Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Italy: Day 8, Part 3 (and Day 9)

This is it. The last post about Italy. I'm a little bit relieved. Are you?

After getting back from our island hopping, we searched for a restaurant called Poste Vecie. It is, reportedly, the oldest restaurant in Venice with a beginning around 1500. Before it served food, it served up the mail. Indeed, it was once a post office. It took some walking and asking, but we finally found it - about two steps from the fish market that we explored earlier in the day.  The didn't open until seven so we made a reservation and walked around a bit. We found a sidewalk cafe and ordered a couple of spritzes and headed out to a dock over the canal. We boat watched and people watched all while the sun was setting over Venice. Doesn't that sound romantic? It was. A little bit. Except for the smell of fish and people all around us.



 When our reservation time came, we headed to Poste Vecie. The restaurant has two main dining rooms. We were in the Sala della missive. It is decorated with postal memorabilia which was both odd and neat. The other room (I forget the name) was decorated with paintings depicting the seven deadly sins. I wonder how the other diners felt as they ate a very expensive dinner while looking at a painting of gluttony.


Super old mail.
I don't remember the names of what we ordered, but I can give you a brief recap. For starters, we got a seafood sampler. There's a picture of it right below these words. It's okay, you can say it. It doesn't look good. I agree, it doesn't. It wasn't my ideal appetizer. It all tasted very fishy. Fresh, but fishy. I don't care for octopus.

    
Up next, we split gnocci with lobster. Now that was delicious. Matt wasn't feeling well so I ate most of it. What can I say? You snooze, you lose.  I'm having some weird spacing issues right here. I apologize.
For the next part of the meal, we split some type of white fish that was topped with tomatoes, capers, and olive oil. It was really good. They brought the whole fish out and showed it to us, then took the fish off the bones and out of its scaly wrapper.

We skipped dessert and headed out to slowly make our way back to the train station. We got on the waterbus one last time and savored the jostling of the other passengers while having our tickets checked by the waterbus ticket Nazi. Apparently, if you get on the bus without a ticket, they fine you like 50 bucks. A one-time ticket is about seven. If you remember, we bought the 12-hour pass so we were good. For funsies, we shifted positions to get away from the ticket checker before he could get to us. Acting shady while only speaking English may not have been the wisest move, but it was fun.

Once we got back to the train station, we checked our departing time and gate, then sat down to wait. Well, actually, I spent the last euro coin we had to use the facilities. Very clean. For $1.37 they had better have been.  Then we sat down to wait. After awhile, our train came just as the rest of our group got to the station. I sat across from a girl in our group who is from California. We had a nice chat, though I'm not sure most of what I said made sense as I was exhausted and it was after midnight.

Once we got back to the hotel, we packed our bags and went to sleep. We woke up the next morning, ate another American breakfast and headed to the airport (after negotiating with a pre-arranged driver who tried to charge us more than we could pay or were told we would have to pay). If it wasn't for a girl from Oklahoma, we would have had to go back to the ATM. Traveling in Italy is very expensive.

Anyway, we got to the very nice Venetian airport (way nicer than Rome, btw) and waited for our plane. Customs was fairly easy. We decided to check all of our luggage except Matt's backpack and my purse. Matt tried to sneak a waterbottle on board and got in trouble. I'm kidding. It was an accident, but he did get in trouble.  Our flight was at 11 a.m. We got in Philly about 5 p.m. and had a nice philly cheesesteak for dinner before our next flight around seven. Then we flew to the ATL where we rushed to our flight (after making a brief stop for starbucks) and made it to BR about 9. That doesn't sound like a long day, but it was the longest day of our lives - about 30 hours.

Drew picked us up from the airport and since it was Cinco de Mayo, we celebrated with chips and queso while I did Drew's dishes and then promptly fell asleep. In a queen-sized bed in a room with air conditioning. And our puppy. She missed us horribly.

That reminds me.  Next post is going to be a video of her welcoming us back home. 


Thursday, July 26, 2012

Italy: Day 8, Part 2

After a delicious lunch of artery-clogging beef and grease, we got some strawberries and headed to catch the waterbus. We knew going in to Italy that we wanted to go to the islands of Murano and Burano if at all possible while we were in Venice. As Venice didn't have a whole bunch of appeal for us, but did have a whole bunch of people, we decided that we'd venture out to the outer islands around Venice and go exploring. Two of those most famous islands are Murano, which is known for its glass-blowing, and Burano, which is known for handmade lace.

We caught the waterbus and sat back to enjoy a thirty minute boat ride out to the first island. When we got to Murano, we really didn't know where to go or what to do, so we just went walking with no clear direction. We came across lots of little glass shops with pretty things, but nothing really that caught my eye. I wanted to find something for my mother. She loves glass things - particularly glass miniatures.  Before long, we stumbled across a glass blowing demonstration: 




That orange blob eventually became a horse that the sculptor promptly shattered. On purpose. I felt it keenly. In fact, I still tear up a bit at the thought of the destruction of such a beautiful thing. Alas, so it goes. We ended up finding Mom a glass flower. It wasn't a miniature, but I thought it was beautiful. It even made it all the way back to Mangham without breaking. Score one for proper packaging.

Once we were finished scoping out Murano, we caught another boat to go to Burano. Burano is only about 50 acres. Burano is known for lace, like I said above. I, being an old woman, adore lace so I was incredibly excited about this island. What I wasn't expecting was the apparent extreme poverty on the island, but also the absolute charm.  We walked in little lace shops and I oohed and ahhed over everything from baby bonnets to tablecloths to little animals. We ended up buying a Venetian mask made of lace and a butterfly. Both are beautiful and so delicate. We bought those things from the lady who made them. In fact, when we went into her shop, she was sitting in a rocking chair just a knitting away. She did not speak English though, but I think she could tell that I was enraptured with her creations by the look of amazement on my face. I hope so anyway.

After seeing the lace shops, we walked around the island. It isn't very big, but is charming. Oh, and we ate a cannoli for one euro and then found one euro on the ground. So basically, we got a free cannoli. Win!  Here are some pictures of the island that I love the most:







 


I know, kind of makes you think of how Jamaica would look if I had been allowed to create Jamaica. If I ever live on a beach, I want my house to be turquoise. Or purple. Or coral. 

Next up, dinner in the oldest restaurant in Venice, a boat-ride at sunset, and the train back to the hotel.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Italy: Day 8, Part 1

Hello Venice!!!

Well, not actually Venice, but we are going to Venice today. Our hotel was not actually in Venice, but in a close-by small city. Know what that meant? No street noise, no bright lights, no drunken revelers or delivery trucks. It was like a quiet paradise.

I think I left out the best part. I mean, parts.



 Know what that is? A shower.  A real-life, fully enclosed, shower.  No drain in the middle of the floor. No flimsy curtain. Completely self-contained and completely amazing. Again, there were the two types of toilets, but I didn't care about that at all. I was thrilled with the real shower. 

And then, 


 


Know what that is? A bed. A queen-sized bed. Not two twin beds pushed together, but a real bed. A big bed. With feather pillows.

Oh, and there was air-conditioning!!!! I know, we might have been in Heaven.  And then, we went to sleep and woke up to eat breakfast. With scrambled eggs and (Canadian) bacon. And fruit. And cheese.  Amazing. Best breakfast all trip, hands down.

Because we weren't staying in Venice, we had to hop on the train to get into the city. Here I am, looking cool.


Once we made it to Venice, we had to get on a boat to get to the other side of the city where the gotta-see sights were located. We didn't really care about touring the Jewish neighborhoods.
From the train station, we had to walk to meet our boat.

Our pond-hopper boat to Venice

Seems like the Port of Venice should have a little more demure sign. I mean, it ain't that fancy.

We did want to see St. Mark's Square (Piazza San Marco) and the Rialto Markets so we skipped out on the group (not included in the trip price) tour and ventured out on our own, with the occasional Rick Steves supplement.
The above picture is the clock tower in St. Mark's Square that is connected with St. Mark's basilica. See FB for pictures of the basilica. The blue circular section is not ringed with numbers, but with zodiac signs. That ball in the middle of it shows the position of the moon. Just above that circle, is the hour and minute - again, in blue. You can see an X and the numbers "25." It was 10:25 a.m. when that picture was taken, or there abouts. The minute hand only changes every five minutes. I know, Roman numerals in Italy, who would have thought it?  Further up is the winged lion which is the symbol of Venice. At the tip top is the bell. On either side of the bell are human-shaped robots that bang their metal hammers on the bell to toll the time. I believe, but don't remember the source, that the first death by robot happened up there when an inattentive worker was knocked off balance by the swinging of one of the robots' arms. I can't cite my source though, so it may be false.

The Square is marked by huge pillars with the winged lions on them. It seems that Venice wanted all the ships at sea to be able to pick out Venice from the string of islands on Italy's coast.


After we saw what we wanted to see in St. Mark's Square, we headed out towards the Rialto Market. There were tons of old signs pointing the way. I wish I would have taken some pictures of them. It was like a scavenger hunt, you never knew where the signs would be.  Along the way, we were almost killed by several delivery men. There are no cars allowed in the city so goods and food had to be boated in and then trucked by hand through the city (read that as "little narrow alleyways filled with people). The delivery men would use hand trucks and loud, annoyed shouts to announce his presence. I didn't care for that at all, but it was fun to see their frustration.

And, of course, we got to see gondolas and their drivers with the cute little hats. We thought about taking a gondola ride, but when Matt inquired as to the cost and was informed that it would be about $137 bucks, we opted to skip the gondola for the twenty dollar public waterbus that we would have to use later in the day. I wasn't disappointed and don't really think Matt was either. We had lots of time on the water that day and those gondoliers looked rather shady.

Eventually, we made our way to the Rialto Market. Oh my goodness. Words cannot describe the produce we saw. Here's just a sampling of pictures:





The strawberries especially looked divine. I am a major strawberry lover, but Matt is not. I mentioned how I wanted them several times, but he, the bearer of the euros, never got my hints (until later that day).

After the produce market, we hit up the fish market. Again, pictures:





The market had every kind of seafood imaginable. There was a fishy smell, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it would become after the seafood was taken away and the heat of the day came. We got to experience that later.

Seeing all that beautiful food was making us hungry. Matt wanted to go to a little place that he had read about before we left the good ol' U.S. of A. I don't recall the name, but after an hour of searching, we finally found it. The menu was written in Italian and just outside the door. We quickly learned that they were very proud of their food and didn't take credit cards. We didn't want to have to get more euros and had already spent a fair portion of our budget for the trip. I talked Matt out of eating there and we headed back out to the streets to look for cheaper fare. We came to a McDonalds. I asked if we could eat there. Matt said no. I burst into tears in the middle of the street with dozens of small schoolchildren watching me cry. You would have thought that he just told me that my dog died. You see, I was hungry/poor/sad/angry.  I wanted to spend three euros on strawberries, but I couldn't have them. I wanted to eat, but didn't want to spend money. I wanted to do something I wanted to do, and not just everything that Matt wanted to do. Eventually, Matt realized that all he would have to do to appease me was to agree to have lunch at McDonalds. (To this day, he still knows that I can be won over with McDonalds french fries) He shuffled me inside, suggested I make use of the water closet, and bought me a Big Mac. I love that man.

After getting over my hunger-induced outburst, we went back to the market and bought some strawberries. Then, we caught the waterbus to Murano. But I'll tell you all about that tomorrow.




Monday, July 23, 2012

Italy: Day 7, Part 2

Two households, both alike in dignity, 
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, 
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. 


Romeo and Julient, Act 1, Prologue

Go on, admit it. You just swooned a little bit. I get it, I did it too. I'll let you in on a little secret though. Come close so I can whisper it. I don't like Romeo and Juliet. What? I know, I'm ashamed. But seriously, I just think they were stupid, senseless, selfish children. I'm not going to rant about it or even get up on my soap box. I just had to tell you. Can we still be friends?

Anyway.

We left Pisa about 11 or 12ish and headed to an outlet mall (I know, an outlet mall in Italy. I may have pinched myself.) in San Barbarino (or something like that). Matt and I perused the stores but didn't really see anything that we couldn't live without. I don't think I even took any pictures. But we did it, so I had to tell you about it.

Wait. I'm lying. We did find something we couldn't live without. Chocolate. Included in the outlet mall was  a Lindt outlet. We spent about 15 euros on chocolate. Me, feeling guilty? Nope.

And then we got on the bus and drove to Verona which is several hours away from San B. We got to the city about 4:30 or 5 and had about an hour or two to browse before we were to meet back up for dinner. But first, we got a quick walking tour from our group guide.

Oh, another walled city. Shocker.
First thing we noticed when we got to the city center: a colosseum. The colosseum is still being used as an ampitheatre today. I know, how amazing would it be to see a show there. Gladiators aren't the main attraction anymore. When we were there, we saw posters for a Madonna concert and of course, Romeo and Juliet. Jealous. Side note: Verona seems to be most famous for Romeo and Juliet, but The Taming of the Shrew was also set in Verona along with another one that has Verona in the name, but I can't remember it.
 



Look, you can see outdoor lighting has been added.

After the arena, we went to the House of Juliet or Casa di Giulietta.  Ever seen that movie, Letters to Juliet? Well, the scene of Juliet's balcony is just like in real life, expect for the millions of people vying for photo-ops in about 100 square feet and there's no actual wall to stick letters into. There is a wall full of graffiti, but no real wall with little holes for the letters. That's not real. The movie was based on a book about the letters that broken-hearted teenage girls send to Juliet, but they actually come in the mail. There's just no place to leave an actual letter.

Juliet's balcony

When we entered the courtyard of Juliet's house, there was a little boy up on that balcony. I hope I wasn't the only one who thought that was just wrong. Little boys do not belong on Juliet's balcony.


Juliet
And here's a statue of little fourteen-year old Juliet. You can see that certain portions of her are um, worn. Supposedly, if you rub Juliet's chest, you will have good fortune. I think, in America, rubbing a 14-year old girl's chest will just get your picture in the paper every time you move.  Actually, to get a picture of Juliet without her being groped, I persuaded our Australian mate to get in line to touch her and hesitate a bit so I'd have time to her a shot of her. Please note, I said "a shot of her" not "a shot at her." I don't want my picture in the paper.

After leaving Juliet's courtyard, we headed to explore on streets of marble. Yep, the main streets of Verona are at least topped with marble. Look:



I tried to walk on the edges of the street so as to not wear down the marble.

My face looks puffy.

The standard "drink" in Verona is famous all over Italy, but I'd never heard of it. It's called a spritz. It's bright orange from some Italian liqueur called Aperol, but also has sparkling white wine, and a little seltzer water. It's typically served with olives and chips.



After getting a little refreshment, we hit the streets to find an ATM. We were going to in Venice the next day and knew that we would need euros to pay for transportation. However, we could only find two ATMs. Normally, one would be sufficient, but there is a particular bank that didn't care for our silly American debit card. Both of those ATMs were from that bank. We were pretty close to despairing. We had about decided to just go to dinner with the group which was already paid for and worry about money once we got to Venice but on our walk to the restaurant, we saw a Barclay's! We were saved! Matt ran in and got some euros and we went to dinner all relaxed because we weren't broke in Italy.

For dinner, I don't have pictures. However, I can tell you that we had a cheese plate for antipasto, gnocci for first, chicken with potatoes for second, and ice cream for dessert. It was good, but still, I was ready for an American breakfast.

After dinner, we headed back to our bus. We drove to the outskirts of the city and then pulled over. It seemed our trusty traveling conveyance busted a belt. We sat on the side of the road for a couple of hours before our driver could take apart the engine and duct tape it back together. We finally made it to Venice about 1 in the morning. But you'll have to wait and hear about that tomorrow. Yep, tomorrow. I'm about tired of only writing about Italy.  Day 7 has three parts though...

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Italy: Day 7, Part 1

We got up early to eat another bready breakfast and board the bus. I was sad to leave Florence because I really, really liked the city. However, I was excited about Pisa, an American breakfast, Verona, an American breakfast, sailing, an American breakfast, and Venice.  Plus, I was kind of ready to go home. I know, I should have forgotten about my queen size bed and clean clothes and just enjoyed the experience. I hate to admit it, but I missed America. I was incredibly torn about this once in a lifetime trip and my homesickness. Plus, I felt like we were hemorrhaging money. We had to pay for most of our meals with Euros instead of a credit card and every time we took out more Euros from the ATM, we got charged a fee. The fee wasn't awful, but I hated it. Plus, I didn't want a bunch of Euros when the trip was over. The exchange fee from dollars to Euros or vice versa is ridiculous - even at our friendly bank that gave us an international credit card (Thanks Mrs. Susan!).  The smallest Euro bill is 5 Euros. That's about 7 bucks. I couldn't keep seven dollars out of our bank account and in a drawer somewhere because we overdrew on Euros.  I mostly kept it to myself. Until Venice, but that's a couple more days away.

Anyway, on to Pisa!

We drove for a couple of hours from Florence into Pisa. Pisa is not exactly on the way to Venice, neither is Verona. The tour went out of way several hours so we could have a day of seeing two pretty neat sights. I was okay with it. So were my blistered feet.

When we got to Pisa, we had to park about a mile away and then walk into the walled city. Along the way, I got to see one of my favorite Italian sights:




Poppies! They are beautiful. And grew everywhere. Fields and fields of them. I tried to take pictures from the bus, but they didn't come out very well. I hope I remember those fields forever. 

After entering the great wall, we went to the restroom. For free. At McDonalds!!!! And you know what my sweet husband did? He bought me a euro burger and some fries. The drink he got for us to share even had ice in it. Not much, but there was some. That was the first ice we had seen in a week.  It made me feel better and a little less homesick.

The outdoor terrace at Mickey D's.
And then, we turned the corner and saw this: 



 That is it. All there is of Pisa. That's the whole city, right there.

I'm lying. The city was actually pretty big - I think there's even a such thing as the University of Pisa. But seriously, the famous thing about Pisa is the Leaning Tower. And there it is. The Tower is actually the bell tower to go along with that church that's in front of it.

Like in all other Italian cities, we could have climbed to the top for a nominal fee. But let's get real, if it's already leaning, I don't want to be the one that tips it over by going to the top. We chose not to climb. Instead, we became the average American tourist and tried to push it back straight.





 And then my sweet husband decided that he'd try to push it over. The bully. 


See, here's that wall I was telling you about: 


It goes all the way around the city. I guess those Italians were worried about invaders and had to protect all their cities.




And finally, one last shot of the Leaning Tower with no goofy tourist poses. I believe it leans because it wasn't built on solid ground. I could be wrong though, I didn't really pay that much attention. I was enjoying by burger from McDonalds too much.


Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Italy: Day 6, Part 2

 So far, Florence was my favorite city. It had lots of history, beauty, and steps. I loved it. For our last night in Florence, we wanted to make it special. After the Uffizi, we took a stroll down the Ponte Vecchio which is a closed-in bridge over the Arno River which is right behind the Uffizi. As the Uffizi used to be the Medici family's private museum, you better believe that it had a prime location on the river.

Ponte Vecchio is another example of Italians using all the space they could. The bridge is actually lined with jewelry shops with about 50 feet in the middle of unobstructed views of the river. Originally, the shops on the bridge were butchers. I'm glad that I didn't have to experience the meat markets in my quest for scenery.  The bridge is also known as the Golden Bridge because of those jewelry shops. Indeed, there was a lot of gold in those windows.



Along the Arno River, outside the Uffizi





The view from PV.
 The water ain't pretty, but look at that view. As you can tell, Matt is a pro at taking pictures of us. We had very few non-self portraits.  Side note: I have learned to use the timer on my camera since we have come back from Italy, but I don't think I would have used it much on the trip. I have a very enviable camera. It's black and shiny. It could have been stolen.

We did some window shopping and just enjoyed being in Florence. We headed back to our hotel to clean up for dinner and stopped at a wine shop just a few doors down from our hotel. We picked up a bottle of wine and had the hotel clerk uncork it for us. It's Italy, everyone drinks wine. All the time. After all, it's about the same price as water and in some cases, cheaper.

For dinner, we went to Ristorante Paoli. Their menu had some English, but not a lot. Luckily, our waitstaff was patient and spoke English fairly well. (J, I think you'll like this meal better.)

For starters, we split an artichoke salad. It was COVERED in parm reg. And delicious. I ate most of it. That's my pudgy hand in the picture.



Then we split an amazing gnocchi dish. It was like gnocci in a cream sauce. You know how much I like cream sauces.




 And then Matt ordered meat. Because he's a man. In fact, he ordered a baby deer. Veal. He thought it was delish. I don't care for veal, but it wasn't bad. The little slice of grapefruit and the peas were my favorite part. Oh how I miss produce.


 After dinner, it was still relatively early, so we went strolling again. Florence is really romantic. Matt wanted to go back to the Vecchio so we did. The jewelry shops were all closed. They don't just take the jewelry into the vault at night, the whole shop becomes a vault. Check out that security system. No iron bars and security cameras for the jewelry shops in Florence.


 And then, the bridge view. It's the same viewpoint as the above picture. You can't see the murky water. It's it romantic? I kept asking Matt if he was going to propose. He didn't think it was funny.



After he assured me that he was done proposing, we hit the city streets. Nothing was open, but the lights were on so we got to window shop. We even got to visit the Orsanmichele church. Well, the outside of it anyway. All around the building there are huge niches with very ornate statues in them.   There are 14 statues - each donated by a different guild or group. The one below, Christ and Doubting Thomas was completed in 1483. At least, the original was completed then. We didn't see the original, it's inside the church. Now, all the outside statues are reproductions.



 Know what was open that late at night? A grocery store! It was the first one we had seen, so naturally, we went in and looked around. That was a lot of fun. I wish we had found it earlier.

Florence was magical, but at the end of the day I was tired and ready for our next adventure. And the "American" breakfast that our guide had promised us in Venice. But first, we're going to Pisa and Verona!

Next up, a little leaning and a little piece of America.