NH Mantegna Padua

12.3.09 Venice Ends On (Literally) A High Note

We are enjoying Venice so much that this morning, we decided to extend our stay here one more night, leaving tomorrow instead for Assisi (we are "behind" at least one day due to me getting sick in Florence, but I guess that's the beauty of creating our own itinerary). Murray went to tour the Museo Storico Navale, since it was closed (early!) by the time we got there the other day, and I was happy to let the Navy man ...

... Paul II. This particular church also was situated on a large piazza of the same name, and we were amazed by the number of schoolchildren that were playing there (a large soccer game was going on, and there were many tiny bicyclists around, etc!). I thought that if I lived in Burano, that would be a really fun thing to do each evening – head to the piazza and let your kids loose to play with other kids in any number of activities, while you ...

... Venice - Ferrara - Ravenna - San Marino
Oct 12: San Marino - San Leo - Urbino
Oct 13: Perugia - Assisi - Cortona
Oct 14: Siena - Bologna - Vicenza
Oct 15: Venice

On a previous trip to Europe we were advised to purchase the duty free at the connecting location. We discovered that once you are in the European Union countries, the duty free price would only apply if you are travelling to an International ...

... people-watching was great and the basilica is lovely at night. St. Mark's began to flood, and it was interesting to watch all the water from the icky canals surge into the streets.
We could tell it was high season compared to our original visit in late March. The streets were more crowded and I had no idea they could shove that many people on a vaporetto boat. Overall, it is such a unique city, and a lovely place to just wander the quiet back streets. Off ...

... city important if you cathedral had them. It was very refreshing to escape the relentless crowds of Venice for a day and see an Italian city without major tourism. Also helped that showers came to cool the temperatures down to the 70's. We returned to find an almost empty Venice. The rain showers apparently chased most people out of town. Supposed to be sunny and high 70's again, so it will be ideal for our last day of sightseeing in Venice.

... 6 of us found a small little cafe on a side street for pizza and pasta. After dinner we wandered some more and saw the Rialto bridge and took many a photo. Then we went back to the taxi docks to shuttle back to the mainland and take another long coach ride to our hotel for the night where we arrived very late and went straight to bed...

... where Galileo held class and now houses all the famous coats of arms of Europe who attended the University of Padua. Hrm, guess who was next to Galileo.. hrm none other than Nicolas Copernicus.. Coincidence? Well, we then moved into the oldest anatomical theatre in the world, yes you heard me, anatomical theatre, the first place in the world where doctors actually dissected human cadavers... Very cool. Finally, we went to the Basilica of St. Anthony, which I have to say was the ...

... but it's more like half an hour and the bus only runs once an hour. A bit of a pain, but I didn't feel like shelling out 200 Euros (almost $300) a night to be in the middle of the action... now I wish I had (more on that later). I arrived in the evening and the next morning it was up early and into the city to explore. When I got there, I was speechless at the beauty... I kept cursing in the my head... in a good way, out of amazement. It was everything I pictured it would be like and ...

... for €4, yeh, we went in, sat down, ordered and she asked if we would like drinks with that so John ordered a beer, Camella a coke, and Dean and I hot chocolates. It was nice, we asked for the bill thinking we'd done well with our cheap lunch in Venice. The drinks were more than the meals!! John's 250ml class of beer was €6.50. And of course she had given Camella the biggest glass in the joint. Lesson two: ask the price of drinks before ordering. Once you've done your ...

... well. The highlight of Venice is without a doubt St. Mark's Basillica. As you all read previously, we saw the San Sophia church/mosque while in Istanbul. While San Sophia suffered much destruction of the original Christian mosaics when it was converted to a Mosque, St. Marks is almost as it was when construction started over 1000 years ago. The mosaics are so well preserved, it was really like traveling back in time. We were also in awe of the intricate ...