On Wednesday we checked out of our Bologna hotel (Just me and my siblings) and boarded the train for Venice. This is the part of the trip I was most excited about. I couldn't wait to see this city.
When we walked out of the train station to a river (the grande canal) running right in front of it the feeling was surreal. The train station is very modern, and my mind kept imagining what I'd seen in all the pictures of Venice. There was a slight let down at my first glimpse, but as we travelled through the streets it was every bit as wonderful as I'd imagined it would be.
We were told that it would be 85 Euros to take a water taxi to our hotel. That's like $120, so we opted out. The water bus line was huge, so we thought we'd just walk. I chuckle now because we should have just waited for the bus. We were hot and sick of waiting in lines with more hot, smelly people. We'd condensed our luggage for our 2 day trip to Venice, so we thought we would have no trouble walking. For the most part we didn't. I navigated, and I'd have to say I did a darn good job. For those of you who've been to Venice, we stayed in San Marco. It is actually very close to the train station (maybe a 1/4 mile), but that darn Grande Canal was in our path. There are only 3 bridges over the canal, and no walkways right next to the canal that go the whole way. So, we walked to the Rialto Bridge, (the main, famous one) went up and over, and then wound our way through all the alley ways and over many more bridges until we arrived (about 45 minutes later) at our fridgidly air-conditioned hotel. It was heavenly. We splurged (OK, MOM splurged) on this hotel. It was MAGNIFIQUE (that's probably French). Here's a pic of what our room's looked like... talk about posh:
During check-in we had the desk clerk arrange for a water taxi to take us to Murano later in the afternoon. Murano is a small island off Venice where they are famous for blowing glass. It was AMAZING! We didn't take any pictures... just video, but the men who do it spend 20 years as apprentices and then finally become Masters. We got to watch them work for about 30 minutes and I was amazed that no one got burned. The master even held a cigarette that he was smoking the entire time he was working on a goblet.
The following day, our beautiful and smart tour guide, Frederika, took us around Venice. It was so nice to have a native tell you all about this fascinating place. When I asked her if she knew how to drive (I meant a car) she told me that her husband knows how to drive a boat, but she doesn't really. She said she just walks everywhere. These are some pictures we took on our tour.
Because everything is built on wood pylons under water, the ground is constantly shifting and ends up having waves. Thus, the towers always lean. This is the first leaning tower we saw.
For those of you in book club who read City of Falling Angels, this here is the rebuilt Fenice Opera House. Rebuilt in 1996. Surprisingly, Frederika told us that most of her clients who read the book, loved it. She says it was arson, with total confidence.
The Plaza San Marco
A leaning tower in the Plaza San Marco. It's not leaning as much because it's not as old. This particular tower already collapsed once.
Us, on the terrace of St. Mark's Basilica, overlooking the Plaza San Marco.
The Bridge of Sighs, named because it was built as a passageway between the Doge's Palace and the prison. It was the last view of the outside that the prisoner's had before their trials. Thus, the sighs.
Trying to keep Tabitha cool with a water bottle.
After at least 6 miles of walking for the day, we retire to luxury...
We really wanted to stay an extra day, but we'd already bought our train tickets back to Bologna. Sad.
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