Romantic Venice

Day 7, Florence

If Rome and Venice were “aerobic sightseeing,” Florence was a triathlon! Three world-class museums (plus lunch,, Rick Steeves’ “Renaissance Walk” and two harrowing bus rides in and out of town) all in about nine hours!

We started the day with a bus ride into the city center of Venice. (Even though we have a rental car, the city center is what is called locally a “no go zone’” This is a ...

Day Six, Venice to Florence:
Today was a travel day for us: getting out of Venice, picking up a rental care, making our way to Florence by way of Padua.
How we hated to leave Venice! We agree that a month here would just scratch the surface. Around every corner is a new piazza and a new adventure. We will be back!
Michele was intent on seeing the Calatrava bridge before we left Venice. For ...

Blog Day 5 (Venice 2), Wednesday, December 9
We rose well-rested and after enjoying the hotel’s breakfast buffet, set off for St. Mark’s Square, where we spent most of our day. With the national holiday crowds dispersed, it finally paid off to be here in the off season! There were no lines for the Basillica or any of the “extra” (“for a small fee”) attractions on the square. It is no longer allowed to feed the pigeons, with the positive result ...

... places where you can observe art in the setting it was created for. Titian considered this his home church and, besides having many of his creations there, he is buried in the main church.
We had to hurry back to our hotel, or to our neighborhood. We had stopped in a little shop nearby, planning to bring some snacks and drinks back to the hotel later. We asked the shopkeeper how late he would be open. He stated firmly, “I close at 8 o ...

... All of us girls crashed on the bed and Steve decided to go explore since he didn’t have as long in Venice as we did. We all eventually woke up and took showers, then met Steve to go exploring. Venice is a very beautiful city, though it does smell somewhat like fish but that didn’t bother me. We walked for hours. Winding around the back streets and bridges, trying to see what treasures we ...

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Venice

Today was our one full day in Venice so we got up early to do the tourist thing. The campsite was on the mainland. It had a boat which could fairy us across to Venice but it was way too expensive. With the price we had to pay to use it we could have got accommodation in town. We opted instead for an hour on two buses.
We reached the Venice car park/bus terminal feeling a lot more prepared than the day before so walked across the bridge and found ...

We stepped off the ferry and into the anemic winter sunlight of a frigid Venice morning. The port where we disembarked was huge and empty. A passenger bus arrived to take us to the main train station, and we were the only passengers. We wandered across the canals and headed down a street with alleyways filled with hostels and hotels. A few blocks down, and we finally negotiated an acceptable rate, checked into our room, dropped ...

... for 2 weeks - Britney couldn't last that long with her first 2 husbands) - the advice was Rule #1 a happy wife is a happy life and Rule #2 never forget rule #1. He left with his parting words of remember what gondolier told you. Venice was also Don's first foray into Lemoncello which was a favorite of mine as I was pretty much am a Lemoncello aficionado. Grappa wasn't as much of a fan favorite.

... at Verona after Venice.

When I got back to Venice, I had one hour left before the night train to Zagreb. So I took some pictures of Venice in dusk and sat on a step in front of the station. There were a group of young British sitting next to me. After a while, an Italian came to them and tried to socialize, but they didn't like it and escaped. While I was traveling in Italy, I heard another British ***** about Italians. It seemed difficult for British to get along with Italians.

... a plane and it's suddenly hot. Anyway, we drove through Sued Tirol, past Bozen and into the valley just before Garda See. Sued Tirol still has an Austrian / South German feel to it but as soon as you round the corner and look down on Garda See the real Italian flare is there. We drove along a road just before Garda See, rounded the corner and were met by such a beautiful sight we stopped to admire the view and take some pictures. We drove down the serpentine ...