent them from taking pictures.

Since Tony and I did the Siena bell tower, we sent the girls (all three) up to the top of the Camponile. They got the better end of that bargain as their bell tower had an elevator!

Next, we spent the next several hours just...wandering. Every street, every alley, every bridge was beautiful and interesting in its own way. I loved every minute of walking through Venice and we managed to walk from one end to the other, with lots of sidetracking along the way.

When it came time to start heading to the train station, Sam did a wonderful job of navigating, which impressed me because there is just no rhyme or reason to Venice's layout.

Too soon, it was time to head back. A relatively quick two hours (not too hard when you can travel at more than 150mph) and we were back "home" in Florence. We love our apartment and will be sad to leave tomorrow afternoon. But first, we get to spend most of tomorrow sightseeing in our "hood." : )