Italy November 2005 - Day 2 - Venice

Venice

We began the day trying to change our traveler's checks for Euros. Unfortunately, banks are all closed on Saturdays and the American Express office (which will change American Express travelers checks without commission) was closed. We finally gave up and decided to withdraw money from the ATM. We decided if we were going to pay the out of network fee, we should get the maximum which was 250 Euros. 

After getting cash, we headed the rest of the way to the Piazza San Marco to visit Basilica di San Marco. The original structure was built in the 11th century, though it has been added on to numerous times. The basilica is very impressive with it's incredible mosaic work (all 4000 square meters of it). First we wound through some of the bottom floor, then went up the stairs to the museum in the top front of the building. We were also able to go out onto the balcony and look out over the piazza. We purchased a book about Venice and some postcards at the gift shop before heading through the rest of the church. While I found it impressive, there was something almost a bit gaudy about it. It was almost a bit much, although, perhaps that is what they were going for.

We left the church and headed for the water bus number 1 to take a ride through the Grand Canal. The number 1 bus goes all the way from the island of Lido up through to the Piazzale Roma at the north end of the canal. We never went to any of the islands, but instead picked up the vaporetto at Piazza San Marco and headed north. We marveled at the architecture, watched the gondolas float by and enjoyed the ride. When we arrived near the end, we got off to purchase tickets for our train trip to Florence. I had been fretting about getting tickets at home ahead of time or buying them here. In the end I'm so glad I bought them here. They were way way cheaper than they were online and it wasn't a problem getting tickets at all. I know enough Italian to buy tickets and stamps and various other items and most Italians speak enough English that we get by just fine.

After we left the station with tickets in hand, we found a little cafe and ate some sandwiches. I like the sandwiches here. You pick from among the pre-made choices they have in the windows of the cafes and then they put them in a little hot griddle (I fondly refer to it as a "sandwich smasher"). Many Italians eat them standing at the little bar in the cafes, but our feet are always tired after so much walking that we prefer to just pay the table fee (there is an extra charge, usually 1-2 Euros for sitting at a table) and hang out in the cafe and watch the people come and go. 

While I'm on the subject of the Italians, let me tell you about some of my impressions of the Italian people. In general, everyone is friendly and polite and very welcoming. They always greet us with a "good day" or "good evening" and their favorite words are "please" and "thank you" which they use constantly. They often use the word "prego" to mean much more than please. When they would like you to come into their restaurant/cafe/shop, they often say, "Prego! Prego!" while they motion for you to come inside. I can see why the canned tomato sauce company decided to call themselves "Prego." It is a very popular word. Italian fashion for women seems to revolve around black leather boots that come up just below the knee. They mostly wear them with tight jeans or tight pants, or occasionally with a knee length skirt. It seems everywhere we go, all we see in the stores are leather boots. I think I'll skip this fashion trend. Can you see me in the middle of the 101 degree heat in Austin in calf-length leather boots with tight jeans? I didn't think so. Anyway, back to our day...

After we left the cafe, we decided to walk back to our hotel for a rest. We were still feeling a little jet-lagged and needed a little time to rest our feet. We ended up sort of getting lost on the way back. I say sort of because we didn't mind the extra bit of sight-seeing. We did a little shopping and also saw some of the more residential areas of Venice, which I'm not sure many tourists usually see. We finally found the Rialto bridge and crossed over to the area where our hotel was (making a purchase or two along the way) and settled in for a late afternoon nap. 

Before we left Austin, we went to the iTunes Music Store and downloaded an audio book called "VeniceWalks." The audiobook consists of four separate walking tours of Venice. We loaded up our iPods and set out for a walk. When we got started the sun was up, but as we continued to walk, it began to get dark. One thing in particular that was interesting was the first church we stopped in, named for St. Zaccarias (father of John the Baptist). The audio tour talked about the church being particularly wealthy and they could afford "whole saints," as opposed to just a finger or something. What I didn't expect was for the corpse of this Saint to be on display in a glass box for viewing. We still enjoyed the walk and saw a number of things that were definitely interesting that we would not have been able to see had we not done the walking tour.

After our walk, we grabbed some dinner at a very small cafe before heading back to our hotel. At the hotel, we looked over the purchases from the last couple of days (everyone should anticipate Italian Christmas presents this year), read a bit in our Italy guidebooks, wrote up some postcards and then decided we wanted some gelato. 

When we arrived downstairs at the lobby, it was pouring rain. We ran back up to our room and grabbed our umbrellas, counting ourselves lucky that we hadn't had rain (as the forecast had indicated) for our major day of sightseeing. We headed out into the rain to buy frozen desert. Smart eh? Unfortunately, everything in Italy seems to close up after 9 PM on Saturday night. We finally found an open gelato shop and shivered as we walked back to our hotel with our frozen treats. 

Unfortunately, the rain didn't let up all night and I didn't sleep particularly well. It sounded like the whole of Venice was going to be one big Really Grand Canal by the next morning the way the rain came down non-stop all night. In the morning it was still raining, but the Grand Canal was the same size, though the rain continued.

Click here for Day 3.