Friday, March 17, 2011
Thought for the day: leggings are not pants. They should not be worn as substitutes for legitimate pants. I don't care how skinny your legs are or how miniscule your butt. Don't do it.
I will explain that a little later.
Woke up this morning to gloomy overcast skies. Great, more rain. At least it was our last day here and we had seen pretty much everything we wanted to see. We packed up our suitcases again and left them with the front desk while we set out to do some more shopping. Since it was Unity Day today, we weren't sure what would be open and what wouldn't.
The weather was getting a bit ridiculous. First it was warm and muggy out and I started to sweat. Ten minutes later, it was cold and blustery and I was frakkin' freezing. It was kind of miserable. It reminded me of our last day in Rome. Like that day, at least it was our last day and we had been able to get everything else out of the way.
We spent most of the morning trying to find the adidas store we had seen about 1000 times in the previous few days, and stopping in all the shops along the way. Nikki wanted to try to find something for her boyfriend. At first it didn't bother us because we were able to look in lots of different leather shops, stationery stores, clothing stores, you name it. But, after awhile it seriously started to get obnoxious. I know we had walked by it so many times, so we tried to retrace our steps from 3 days of walking. That was nearly impossible.
We also tried to go to the Mercato Centrale, a large food market, but because of Unity Day, it was closed. Since we didn't know about all the closings, and pretty much Unity Day itself until yesterday, we were pretty bummed that we missed out on this fabulous market. (Seriously, in alllll of our research for this trip, not one of us ran across anything about this celebration.) Nathalie had told us all about it, and that we would be able to find some much less expensive, but just as delicious, balsamic vinegar to buy.
We walked to it anyway, just to see for sure, and found that yes, it was closed, and that it was located in a slightly less upscale part of the city. It seemed fine during the day, but not somewhere we'd want to wander around at night. Close by there was a sandwich shop Nikki's boyfriend had told her about, so we stopped in to get a sammich. Nothing really caught mine or Brenda's eye, but Nikki grabbed a bite. B and I were able to grab a sandwich at another shop not too far away. It was just a simple caprese type sandwich of mozzarella, tomatoes and basil. This was the only meal I didn't take a photo of, because I was too busy trying to walk and eat at the same time. It wasn't as good as some of the pastas I had had for lunch, but the price was definitely much better than sitting down!
We were cranky at this point, mainly because of the crappy weather, but also because the market was closed, we were tired of walking and we had pretty much seen and done everything we wanted to do. However, we still had a good 5 hours to kill before our train left for Venice. We decided to go on the hunt for an Irish Bar we had also seen once before. (You would think we would have learned our lesson from the adidas store. Which we did find, by the way, and were completely disappointed by.)
We again walked all over creation trying to rack our brains on where we were when we saw it. I knew the general area - over by Santa Croce - but we couldn't get the exact street down. We eventually gave up due to the cranky pants slowly creepin' on and asked for directions. Lo and behold, we found the damn thing. About damn time. Our feet hurt and we were aching for some nice Irish beer. It was St. Patty's Day after all.
Sucessssss!!
Salvation!
We walked inside and I immediately felt like an old maid. Everywhere we looked, all we saw were young coeds enjoying a nice day off from school. At least I think they were college kids. They looked about 15 to me. I think every single person in the bar was an American student studying abroad. We could tell this two ways. One by the conversations we overhead, and also by the clothes. At least the clothes of the guys. Typical American college boy look. The girls on the other hand were trying out the leggings as pants trend and I wanted to smack every single one of them. In no way, shape or form should leggings be substituted as pants. I don't care if you're in Europe. It's dumb. And it's especially dumb when you don't have the figure to wear leggings. I wouldn't be caught dead in leggings, whether I had something over the top of them or not. Of course, I'm not 19 and I have more sense than that.
Moving on.
We got the feeling this was a pretty popular bar for American students based on the amount of American college t-shirts and graffiti on the walls.
It only took the purchase of 3 Guinesses to get those snazzy hats.
Cheers!
We settled in and enjoyed the show as drunken students celebrated in style. Eventually we decided we should head back to the hotel and get to the train station. It was sad to be saying goodbye to Florence, but I was really looking forward to escaping the rain.
One of Nikki's many scarf purchases. This one she said she'd only wear on St. Patty's Day in memory of our trip. :)
The concierge at our hotel insisted on taking a bunch of photos of us before we left.
So, before I get to the journey to Venice, I have to recap my time in Florence.
Best historical site: Michelangelo's David with the Duomo a close second
Best pizza: I only had one pizza in Florence, but it wasn't really a favorite.
Best pasta: Rigatoni alla melanzana from Acqua Al 2
Best gelato: Frutti di bosco (even though it did cost me 12 Euros!)
Best dessert: The cheesecake wedge from Acqua Al 2
Best overall experience: Dario's
One of my least favorite things about Florence was the smell. I could not believe how pungent the sewer smell was at times. I'm not sure if it's always like that, or if it just had to do with the rain, but it was pretty gross. I'm thinking it was the rain, because there were always street sweepers cleaning the streets and shop keepers cleaning up outside their shops. It was a pretty clean city. Except for the smell.
And back to the train station.
Train station in Firenze.
We were starting to take the "duckface" photos a bit far...
We were determined this time to get on the train with no help from any so-called helpers, so we made it to the station a bit earlier. Unfortunately, they didn't have a platform assigned to us yet, so we couldn't stake our claim at the beginning of the line on. We waited not so patiently as the minutes ticked by until the number finally appeared.
We made a bee line to the platform weaving in and out of all of the foot traffic as if we were fighting for the last piece of cake. Being in Italy for one week and we were getting fearless about dodging impatient travelers. We rushed to the stop for our car on the train and tried to stake our claim at the beginning. We knew that there weren't many spots on each car for luggage storage and there was no way we'd be able to heft our suitcases in the upper storage racks above our seats.
I heart high-speed trains.
We made it on the train in record time and were able to get our suitcases in with only a few beads of sweat and one hernia. Our seats were close to the front of the car and they were arranged differently than our last train. Only two seats on each side of the aisle, rather than 4, and they were all facing the front. On the last train the four seats all faced one another with a little table in the middle. This train also didn't have any money-grubbing greasers trying to earn a coin or two.
These seats reclined and had foot rests in the seat in front, so they were pretty damn comfortable.
Told you we're can't stop.
For the last week we had seen billions of commercials for this stuff called Crik Crok. Ryan had told us it was kind of like bugles, but Brenda was determined to try it out for herself. Don't be fooled, they were straight up Lays Potato Chips. No joke. There wasn't anything special about them, other than the trippy name.
Our train ride was rather uneventful, except it was blazing hot in the beginning and then got rather chilly. It wasn't a full train and we didn't have any chatty Texans along for the ride. Everything was great until I tried to use the bathroom. I tried to hold it, but I didn't know how long it would take to get to our hotel once we arrived in Venice, plus, there was no telling what public bathrooms would be like.
I think that bathroom visit was one of the most traumatic ever. Of course, no seat, so there was no option except to hover, which I've discovered is incredibly difficult on a moving vehichle. Trains have more turbulence than you think they might. I couldn't read the wording, so I couldn't figure out where the flush was. I spent precious minutes just trying to get the water to dispense after I had eventually found the soap dispenser. You laugh, but it was a weird setup. I thought maybe I would be stuck with soap on my hands and no water, but I eventually managed to finish up like an adult and get outta there.
It was good that we went on the train though, because when we arrived at the terminal, the bathrooms were via payment only. Yeah, you had to pay to even get into the bathroom. No telling if you had to pay for anything once you were in there. With our luck, we would have hd to pay for each square of tp. It also looked kinda dirty, so I'm glad I dodged that bullet.
Fortunately, the train terminal is right on the Grand Canal where the vaporetto buses have a stop. Brenda had done some research and found that the vaporetto passes were the cheapest way to get around the main waterways of Venice. And buses were exactly right, just floatable busses. We opted to get a 48-hour pass so we'd be able to use it all the way up until we needed to catch our flight. It was definitely the most economical way to go instead of paying per trip.
It took us a minute to determine which route we needed, but we quickly made our way onto the docking platform to await our next ride. I quickly realized I'd need to get my sea legs pretty quick or I'd be getting a bit woozy. The docking platform was out over the water and it's gentle rocking was starting to put me to sleep.
The vaporetto pulled up shortly and we hopped on to enjoy our trip down the canal. We had been sitting for a few hours, so we opted to stand on the deck and enjoy the scenery.
I need to get a new jacket. The neon landing lights on this one are getting a bit out of control in pictures.
The trip down the canal was very serene and peaceful...a nice change from the fast-paced week we had had so far. We were all pretty tired, so we just kept quiet and enjoyed the moment. Venice is beautiful at night. Unfortunately, I didn't have the big turtle out, so I didn't get any good photos. But it was so surreal. I couldn't believe how peaceful it was. Not to mention that people just tied their boats up right at their front doors.
The ride wasn't long before we pulled up to the Rialto Bridge stop and we hopped off to make our way to the hotel. Based on the map we had, it seemed like it was a little ways away from the canal. Nope. It was ridiculously close and incredibly easy to find. That may partially be due to the fact that we weren't dodging cars, motorinos or impatient locals. The atmosphere was so different than anything we had experienced before. Because it was late, there weren't many people out and about, and from what we've read, Venice isn't a super hot bed of activity at night.
Hotel Serenissima popped up, and we checked in. There wasn't a lift, but they did have very helpful young men who carried our bags up the two flights of stairs to our room. We gladly tipped them! This room looked more like the one in Rome, except that the decor is something my grandma would have used in her 30s.
Shocker. Another bidet. (I'm not quite sure whey I felt compelled to photograph all the hotel bidets...)
Sometimes your hotel hairdryer looks like a 1970s vacuum hose.
This painting was next to our bed. Click on it to really look at all the detail. Then you can have nightmares like we did.
Dinner was pretty much first on our minds at this point, so we got a few suggestions from the concierge. I didn't end up using the map though because Venice is ridiculously walkable and very difficult to get lost in. We just started walking and actually found one of the restaurants without even trying, Da Mamo.
The waiter started the meal by bringing out some kind of little potato pastry thing. It wasn't bad, but I wasn't really sure what to think of it.
And OMG, REAL ROLLS!! They were moist and fluffy and delicious! Hooray!
We started with an appetizer of bruschetta. I heart bruschetta. I've had it back home, and I've always liked it, but I have a bigger soft spot for it now after this trip.
I ordered a pizza, shocker, with ham and mushrooms, shocker shocker. But what I didn't expect was how big this pizza would be. All the rest of the pizzas have been about the size of a medium pizza in the states. Easily finishable. This one was more like a large and didn't even fit on the plate they brought it out on. I thought it was going to slide right off onto the floor when the waiter came up with it.
But man, was it good.
So good, in fact, that I pretty much ate the whole darn thing. I'm a champion.
I really tried to finish off the crusts too, but I just couldn't make it happen. (Hey, I had a potato pastry, bruschetta and a roll before the pizza even came!)
No wine with dinner tonight, which was the biggest shocker. I think we were just too tired for a wine buzz, and plus, we had already gotten our alcohol quotient in at the Irish bar.
Off to bed. We only have one day in Venice, so we need to make tomorrow count.
(I've realized since writing this that I don't mention gelato. I know we had some. I apparently just didn't write it down. :(
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