Day 83-84: Italia Part I

Thursday, April 8, 2010- Venice, Italy

We woke up Thursday morning only to remember we were in ITALY! I've always dreamed of Italy and was so curious as to how it would be. Needless to say, I was super excited to get to the island of Venice and see what all the hype was about!

We got ready quickly and headed downstairs for breakfast at the hotel. We were entertained by the tough Italian bread and happy for our very own pot of coffee and steamed milk! We ate and headed out to the Tabacan to get our tickets for the bus to get to Venice. Unfortunately, the Tabacan decided to open a little late that day, making us miss our bus to Venice!!! Since buses only left from the nearby stop to the island once an hour, we had to wait awhile to catch the next bus. We bummed around the few little shoppes nearby and bought a map of Venice as well as a bottle of sunscreen. Then we walked over to the Villa nearby our hotel that Bali had seen on the internet. It did not open until 10AM, so we could not go in, but we peered in through the gate before heading back to the hotel. In the hotel, I lathered on sunscreen and we studied the map to see where we should go first once we got to Venice. We headed out shortly thereafter to catch the bus....and made it this time!

It was a rather short bus ride to the island- about 20 minutes. We got off the bus and went to the big bus station across the road to get some information at the Tourist information office. We got a few peices of literature and some tips before heading out to explore Venice, Italy!

It was a GORGEOUS day! Sunny, with a few cottony clouds in the sky. We walked across the big bridge over onto the island and began to explore. Feeling claustrophobia kicking in on the main streets by the Grand Canal, we turned into a back street and walked in the quiet corridor through the city and explored the innards a bit. We had read before coming that one of the best things to do in Venice is just get lost in all the windy, narrow streets, and this we did! It was difficult to keep up with where we were on the map, as there are so many tiny streets that curve this way and wind that way. We did our best to figure out where we were, but enjoyed pioneering new paths and stumbling upon things.

The direction we had chosen to explore first took us through the Carneggio district and the Ghetto. We walked through a small garden in between some buildings and came to an area with the Madonna Church and some nice bridges (there are soooo many bridges in Venice!!!). We stopped for a snack, rest and to take some pictures. Now we were back on a major stretch and we walked along Strada Nuovo (a major shopping street) and happened upon the only McDonald's on the island of Venice. We were thankful for this, and headed inside to use the Wifi on Bali's phone and the free restrooms. We chilled with cappuccinos for a few minutes and checked the internet before heading out to brave the streets of Venice again.

We were walking through one area when we noticed several gondolas coming through the area. We stopped to listen to the speel that the gondoleers were giving to the tourists in the boat, and came to realize that we were at a very important place. The guides were pointing out that Marco Polo's house was just up the top of the building we were standing beside. We were awed, but also amused by the tourists (especially this Chinese bunch) that suddenly whipped out their cameras and started clicking the moment they heard mention of Marco Polo. We watched several boats pass through and chuckled at them before carrying on our own way.

Another comical sight we saw along the way called for a picture. We were walking and saw a man in a boat calling up to a man in the window of one of the buildings above. Next thing we knew, a trash bag was being hurled out the window down to the man in the boat. We began giggling and snapped a picture of this comical event. Guess this is how trash is taken to the dumpster in Venice!

Next we planned to make our way to the Rialto Bridge, the most famous bridge in Venice and the largest of the three that cross the Grand Canal. Along the way, we got super lost in the back streets and had to back-track a bit to find our way. We didn't mind this though, as we saw a lot and visited numerous shoppes. As you may know, Venice is famous for its hand- painted and crafted Venetian masks. Bali was planning on purchasing a mask while in the city, so we visited many of the shoppes that sold the masks to look for a suitable one for her at a reasonable price.

Another renowned specialty in Venice (and the whole of Italy) is, you guessed it, GELATO! We saw many of these shoppes along the way as well and checked the price of a scoop at each to see which had the best deal. We settled for paying 2 euro for two scoops...our first GELATO! I got a scoop of Nutella and a scoop of Tiramisu....SO GOOD! We chilled and enjoyed our ice cream on the steps of a small bridge before continuing on our way to the Rialto Bridge.

Finally, we reached the Rialto Bridge! We knew we were closeby when we began to notice the swarms of tourists. It was crazy around there....so many people! I needed to use the bathroom at this point, so we found a public WC (water closet) that cost 1,50 euro to use. NO! I refused to pay that much, figuring that we would stop someplace soon that would be a bit more reasonable. So we began to cross the bridge, which was like a beehive swarming with tourists! We were not impressed with the current conditions of the bridge, as shoppes have been built all across it and it has been so defamed for tourism. We were a bit disappointed, but walked across and took pictures nonetheless.

Across the bridge, we began to search for a place where we could sit, have a drink and use the toilet. We walked alongside the Grand Canal, passed numerous over-priced cafes and men trying to sell us gondola rides for "a great deal". We came to this mirrored wall and took the opportunity to take a photo of the two of us with the canal in the background. Bali and I got to laughing pretty hard, and suddenly heard her name being called.

We turned around to find our mutual friend, Katie Carey (Connecticut), laying out behind us on the side of the canal. Pleasantly surprised, we walked over and sat down beside here. She and several others from Tilburg were in Venice as well. We had texted them earlier about meeting up, but just so happened to run into them....small island! We sat with her until Bari (Canada), Ryan (Canada) and Jordan (Florida) returned with gelato cones and wine. We relaxed with them for over an hour, enjoying the canal, sharing about our journies and sipping on wine. It was really nice. Then we headed to their hostel that was nearby (about 5 minutes walking!) to use their toilet....that's one way to get a free trip to the WC!

We enjoyed seeing their hostel and even met the hilarious hostel manager, Alex. He invited us to a popcorn party that evening at the hostel and entertained us for a bit by drawing a picture of Ryan's face on a glass lantern outside on the hostel patio. We chilled there for a bit, before saying good-bye to our friends and parting ways again.

Bali and I were getting quite hungry (and tired of looking at Venetian masks in the shoppe windows) so we decided to look for a place for supper. We checked our hostel world guide and found a pizza place, Arco, nearby that sounded good. We got a bit lost along the way (surprise, surprise in Venice!) but finally made it there. We ordered a Quatro Staggio Pizza, which worked well for Bali and I, as it had four separate quarters each with one ingredient: artichokes, olives, mushrooms and ham. Bali does not eat ham or beef, so I had the meat! We watched our pizza being freshly made and began drooling at the sight of our first pizza in Italy.

We took our pizza over to a nearby canal and sat down beside the water to feast on our Italian pizza. We were enjoying the warm yumminess and watching the sky turn all shades as the sun set, when we heard some man calling us from behind. We turned around to see Alex, the manager from the hostel behind us! We were surprised (and again noted how small Venice is!) and began to speak to him and ask him how to get some places. He drew a map on our pizza box and wrote each of our names in calligraphy before heading out. Such a small world!

After letting our dinner settle, we got up to explore a bit more before it got too dark. We wandered a bit more before heading to San Magherita, a square suggested by our hostel world guide as a college-student hang out in the evenings and a good place for a drink. We looked around a bit in the square before getting a drink at a cafe. We sat outside and sipped the punch for awhile before getting up to head back to the bus station. We took a late bus back to the mainland and walked back to our hotel from the bus stop nearby. It had been a nice day in Venice, and we were looking forward to exploring the island a bit more the following day!

Friday, April 9, 2010- Venice, Italy

We began our day again with breakfast at the hotel and the bus ride to the island. We wanted to go back to the hostel that our friends were staying at first to see if Alex was there, as he painted Venetian masks on the side and he promised Bali a good deal for one. We managed to find the hostel and went upstairs, but it was crazy busy with people checking out for the day, so we decided to leave and come back later.

We made our way to the San Marco square, probably the most famous area of Venice. It was truly beautiful, with magnificent buildings and a great view of the coast, but also extremely touristy! We had already planned to take the ACTV boats that day around to some of the islands surrounding Venice. Our first stop was Murano, so we boarded to boat and set sail to this famous sub-isle of Venice.

It took just under an hour to get there by boat (or perhaps water taxi is a better term), but it was worth the ride! We disembarked the ship and headed towards the center of the island. Murano is famous for the Murano glass that is hand-blown on the island into all kinds of shapes and pieces. We had already seen a boatload of Murano glass the preceding day on the island of Venice in all the shops, and had taken note of prices and which pieces we might be interested in. I  had decided that I wanted to buy a small gondola man made out of the Murano glass while on the island, so we found a shop that had reasonable prices where I bought just that.

After we had had enough of the shoppes and wandering for a bit, we decided to grab a bite of lunch. We were content with a small cafeteria pizza place that we found where we ordered another freshly-made pizza to split. We took the pizza back outside and went to the edge of the island to eat and enjoy the sunshine.

After a bit more wandering, we boarded the boat again to the second island on our agenda for the day- Burano. This is the island that is famous for its hand-crafted lace, a nice reprieve from all the glass and masks that we had been forced to look at for the last day. When we first arrived in Burano, we were thoroughly exhausted from  the sunshine and all our walking, and decided to rest for a bit in the park by the shore. We nibbled on our apples that we had purchased earlier and then took a brief nap on the steps. I had to use the bathroom again, so I went to find one and left Bali to relax a bit longer. I stopped along my way back to get a gelato. This time I had straciatella and tiramisu. I also purchased a nice postcard to remember Burano.

I went and retrieved Bali, and we began walking through the streets of Burano. We walked through some quiet neighborhood streets, outside of the touristy district, and took note of all the marvelous colors that coated the walls of the buildings on the isle. Each house had its own flair with a distinct, bright paint color. I decided that this was my favorite part of Venice, as it was so bright and cheery and adorable! We walked through and visited some of the lace shops, stopping to buy a piece of Burano lace to send to my mom for Mother's Day.

We continued wandering through the backstreets of Burano, exploring the whole petite island. We saw some humorous sights here as well, including a house that had a clothesline strung out the windows with stuffed animals hanging from it to dry. We laughed and took loads of pictures before realizing that we had made a giant circle and were back near the place to board the boat. We got back on the boat for the hour-long ride back to Venice. We snacked and slept on the boat, as the water slapped up against the sides.

Back on the main island of Venice, we got off at a random stop on the side of the island near Carneggio where we had been the morning before. We had not explored this area though however, and took the opportunity to look around a bit. We soon realized that we were in more of a local area of Venice, rather than  another giant tourist trap. We found a nice place, La Perla, where we could get a pizza to take out for dinner. We noted it in our minds and walked around a bit more.

Suddenly, Bali said, "Sarah, look!". I looked up at the shop sign above us. It was a small wine store. We had read in our hostel world guide that there were shops on Venice that would fill up an empty plastic water bottle with whichever kind of wine for super cheap. We had been looking for such a shop the whole day before, but had not found one. So we were super happy to have stumbled upon one so randomly! I went inside and had my empty half-liter Slovenian water bottle filled with a sweet white wine from the region in Italy for less than 2 euro. It was delicious! One of the best wines I have had!

We walked around a bit more, exploring this area and sipping on my wine before heading back to the pizza place for dinner. We picked up a nice hot pizza and took it to the edge of the island where we had a decent view of the sunset. We enjoyed our yummy dinner (and third pizza in two days!) before deciding that we wanted to find a nice place nearby that  we could get tiramisu for dessert. We found said cafe nearby and ordered one tiramisu to split. Oh my word, Italian tiramisu is legit. So delicious! We ate it (rather quickly) and headed back to the boat dock to take the boat around the island.

At this point, it was dark, so we had a nice view of Venice at nighttime. We relaxed and enjoyed the view before getting off at the stop near the bus station. We walked around the park near the bus station for a bit before boarding the bus back to the hotel.

Another nice day in Venice!