Hotel Belfiore Venice

... control measure (hint: it’s not working!) If you even accidentally drive into the area, much less park there, they will photo your car and send you a hefty bill! Did we mention that drivers here seem to all have the same death wish?

Our first stop was the Bargello Museum, which is home to works by Donatello and Michelangelo, among others. Then off to the Galleria Academia .Yes, we went to an Accademia in Venice, too. It does get confusing! The ...

... of you who are not Reddingites, Calatrava designed the world famous Sundial Bridge in Redding, CA. Michele had read about the Venice bridge and found that it was just as plagued by delays and cost over-runs as the Redding project. Michele describes herself as the only resident of Redding who hates the bridge, more for its cost than its beauty.
You will see some pictures on the blog, but two ...

... they no longer swarm the tourists. But it you still have to watch out for the Pigeon Poop! The Basillica was another feast for the eyes - and ears! As we approached the central altar, imagine our surprise as the “theme” from Phantom of the Opera suddenly blasted from the organ!
Next, we toured the Peggy Guggenheim Museum. This wealthy American woman, who lived in an palatial home on the Grand Canal, had two great loves: her dogs and modern art. After her death, her ...

... 8217;clock,” then added, “but maybe seven thirty, or maybe seven, depending on the people.” We weren’t at all sure what to expect at six thirty, but he was there.
Oh, did we mention that it rained most of the day? We were prepared and only came home with wet shoes. Since most of Venice was under over 3 feet water just a week ago, we considered ourselves very lucky.

Tomorrow, San Marco and (hopefully) dry weather.

... find. Then it started raining, I mean it IS Venice, so what more could you expect? But it wasn’t bad, so (after I bought an umbrella) we kept walking.

The next day was spent the same way, though without Steve. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed tracking down gondolas. We found a great little place that sold yummy ham and cheese Paninis, and had a surprisingly wonderful few days. Next stop: Rome.

... I was walking and imagining how people used to leave here for centuries starting from Medieval times when Venice was the center of the Europe. Walking through that almost empty and peaceful tiny streets I could feel all the history of this gorgeous town. This was the REAL Venice.

I was just walking through this tale enjoying the morning when at about 10 o'clock 1000 of noisy, loudy tourists filled this wonderful place and began to ...

Stopped in Venice for the day en route to Budapest. It was fun navigating the tiny alleys and popping out at Piazza San Marco. Really beautiful, but 1 day was plenty. Ate the local fare, sardines in vinegar and onions. not terrible. actually, pretty terrible. Slept in the Piazza. Caught the overnight to Budapest. quick and beautiful.

... we started again oops. Caught the correct bus to Roma the second time and got dropped at the bus depot from there it was a quick walk (after grabbing a map) over the bridge towards Rialto Piazza to have a nosy at a different part of Venice. Was a fun expedition finding some lovely little shops. Had a slab of pizza and an awesome coffee 'to go' all for 6.00 EUR not bad. Then off to find the Vodafone ...

... the premises and, at one stage there was about eight people (including us) in the shop, so he decided to treat us to an impromptu demonstration, creating a glass horse. It was amazing, taking only a matter of minutes to create the piece. We were also fortunate to have one of the sales ladies interpret what the master was saying into English for us. After the demonstration we proceeded to explore the shop where Shellie fell in love with a ...

[J] I know these blog posts are generally supposed to be about us going from point A to point B with a few snippets of facts thrown in so you learn a thing or two. Not today. You'll have to check out the photos and captions for info on what we did today because I want to use up the typey space to talk about the city of Venice itself. We were supposed to use yesterday to familiarize ourselves with ...