New Thing #65 - Italy, Day 10 - Venice

Friday, March 18, 2011

Last full day in Italy. Has it really come to this already? I feel like we've just arrived.

Well, might as well make the most out of our last and only day in Venice. We woke up bright and early to get a head start, despite Brenda's grumblings. In her defense, we were up too effing early for a vacation. In our defense, she's the one who wanted to see Venice! ;-)

Our hotel.

Breakfast consisted of carbs, carbs and more carbs. At least the rolls in Venice had flavor and couldn't slice your hand open. They did have yogurt here as well, but it was in small individual servings rather than a big vat of it like in Florence. I preferred it that way.

The concierge gave us a map, but it was much bigger and bulkier than the maps I had of Rome and Florence. I wasn't really looking forward to lugging that thing around. And I actually didn't really need it. Out of our hotel there were nice signs pointing us in the direction of St. Mark's Square, and it was very easy to find. From everything we had read in the guidebooks, people said that Venice should be done sans map. And I can see why. There's only so far you can really get before you hit water and can't go any further.

Being in Venice is so wild...to walk out of our hotel and walk a block and see this.

Uhhh, watch your step!

Thank goodness for bridges!

Gondolas ready for business.

Be careful not to drink too much at dinner and fall over the railing! :)

They look so pretty!

We popped into St. Mark's Square and unfortunately the first thing I noticed were more g-d pigeons. And sea gulls. Ballsy birds everywhere. Great. Just what I need. A bird to the face at 9 in the morning.

Next, I noticed the square and St. Mark's Basilica. Wow, it's gorgeous. It's a mixture of different cultures and artistic styles. Unfortunately, it was covered in scaffolding for repair, so I wasn't able to get a very good photo of it.

Damn scaffolding.

Campanile or Bell Tower

We decided we had walked and climbed enough, so we opted not to go up in the bell tower.

Beautiful architecture.

More scaffolding to ruin my photos.

The buildings that make up the square were just gorgeous.

Love this.

The square was huge.

There were four restaurants in the square that set up chairs outside. Each would play live music to compete with the others. But, don't be fooled. You can't just sit in these chairs and enjoy the ambiance. Nope. You had to pay to sit there. No thanks. I think I'll just sit on one of the elevated platforms used when it floods!

Zodiac Clocktower

Look at the turtle zooom!

One entrance to St. Marks'.

The different artistic stylings are so beautiful together.

Schmany roofline.

Lots of different colored marble columns.

At the steps to the bell tower.

We took some time to wander around and look at all the sights before we could get into St. Mark's. (We were kinda early.) It wasn't too long though before we got in line to head inside. Fortunately this church was free, but we weren't able to take photos inside. We also had to walk on elevated platforms to get in. These are apparently pretty common; you know, considering we were on a floating city and all. It's pretty common to have water in the square. Good thing for us there wasn't much, and it was was all under where the walkway was.

Wee bit of water outside.

I wish I could have taken photos inside. It was gorgeous. It was covered in mosaics, floor to ceiling, and the mosaics used gold leaf as decoration so they sparkled. It felt weird to walk on the platform and then the wet floor. I'd definitely have to invest in some high-quality high-waders if I lived here!

Connected to St. Mark's is the Doge's Palace, which used to be the home of the ruler of Venice. The court and prisons used to be here as well. That's weird. Let's house the city's worst criminals in the same building as the most powerful person in the city. Wait. Actually, that makes a ton of sense. Nevermind.

Bird bath outside of St. Mark's. This is where they belong. In their bird bath where they can't harm anyone.

These spikes were everywhere, especially above doorways, to keep the pigeons from trying to roost there.

Doge's Palace view from the square.

St. Mark's

Close up of St. Mark's domes.

View of Doge's from the waterfront.

Two of my favorite photos of the arches at Doge's Palace.

Buildings along the waterfront.

We headed over to see the Bridge of Sighs and the damn thing was COVERED in advertisements. WTF? Are you kidding me? It looks terrible. We think it was to cover up scaffolding and work on the buildings, but I think I preferred the scaffolding look instead.

This is not the Bridge of Sighs, but you can usually see it when you're standing on this bridge. The Bridge of Sighs connected the interrogation rooms to the old prisons. It's supposed to have windows with stone bars.

This is ALL of the bridge that is visible. Dammit!

Next, we headed back to the pier to await the next vaporetto bus to take us to the island of Murano. It is well-known for their glass work, and we were pretty excited to head over there. Even though there were a lot of people around, it was still incredibly peaceful. I don't know how to describe it. Just looking at all the docked gondolas had a calming effect on me. It was beautiful.

Pay no attention to the girl with the camera. :)

We did see a guy getting his gondola ready for the day and we couldn't believe he fit underneath the bridge.

But he totally made it!

Off to wait at the floating "pier" for our "bus".

Nikki's checking to make sure we're on the right bus for Murano. It's a long trip. We don't want to make it longer by taking the wrong frikkin' bus!

Our bus/boat arrived and we hopped on for the 30-40 ride around the perimeter of Venice to Murano. It's another island on the northern side of the lagoon that surrounds Venice. Unfortunately, we were staying on the southern side of Venice, so the boat had to go alllll the way around, stopping at about 76 places along the way.

I enjoyed the ride, for the most part. We were in the covered part, but it got a bit stuffy and the open windows didn't help too much. Nikki, on the other hand, didn't really dig the ride. I think it was because she was standing and got really hot.

Yay for vaporettos!

Walled city or something on one of the small islands surrounding Venice.

I had to take a picture of the algae/slime when we pulled up to one of the stops. I have no idea why.

We arrived on the island, and I didn't think we would find somewhere quieter than Venice, but Murano definitely won hands down. It was a sleepy little village, profiting off of their love of glass work. As soon as we stepped off the boat, there were guys ushering us into their shop for a free viewing of glass blowing in progress. I've seen glass blowing at a shop here in St. Louis, so the technique was the same, but it just doesn't compare to being in Italy and seeing it done in the birthplace of it!

Firing up the glass to reheat and make it pliable.

Using some of the tools to shape the glass. They were making a lamp.

My new Italian boyfriend. He was pretty hot. And also damn fast. We left the shop and headed into the showroom and then he appeared out of nowhere. I don't know how he got over there so fast. I didn't think it was the same guy, but another guy who looked like him. I'm an idiot. Thanks to Brenda for calling me out on my dumbassery. ;-)

Fancy lamp.

This was pretty much the only thing we were allowed to take photos of. All the glass shops forbade it.

We didn't buy anything at this first shop, although we ooohed and ahhhed over damn near everything. It was all so pretty. I wanted to ship all of it back home, but it was bloody expensive. I didn't want it that badly!

These photos are contraband. I wasn't supposed to be taking photos and I got reprimanded!

We knew there would be a lot of shops to look at, so we set off on a walk around the island to see what it had to offer. We were also starting to get hungry and hoped to find a trattoria along the way. We knew what would happen if we got too hungry, so we headed further inland.

What does an island who specializes in glass shipping need the most? Foam packing peanuts!!

We passed a bathroom that cost money to get in. WTF, we need to find a restaurant NOW!

Murano was definitely a sleepy island. There weren't many people around, so we wandered for a while before we ever saw another person, except for a lady hanging her laundry out to dry. We spotted signs for a trattoria, so we followed them over a bridge and down a dirt road.

Laundry day! I liked the pulley system for the people on the upper floors, so they could still hang their clothes outside!

Crossing another bridge on the way to the restaurant.

Uhhh...where the hell are we going?

We kept going down a small road until we saw a small building claiming it was a restaurant, and a few gentlemen sitting outside enjoying the sunshine. We walked in and asked about lunch, but we had arrived about 20 minutes too early. They weren't technically open yet. We opted not to wait, even though they said we could have one of the tables outside. It looked a bit iffy, so we pressed on, hoping to find a more populated area. In retrospect, there really wasn't anything wrong with that place. We were just being Americans and thinking that a quiet out-of-the way restaurant was a bad thing.

We headed back in the direction we came, and ran across a small group of people heading further inland. Yeah, let's follow the crowd, maybe they know where the food is!

All the buildings had these gorgeous glass plaques with their number on them. I want one for my house!

Eventually we found civilization and what must be the central canal of Murano. It was bustling with activity and was dotted with restaurants and shop after shop after shop of glass to buy. But first? We eat!!

Main canal down Murano.

The sun was out, it was nice and warm, and it was a great day to sit outside! Trattoria al Coralla had a few tables outside along the water and we arrived just in time to snag one of them. It felt great to sit down, but more importantly, we would be paying customers, so we could use the bathroom.

We could not have asked for a better day outside. It was magical! :)

Woooooo!!!

I was determined to try fish at least once while in Venice, but I wasn't brave enough to try the octopus or any other slimy thing like that. They had a great tourist special that started with a plate of spaghetti in tomato sauce, followed by a salad and fish fillet, plus 1/2 liter of water. It's funny that on my last day in Italy, I finally eat just plain ol' spaghetti!

I heart fresh al dente pasta!! Yum!

Nothing really special about the salad.

I have absolutely no idea what kind of fish this was, but it tasted a lot like fried catfish. It was really good though and tasted incredibly fresh. I wouldn't doubt if they caught it that morning. It was pretty weird though just eating a fillet of fish by itself. I'm not used to eating a straight meat course with no sides.

Sign in the bathroom. Be sure to move the arms on the air to get the light back on.

Full and happy and with much more energy, we set off on our quest to buy some glass! We stopped in almost every single store on one side of the canal. I kid you not, I think we went into at least 20 different stores before we crossed the bridge and started on the other side. I was determined to make it home with a glass souvenir. I just couldn't decide between a piece of jewelry, a wine stopper, a purse hanger or a picture frame. I ruled the frame out pretty quickly when I realized they were more than I wanted to spend unless I got the tiny ones. Every store I looked at, I couldn't find a design of wine stopper or purse hanger that really spoke to me. I thought a lot of them were pretty, but none pretty enough I wanted to depart with my hard-earned money.

Rings, on the other hand, kept popping up all over the place screaming "buy me, buy me". I kept getting drawn back to them. But, Italians must have sausage fingers, because every single ring I tried on kept falling right back off. I think I tried on at least 48 rings and I could never find one that actually fit any of my fingers. It was ridiculous. The only ones I found that might work were the ones with a glass "stone" set in a metal ring that was adjustable. I didn't really want that. I wanted a full glass ring.

Dangit!

I did consider buying one that I was in love with, but didn't fit, and just tying string around it like a girl wearing her boyfriend's class ring, but I thought that would be tacky for a 31-year-old to do. Plus, I didn't want to redneck-up a fancy Italian ring.

So, I waited.

We stopped at a beautiful glass sculpture to take some photos and rest for a bit. Shopping was hard work!

Pretty. But painful.

Do I look European with my scarf?!

Every store we went in, we tended to see a lot of the same stuff. Some of the wine stoppers that I found were gorgeous, but they weren't all made in Murano. You could tell first by the fact that it wasn't stamped on the metal part, (we were looking for "Made in Murano") but also because the non-Italian stoppers were way cheaper than the others. I started to get frustrated until one of the last shops when I found two gorgeous blue rings flecked with silver foil on the inside. And oh my gosh, they both actually fit! YAY!!! I was torn between the two blues, one more vivid royal blue and the other with a slight hint of turquoise to it. I loved them both, but ended up with the more turquoise because it fit slightly better.

Okay, mission accomplished. My work was done, so I was ready to go, but we stopped in a few more shops to see if anything caught Nikki or Brenda's eyes. Brenda ended up getting a tiny giraffe for her niece, and an ornament for her mom. Nikki wasn't able to find anything that spoke to her, so we decided it was getting late in the day and we needed to head back to the main island. There were still a few items on our list that we wanted to see before the end of the day.

More shops along the canal.

I thought these buildings were just gorgeous.

The colors and the history on them are stunning.

We prepped for the long ride back, and fortunately we were able to be on the edge where we could get a nice cool breeze.

Waiting for the bus.

No idea what that was, but it was pretty!

What our vaporetto buses looked like.

The ride back took for-effing-ever. I never thought we would get back. We ended up getting off on one stop before we needed ours just because we were ready to get off the damn boat. It was close to our stop, so we were fine walking the rest of the way just to stretch our legs.

I wonder how much this guy shelled out for this gondola ride. From what we heard, they weren't cheap. I hope it was worth it buddy!

Typical Venetian "street".

The Rialto Bridge was pretty much the last thing on our list. We knew there would be a ton of other sights in Venice that we wouldn't get to, but only being there one day, we could only see a few highlights.

The Rialto was ridiculously crowded, so it was a bit difficult to get up and over. Everyone had the same idea to stand on top and take photos. Needless to say, after over a week on vacation, and running out of steam, we weren't in the mood to fight any crowds. So, we picked up some pastries, found a small spot by the water, and enjoyed the the view.

No idea what was in these pastries, but it was flaky and had chocolate chips and powdered sugar on top. Sugar and chocolate. Can't go wrong with that!

Views off the Rialto.

So pretty.

We walked up and down the interior of the Rialto to look in all of the shops and purchase the remaining souvenirs we wanted. One of which was a pasta shaped like a certain male body part. Come on, we had to have this pasta! No idea what I'm going to use it for. Maybe I'll make spaghetti with it for an unsuspecting guest some day and see what they say!

"Inside" the Rialto.

And then we went on a wild goose chase trying to find the Rialto Fish Market. Clearly, it had to be close the actual bridge, so we headed in the way that smelled the fishiest. Which is tough to do in a city floating in the water. We kept walking, asked one of the street vendors and then kept walking. We thought we were getting close until Brenda overhead a guy telling a girl where the "market" was. We assumed she was asking about the fish market, so we decided to follow her, back the way we just came from. At a discreet pace, of course. We didn't want to look like we were stalking her.

This worked for all of 20 feet, until we she started sprinting down the street. Good grief, the fish aren't going anywhere, honey. We tried to follow, but 4 girls running down the street tended to draw some attention. We decided it wasn't worth it, so we asked for directions again, and were told they were back in the direction we had just come from. Dammit, what the hell. Somehow we managed to find it, but again, it was closing up shop. We were horrible about getting to the markets in Italy on time! I don't think it really would have done much good anyways, since it was mainly fresh fruits, veggies and fish. Not exactly the type of thing the customs officials like to see being brought into the country.

The day was drawing to a close, so we headed back to the hotel to pack up our belongings for the next morning and prep for dinner. We wanted to first head to Harry's Bar, the famous bar where the drink bellinis were first created. It took us a little bit to find it, since it was further down the coast than we anticipated. After walking in and seeing the rates for even the smallest bellini, 15 Euros each, we high-tailed it out of there. Now I see why celebrities are known to go there. They can afford it!

We had planned on getting a few drinks before dinner, but by now, we just wanted to find a damn restaurant. We wandered for probably a half an hour and only found closed retail shops and pricey restaurants. We couldn't find one place that fit within our budget for the longest time. We weren't using the map, just meandered our way through walkways and over bridges. It was kind of cool to just wander aimlessly about. Until my stomach starting telling me what it thought about my laziness.

Eventually we found an adorable restaurant called Vinovino, where they took us all the way to the back. Is that where they put all the tourists? Usually we spent most of our meals in the front of the restaurants, so it was surprising we made it all the way into the back. For our last real meal in Italy, we ordered a bottle of wine (duh), and we decided to get two courses. I started with the fusilli panna, prosciutto e funghi (fusilli pasta with cream, ham and mushrooms), and for my second course I got the salmone in salsa di peperoni, capperi, zerizero (salmon with peppers, capers and ginger sauce).

My pasta arrived and it was decadent. The cream sauce was so rich and delicious that I wanted to take the whole vat of it home with me. Best pasta in Venice! Oh wait, I've only had one other pasta here...

Terrible photo. Delicious food.

The problem with a cream-based pasta is how filling it was. I could barely move after this plate, but I still had a whole nother course coming out. And there was no way I wasn't going to eat it after how much it cost!

I didn't eat the peppers, but the salmon was delicious. But, good grief, I shouldn't have gotten this. How am I going to have room for gelato later?!

Our silliness of the night finally wound down, so we headed back to the hotel. We did get directions from the servers though. We at least wanted to know what street we were on so we could get our bearings. We ended up actually being fairly close to our hotel, and made it quickly enough. We had to pass through St. Mark's Square, along with a number of darkened streets that look especially creepy at night. They're not big on garish street lamps there!

St. Mark's at night.

Venice used to be like the Las Vegas of Italy. People went there to get away from their problems, and act like they were somebody else. Hence the masks. Which you could buy just about anywhere.

I had to take a picture of the Avatar masks amidst the traditional Venetian masks!

The city looks kind of haunted at night. Whoops, can't say the "h" word. It freaks Nikki out! :)

We had to stop to get gelato though. It was our last day, and we couldn't break tradition now. We stopped by 2 places that had been open earlier, but were now closed. Dangit. I was determined to find an open shop, so we headed back towards the Rialto. Since pretty much the rest of Venice was shut down, I was hoping this would be a hot spot for people to mingle.

Success!! We found a small shop still open and serving gelato. I had to go with my new favorite, coconut, as my last taste. It wasn't the best I had had, but it hit the spot. I also got a cone and it was enormous. Go big or go home, right?

It's late, and time to head to bed. We have a very long journey home tomorrow night, so we need as much sleep as possible.

For Venice...

Best historical site: I'd have to say all of it. Venice in general was amazing.

Best pizza: That gargantuan pizza at Da Mamo. It was hella good.

Best pasta: The fusilli...damn, I'm still thinking about it!

Best gelato: Unfortunately, the coconut doesn't really stand out.

Best overall experience: Murano. It was such a neat place to visit.