Venice, Italy

Trip Start Jul 01, 2006
1
8
13
Trip End Jul 17, 2006


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Where I stayed
(Venice hotels)

Flag of Italy  , Veneto,
Sunday, July 9, 2006

In Venice, we stayed at the Hotel Florida. They don't have shower curtain in their shower room. I told the kids to be very careful in taking a shower otherwise, we will flood the bathroom. This hotel is within walking distance to the train station. We're glad we chose it. We didn't have to climbed up and down the stairs with our luggages. This was the time when Italy won the World Cup for Soccer. We had peace and quiet in our hotel at the time of their celebration.

We got to ride the vaporetto and explored the Piazza San Marco and San Marco Basilica where we saw the tomb of St. Marks. We also toured the Palazzo Ducale where we learned that St. Mark's body was smuggled from Alexandria. We crossed Ponte dei Sospiri which divides the Doge's Palace and the Prigioni Nuove. We did not try the Gondola because not only it was overpriced; I was scared it might turn over and we'll drowned. (Yeah, in the Grand Canal)!

We had lunch at Falciani Ristorante where we tasted the best spaghetti in town. We had spaghetti that we never had before. DH had spaghetti frutti mare. It's a seafood spaghetti that consist of mussels, crayfish, shrimp while I had a spaghetti venetian style which was squid. DD1 had the spaghetti mama mia that she shared with DD2. DS had lasagna. The food was delicious.

We also bought some murano glasses and carnival mask as souvenir.

We attended mass at the Basilica de San Marco. The mass was in Italian. We don't speak Italian. After the mass the priest said something that sounded like an invitation for everybody. We just followed the crowd. We went down to the basement of the church. It turned out to be a crypt where the Venetian's patriach/matriach were buried. The priest said a blessing. It feels like we're on a tour group. What an experience!

On our last day in Italy, we decided to have early dinner but not Italian. We thought we had enough Italian food. But for DS it's never enough. He loves Italian food. He was disappointed when he did not see chicken parmigiana in the menu in all Italian Restaurant that we've been to. We went to the Asian Restaurant near the hotel. The food was good and cheaper.

TIP: Most of the public restroom in Italy has no TP so bring your own. Make sure you have change because there is a fee whenever you use one. Most of the bathroom were dirty and has no paper towel.

Tonight, we will be taking a sleeper train to Switzerland. DD1 was really excited. We hope it will be a lot cooler in Switzerland. We were surprised when we arrived at the Mestre station to find their bathroom clean with TP, soap and paper towel. There was nobody there to collect a fee or a tip. I wouldn't mind giving because the bathroom was well maintained.
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