Venice

We were on Venice for my birthday (what a way to spend a birthday!).  We actually woke up in Florence and got on the train around 9:30.  The travel agent told me it was only an hour, but it was a little longer.  It was probably better that we slept in a little though.


I had our plan all mapped out to maximize our time and minimize the amount of excess walking.  The key to my plan was the vaporettos, which is like a bus on water.  Would have been perfect.  Except the drivers were on strike....  So we reworked the plans and did get to everything except the tour by the Grand Canal (which is the main waterway through all of Venice).

Our first view of the Grand Canal, right out of the train station

Then we started by walking the back streets to find the Frari Church.

Little canal (called a river in Venice I think)

Frari Church

It was a small church (compared to some of the giant cathedrals we've seen) and didn't cost very much to get in, plus the art was all where it was intended to be.  (The art over the altar was painted for the altar, etc).  Instead of being in a museum or moved from somewhere else, it was where the artist originally intended it to be.  Which changes the art, because the David for example has a larger head than he should proportionally because Michelangelo intended for it to be on the top of a building, which changes the viewer's perspective.  (yay Rick Steves' audio guide random fact).  Unfortunately, no pictures.

After the Frari church we followed the signs to the Rialto Bridge, one of the most famous bridges in Venice.  

It has shops lining the bridge on either side and was the first bridge built in Venice that could not open for larger ships to pass under.  We had lunch nearby at a very small cafe, but it was good.  Stephen and I have been sharing a lot of Caprese salad (the mozzarella and tomatoes with olive oil and sometimes balsamic).  


Then we followed the signs to St. Mark's Square.  

On a wall on some back road, this made us laugh

St. Mark's Square

At St. Mark’s Square we first went into the basilica, which is quite ornate on the outside (and inside).  

We followed our audio tour, but did not go into the extra side museums (which all cost extra of course).  

Watching people be fascinated with pigeons on the way to the Correr.

Definitely don't understand wanting to have pigeon land on you.

Then we went over to the Correr Museum, which houses Venetian art and historical artifacts.  We didn’t have an audio guide here, so it was more difficult to figure out what everything was.  There was a general information card in most of the rooms, which was helpful.  And while we didn’t know specifics about the artifacts, we were able to figure out a lot about them.

After the Correr Museum we went over to the Doge’s Palace.  (The doge, pronounced doesh, was the name of the king of Venice).  His palace, which looks pink from the outside, was his home as well as the place the government met. 

The courtyard of the palace

Again, we couldn’t take pictures in most of these rooms.  There wasn’t much original furniture, but the walls and ceilings were very well decorated.  There was one grand hall that had the largest oil painting in the world and was where all the government bodies would meet (kind of like our congress).  They also had rooms for their judicial branch.  Not far from those room is the Bridge of Sighs, which is the bridge from the palace to the prison.  Supposedly, prisoners would be lead over this bridge and catch their last glimpse of Venice (and freedom) and sigh.  Hence, Bridge of Sighs.  The prison was used until the 1930s, and while there was unfortunately a lot of graffiti in it, there were also some engravings done by prisoners on the windowsills.

We rested for a while and watched the busy St. Mark’s Square.  Then we wandered the back streets of Venice until we came to one of the places recommended by Rick Steves.  We crossed the canal on a little gondola that only cost 50 cents, it was short but gave us a taste of gondola riding.  

We decided not to do an actual gondola ride because of the crazy prices.  Because of the strike, they raised their prices (of course) to over 100 euro for one ride.  (Which is about $130 based on the exchange rate that day).  We’ve splurged on several things, but that just didn’t seem worth it.

Dinner was good, Stephen had an Italian beer:

After dinner we wandered back to the train station, stopping for gelato along the way.  It was not nearly as good as Florence, but it was still good.  We were hoping the vaporetto  drivers would be done with their strike, but unfortunately they were not.  There were a few going a short distance, but the timing wasn’t consistent and we didn’t want to miss our train.

So we said beside the canal outside the train station and watched the world go by.

Occasionally the waves made from the boats going by would splash us, but not too bad.  Then we headed to the train and found our sleeper car to head for Germany.

Ciao, Italy!