supershippy

Here is the fourth part of the summary of our trip to Spain and Italy. aquafemme also has a separate log of our events and mine will probably plagiarize greatly from her summary, but add pretty pictures.

I'll always put these behind a cut because there are lots of pics. I'm not putting all of them here, though. At Flickr I have a set for Venice and a collection for the entire trip that will be growing as we continue going through our pictures.

Day Twelve: 14-May-2008

We took a flight from Barcelona to Venice and then a boat to our hotel in Lido. As mentioned before, we were stuck doing some laundry in the sink in Barcelona so we were fairly desperate to do some laundry. When we spoke to the concierge, he was less than understanding. The hotel didn't have a laundry service and he tried to explain to us that people come to Venice for the sightseeing and romance, not for laundry. We explained that we have been traveling for over 10 days and we weren't able to do laundry in Barcelona. I asked how tourists do their laundry and he answered that they plan ahead to not do it in Venice. Then Bonnie asked how locals do their laundry and he said that the Italian women wash all the clothes by hand and have everything all ready for the men. Well now, isn't that swell? Finally he told us that there is a laundry mat and he would call a cab for us but he acted as though it was dreadfully far away and probably closed. We took the cab and found the laundry mat just fine and it was open. It wasn't a great first impression of Italians, but once we got our clothes cleaned up, things improved immensely. We debated over the choices but finally decided to get the vaporetto pass that would allow us to board as many times as we wanted for the entire duration of our time in Venice. That was a very good choice as we ended up riding the vaporettos a lot; sometimes just for the heck of it. Our hotel was actually on Lido island because it is cheaper and drier - I heard a lot of the hotels in Venice are muggy from having the bottom floor flooded. It was a snap to take a beautiful boat ride to and from Venice whenever we liked. We hopped on a vaporetto and started heading through the Grand Canal. We got off around the train station just to see what the area was like and we found a bar where we had our first Italian lattes. In Italy, a bar is our version of a coffee shop, but some of them also have light food and wine. You can even get a shot of booze in your espresso (they call it "caffè corretto", which means "corrected coffee").

The hustle-and-bustle of the Grand Canal.	Our first Italian Latte. They serve them not quite as hot as they do here and in this tall glass. The coffee in Italy is super tasty.
Me on a vaporetto in the Grand Canal. Riding the vaporettos never got old. I love getting around by water.	Bonnie on a vaporetto in the Grand Canal.
Another picture of the Grand Canal with the Rialto Bridge in the background.	A picture of the Grand Canal as the sun began going down. I don't think it's possible to take a bad picture in Venice. This place is beautiful.

We walked from there to a restaurant that I believe was somewhere near the Rialto Bridge and had our first Italian dinner which was fabulous. aquafemme was still in Spain-mode and, when the waiter approached our table, she greeted him with a sly "Hola." He replied, "Hola" and she realized that she spoke the wrong language. She laughed and told him we just came from Spain and he asked, in Spanish, if we speak Spanish. We replied, "un poco" and he replied, "yo tambien." With our first Italian dinner, we had our first mezzo litro which is 500mL of wine or about 2/3rd of a bottle. The wine is literally cheaper than water and often wonderful.

Day Thirteen: 15-May-2008

We woke up, got ready and walked to a small bar just across from our hotel. The sun was shining and we were greeted by little begging finches while sipping a cappuccino and a chocolate-covered croissant.

Our delicious (and I wish it was nutritious) Italian breakfast.	One of the cute finches flying around us.

We took a vaporetto to Venice and checked out St. Mark's Basilica and the Doge Palace. Our Rick Steve's book totally came in handy for St. Mark's. Instead of waiting in this huge line, we checked our bookbag at this little shop and then bypassed the entire line. I kept expecting someone to stop us and send us to the back of the line but it worked splendidly! It was amazing to think that some people actually wait in a line for that long when they don't have to. I would've been burned to a crisp and half our day blown if we would've had to get in that line.

The view as we approach the Grand Canal from Lido.	I want one.
Arriving at St. Mark's Square.	There are so many pigeons here it's crazy. I even saw a couple albino pigeons. Lots of people buy bread and feed it to them.
The intricate artwork on the outside of the Basilica.	The Basilica from the middle of the plaza.
The Basilica and Campanile from the museum.

That evening we went bar hopping where you grab a little bite here and there along with a glass of wine. Our guidebook called this "giro ombra" where ombra means shade and it comes from when winecarts would move over as the shade moved with the sun. We had a great time getting lost in Venice and going on a scavenger hunt to find bars in the guidebook. At this one little place, a group of Italian men were joking around and having a great time. The waitress brought out a heaping plate of spaghetti with what looked like crawfish on top. We were eyeing the plate and the gentlemen because they were so full of mirth - it was contagious. They sent over a little plate of their spaghetti to us and I thought that was just so kind and charming. We ended the night sipping montepulciano and nibbling on a cheese plate on the Grand Canal while couples danced the waltz under the stars. Our last stop was a hip bar where we tried a spritz with prosecco (tasted like cough syrup) and they were playing groovy music which turned out to be St. Germain's album, "Tourist". We have that album now and it is awesome. We're considering picking up another St. Germain album.

Day Fourteen: 16-May-2008

We had breakfast at the same cafe as the day before. It was across from our hotel and had a nice place to sit outside. I had a sandwich and Bonnie had caprese which turned out to be huge, but she managed to eat most of it (I helped out some too and it was tasty). Then we made a point to take a vaporetto down the entire Grand Canal and read about the sites along the way. Here are some pictures from the canal:

One of the side canals.	Turkish "Fondaco" Exchange, one of the oldest houses in Venice.
Rialto Bridge.	This was part of some advertisement for a show of some sort, but I'm not sure what it was supposed to signify. I thought it was cool, though.

We got off the vaporetto and one stop and saw police boats halt the traffic so that a fire boat could careen through there. It was really cool to see and we talked about how the firefighters probably just have to run through the alleys to get to the actual fire. Then we had the "best gelato" according to the guidebook and didn't argue. After that, we just hung out in a cafe sipping a mezzo litro.

Mezzo litro and some pistachios. Not a bad snack in my book!

Bonnie noticed there were a lot of people walking dogs so we turned that into a drinking game and listened to a guy jam out on the steel drum for Euros. We also found Venice's fire station and took a few pics.

Venetian police boat.	Venetian fire boat.

Then we had another mezzo litro at a snack bar. I think we weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves so we just drank wine and relaxed by default. During our giro ombra the night before, we stumbled upon a restaurant that appeared to be tucked in an out-of-the-way corner and smelled amazing. It was really dark when we saw it, but Bonnie really wanted to find it and somehow I managed to retrace our steps and find the place. It turns out that it wasn't at a dead end at all like she remembered and we were directed to a patio in a plaza that screamed tourist trap. Maybe it was the wine or maybe we were tired, but we let the waiter seat us and then we proceeded to pay too much for a terrible meal. Afterwards, we had crepes and sweet wine at another restaurant that seemed tremendous and we grieved for our poor dinner choice. The restaurant is called Casin dei Nobili and we will definitely be getting dinner there when we manage to make our way back to Venice. We finished off the night with yet another scoop of gelato.

That ends our time in Venice. The next morning we are leaving for Florence!