Italy 2004 - Venice

This is a typical row of buildings in Venice. Doors open to the canal, where the residents may arrive by boat.

Outside the Hotel La Fenice in Venice with a big smile on my face, you would never guess how much my feet hurt.

Travel Diary

Day 11: Florence to Venice

Steve wrote:

We awoke a bit early and had some breakfast. Since our train to Venice didn’t leave until 12:40, we walked around town a little bit. We crossed the Pontevecchio and Rosemary did some window shopping in the jewelry stores. She’s not big on expensive jewelry like a lot of women (thank God!), but a particular bracelet caught her eye. We took a closer look, she tried it on and really liked it. What could I do? "Cha-ching" - it's now hers.

We walked along the river and went back into town, had a slice of pizza and checked out of our hotel. Took a cab to the train station for our trip to Venice, about a three hour ride.

In Venice, we knew we would have to take a waterbus, or vaporetto, to get close to our hotel. I knew that Venice had canals, but didn’t realize that there were no roads, which meant no cars, buses, taxis, scooters, bicycles or rollerskaters. VERY quiet, compared to where we’ve been so far. The Grand Canal circles the city and is full of vaporettos, water taxis, gondolas and small boats necessary to get form here to there. "Streets" can be walked and some canals have small bridges over them, connecting the many islands that make up Venice.

We got off the vaporetto at St. Mark’s Square. In looking at a map, I realized that our Hotel was about half way between the northern and southern shore, but by going to St. Mark’s, we got a longer ride and saw more of the Grand Canal. We disembarked and walked one long block to St. Mark’s Square. This has to be seen to be believed. The Cathedral, The Doge’s Palace, The Campanile, all as you’ve seen in pictures, only more so, especially the pigeons.

Not exactly sure how to get to the hotel, we set off in what we thought was the general direction and, within a few minutes, we actually found it. Hotel La Fenice et Des Artistes is next to the La Fenice Opera House. Our room is small (sensing another trend here?), but big enough for only two nights, and it has a small private patio overlooking (what else?) a small canal. High ceilings with open wood beams and an incredibly ornate chandelier.

We unpacked and went back to St. Mark’s for a drink before dinner, passing some shops with incredible glasswork. Venice is known for its glass factories on the island of Murano, which we hope to visit on our last morning here. St. Mark’s was alive with people and pigeons. There are several restaurants surrounding the plaza and, surprisingly, three of them have small bands playing music for the patrons sitting outside. Usually, only one band is playing at a time, but sometimes there are dueling bands. We sat down, ordered a drink, enjoyed the music and watched the people. Very relaxing.

We had dinner at a small restaurant recommend by the hotel, which was quite good. After dinner, we walked back to St. Mark’s, looked in a few more shops, listened to some more music, had some gelato and headed for the hotel.

Once we had checked into our hotel, we headed for Piazza San Marco and had a snack.

In the afternoon and evening the "dueling orchestras" of the cafes in the piazza entertain diners and dancers.

In the area around the Piazza San Marco, many of the shops selling Murano glassware stay open late.

There are no cars (or trucks, buses, motorscooters, bicycles, etc.) in Venice. People get around on foot and by boat.

Goods are brought in by boat and delivered canalside or carted in on hand trucks.

Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square) is known for its pigeons, encouraged by tourists who buy lots of seed from the local vendors.

You can take an elevator to the top of the Campanile (bell tower) for a terrific view of the city.

The bells are used regularly.

The view is wonderful.

Except for a couple of cafes and one eccentric antique dealer, every shop along this canal in Murano sells glassware.

A gondola parking lot.

Traveling on the Grand Canal.

Masks are a big part of the fashion history of Venice, where many shops offer traditional and modern styles.

The Venice police outside their San Marco station.

Sometimes a private gondola is the only way to see the back "streets" of Venice.

From the Bridge of Sighs, you can see all the tourists looking your way...

...but all they see is the bridge.

St. Mark's Cathedral.

Day 12: Venice

Steve wrote:

For our only full day in Venice, we wanted to see as much as we could in the short time available, so we decided to concentrate on the area around St. Mark’s. By this time, we are pretty tired and some of the things are starting to run together. We started at the Correr Museum, which houses artwork from the Venetian area. Again, paintings, sculptures, frescoes and mosaics. From there, we went to the Doge’s Palace, home of the rulers of Venice. Ornately carved fireplaces, historical maps and weapons, murals on the walls and ceilings as well as very detailed plaster work decorated with gold leaf. It’s good to be the Doge!

After a nice lunch a couple of blocks away, we returned to the plaza and took the lift to the top of the Campanile, or bell tower, for magnificent views of the city and canals. Not having checked the time, we were surprised when the bells started clanging about 10 feet away from us. Pretty darn loud. I said “PRETTY DARN LOUD!”. After our hearing was restored, we descended and went into St. Mark’s Cathedral and some of its museums. (I think I've been to more churches in the last two weeks than in my entire life.) We climbed to the outer balcony of St. Mark’s for another excellent view of the square. The number of pigeons here is unbelievable, encouraged by the people buying pigeon food from vendors in the square. If you hold some food in your hands and stretch out your arms, you could easily have eight to ten pigeons perching on you, which freaks some people out.

At this point, we were pooped but didn't want to waste what little time we had left, so we boarded a vaporetto and just rode for a while, stopping at Lido across the lagoon, and another stop with a nice park where we just sat for a while. By the time we got back, it was almost time for dinner, but we went back to the hotel to get off our feet for a little while. We went to a great restaurant a block from the hotel, then went back and collapsed to try to get some rest for our final day in Italy.

Day 13: Venice to London

Steve wrote:

Venice's Murano island is famous for its glass factories. We had seen Murano glass in shops all over Venice and Florence and there are some great artists working in this medium. In addition, once the process is explained, you can see how some of it can be handmade yet produced in quantity.

After 25 minutes on the vaporetto and several stops, we got to Murano. If you want glass, this is the place to come. Paintings? No. Marble sculpture? No. Groceries? No. Glass, glass and more glass, either factories or stores, as far as you can see, except for a few places for the tourists to eat. We started cruising the streets, ducking in and out of the various shops. Because it’s handmade, these items can be pretty expensive. We’ve seen serving plates for 500-600 Euro, vases up to 1,500 Euro and glass sculptures up to 10,000 Euro, all of it beautiful.

We drifted into a shop and saw some unusual plates and glass wall hangings featuring different types of fish. Only then did we notice the store was called "Pesce Pesce". The owner explained that they make everything there, not in some factory, and that they had just started making things with plants and flowers as well as fish. She spent time telling us about the processes used - all very interesting. We ended up buying two pieces to be hung on the wall like pictures and arranged to have them shipped back to the U.S. She gave us a few little glass fish like the ones in the pieces we bought to use as accents around them. A very nice lady, and the prices were reasonable.

We went to a few other stores and bought some gifts, had a quick lunch and took the vaporetto back to St. Mark’s, went back to the hotel to get our stuff and took off for the airport. There's a boat that goes right to the airport with a shuttle bus to the terminal.

We boarded British Air for the flight back to London, having to take a bus from Gatwick to Heathrow, then a cab to a local Holiday Inn. There was a restaurant at the hotel which had an interesting-looking menu so, being as tired as we were, we checked in and went down for a surprisingly good dinner. We showered (God bless the Brits for knowing how to build a shower!) And got ready for bed. The room was pretty warm even though we had turned up the A/C and window was designed so that it would only open a couple of inches, so I called down to the desk to see whether I had set the A/C properly, only to be told that the hotel didn’t have A/C, only a fan system for circulation. At this point we were too tired to care and had along day of travel ahead, so we left a wake-up call and went to bed.

Day 14: London to Los Angeles

Steve wrote:

Our wake up call did its job and we dressed and went down to breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Because of the devaluation of the dollar, the exchange rate is almost two to one. London is very expensive - when I see prices listed for almost anything, it looks about right until I remember that it’s in pounds and double what it seems. A buffet breakfast for two at the Holiday Inn was $60. We caught the airport shuttle, checked in and sat in the first class lounge for about 30 minutes waiting for our 11-hour flight to LA.

Looking back, I’ve learned a few things about traveling that will come in handy. More days in fewer cities - not only does travel take up an incredible amount of time, but each city we went to had SO much to see that we burned ourselves out trying to see it all. If we had more time, we could have paced ourselves better, seen everything we wanted to see and probably enjoyed it more. Still, it was an incredible two weeks and, although I’m eager to get home, I’m sorry to see it end.

Rosemary wrote:

I could easily have spent much more time in each of these cities, and I'm eager to come back someday. (At the same time, it will be pleasant to return to a land where the air conditioning works, the toilets flush, and my feet do not hang over the end of the bed.) Despite my aching feet, I had a wonderful time.