Today we check out of our Venice inn. We will still have time to spend here, since our train is a night train. Initially we assumed we’d have to fly out of Venice to go to our next destination and then Rome2Rio did show another option: night train! It’s less expensive than the plane, and it meant that we could have more time — a full day, really — in Venice. I think the train is also easier to get to, so that’s another plus. I have no idea, though, if I’ll have good wifi access so it’s possible photos will have to wait until the next city. We’ll see.
Today is a very humid day here, so our plan is to take things slowly. Some year we are going to travel during shoulder season and not deal with this. (We’ve been saying that for years about our travels to New York, too. We’ve just had to work with Dan’s teaching schedule (but now that’s not an issue) and my symphony and opera schedule. So it goes.
Anyway, we say goodbye today to our room in Venice. It’s been fun to have a canal view, and the room was quite spacious. (And that loud music from last night DID end at a decent time. Whew!)
(So far I appear to have a better connection so I’m going to attempt posting photos tonight!)
After a fairly decent sleep we woke and went to have our breakfast, included with the room. We are staying at Locanda la Corte, a place I found through Rick Steves’ book. (I have been following his suggestion of booking directly: true enough, I saved money and I know the places appreciate getting paid directly.) Our room is nice and large, and the bed is comfortable. Nothing here in Venice is new so if anyone wants that they may as well go elsewhere, but it’s a clean room, and a super location, away from the crowds.
Following breakfast we decided to go to Basilica di San Marco. I absolutely love walking the narrow alleyways … some so narrow no more than two people can be shoulder to shoulder. When we arrived at the basilica (and the huge square) … well … EEK! SO many people, even in the morning. We’d been warned about the tourists in Venice, but until you see it it’s hard to believe. Many are just off the cruises and in for the day. But what a zoo and, I’m sorry to report, work is going on in the square and on the basilica, so once again construction gets in the way of things.
Photos on our way to the Basilica and square and then the place itself:
After being in that area for a brief time, we wandered more.
Eventually we landed at La Fenice Opera House. There are no operas or concerts happening while we are here, but we could tour the place and what with the nice air conditioning inside and the temperature and humidity on the outside we opted to do so. The woman at the ticket booth looked at us and said, “It’s 18€ for two senior citizen tickets.” Now where in the world did she get the idea we were over 65?! Sigh. I guess I look as old as I am. Go figure.
It was fun to tour the opera house. I would have loved to have seen an opera, but maybe we’ll have to return someday for that.
From there we decided to go in the direction of our inn. Heh. WHAT direction that is can be a bit of a puzzlement. Dan and I often have different ideas about what way to go. So far I have been winning in that area, which is an amazing miracle since he is Map Man. (But of course we first do the “what direction do you think it is?” bit without a map at first. The crowds by now were insane. We went over Rialto bridge and that was nuts. We realized there was no way to cross over the Grand Canal to our place after that so had to go back over it. That was even more busy, and then we were having to make our way through nearly wall-to-wall people. We did see a restaurant that looked like a good idea so we escaped in there for a time. We ordered cicchetti (like tapas, Italian style). Little did we know that one order would have been enough … and there were little octopi on the plate, which is something I refuse to eat. (I do wonder if I had asked if they would have substituted something else. Too late now.) From lunch it was back to our inn.
While escaping the crowds, heat, and humidity, we finally opted to sit in a little area downstairs from our room and enjoy the gift of champagne (okay … really brut, if we are to be correct) Dan was given yesterday. What a nice and relaxing time. After we did that it was time to go to dinner — a place for which I’d made reservations. I’d link it here, but it looks like their site has been compromised and I never could manage to get through to it. I read reviews, though, and it received high ratings, so off we went to 6342 A Le Tole. Well, the food was good. The music was so doggone loud I simply couldn’t hear Dan talk. It was a small place and there was no reason the singer/bass guitar player had to be so darn loud. Guess I can’t give it high marks, even while it has some sort of connection to where we are staying.
From dinner we went back to St. Mark’s and the square there. So much less crowded, yet still a good number of people there. we heard several music groups playing: each was at a different restaurant or cafe in the square. They looked pretty darn bored with what they were doing! We didn’t last long outside — I suspect Dan cut things short because of me and for that I’m sorry. I think the loud music just sort of bummed me out, what with my “ear of distortion” and all. (Sorry, Dan!)
Venice is a fascinating place. I love wandering the small alleys. I prefer staying away from the most crowded areas, though.
I’m not sure what we’ll do tomorrow. Perhaps visit other islands. Time will tell. Meanwhile … cheers from Venice!
(Just after I sent a message saying I probably couldn’t post, I managed to get through. Figures!)
So … just a quick update with no photos.
After we got situated in our room we went out to find the restaurant I’d reserved for Dan’s birthday dinner. It was in a lovely courtyard. The servers were so nice, and the food was delicious. We spent over 2 1/2 hours there, and just had a great time. I’ve already written about the candle, my singing, and bottle of wine for Dan. And THEN the champagne waiting for us in our room. Quite the day for Dan!
I will continue to write here if I can manage to get online, and then when I get to a place with better internet I will add photos. I’ll even post some while here if I can get some to work, but I sure can’t post the number I’ve been posting while we are staying in Venice.
Update … attempting to post the birthday boy pic, and “our” courtyard …
Once again the internet is working slowly, so odds are I can’t post photos until we leave Venice. Ah well, it was bound to happen!
We had a wonderful dinner, and when they brought dessert out it had a candle for Dan’s birthday. I sang quietly … or thought I did. When I finished the others eating nearby clapped. Ack! I do NOT have a good voice! Later the server brought a bottle of wine to Dan as a gift!
Getting back to our hotel there was a chilled bottle of champagne waiting. Sadly we will have to wait on that, as we had wine at dinner.
After having the coffee in our room (which Dan doesn’t like much — I do not have discerning taste when it comes to coffee so it’s fine by me), we went outside. I looked to the left, where I think people who buy the breakfast here eat. Hm. Perhaps I’m wrong: it wasn’t open. Then we noticed that our little side street, off of the main one, was blocked at both sides. And it sure seemed quiet. Maybe people don’t get up as early as we did (but it was 10:00!) here? Walking to the main street we realized there were no cars, although the silly little tourist train was still running. Interesting! We looked online to see if there was some sort of special event but came up empty. Then I realized if this was the case for tomorrow we might have difficult getting a cab, so I got on WhatsApp and contacted the man who filled me in on where we are staying to ask what was up and how we would get a cab.
This street is normally quite busy with cars, motorcycles, buses, taxis, and bikes:
We landed at this church for a brief time, as we were really going to find better coffee…
After that we headed up to the street with restaurants, went up one street and down the next, and (typical of us) landed at the first place on the first street to have our coffees and croissants.
While there I received a reply to my message. The streets in the center here are closed on Saturday and Sunday. To get a cab (he didn’t offer to help — the first time that’s happened on our trip) I have to call and we meet the cab on another street. But the walk to the station is less than a mile, and it can be done under the porticos, so we are thinking we might just walk instead. Stay tuned to find out what we finally did!
And, finally, breakfast. After breakfast we walked a different direction than we had gone before (I think it was east). We were protected from the sun nearly the entire time, but up and down, and I just love these porticos!
We entered a church (and heard a group playing The Four Seasons, but we weren’t able to get into that area of the church.
More walking …
I’m not sure I’d want to be in the building at the top of this photo above!
On the way back we took a side street and, lo and behold, we wound up at Santo Stefano: a place I tried to get to yesterday (without using a map) but didn’t manage to figure out. Cool! Unfortunately we couldn’t get into the church(es) because they were just closing for a few hours.
More walking …
We walked west, trying to find the tortellini place with the two sisters who have been on several tv shows we’ve seen. Unfortunately they must be closed on Saturdays. Then we headed toward a place well known for sandwiches and that was so crowded — a huge long line) — and they have no chairs and tables so people eat sitting on curbs or stairs and we just weren’t up for that so we walked on, finally ending up a spot on another main drag. We ordered our sandwiches (which ended up not being sandwiches because they were out of those) and eventually wound up talking to a man and his wife who were visiting from Germany, a bit north of where my brother and wife (hi Greg & Jan!) live.
Then it was back to our room, but first a small gelato which I soon regretted. Just too much food! (Does gelato count as food?) Dan was working on getting more photos posted on his site, and I snoozed a bit and wasted time during the hottest part of the day (it got to 91°) … air conditioning is our friend.
Finally we went out again (but it was still awfully hot!), and ambled a while since the place we were hoping to be at for dinner didn’t open until 7:00. It was a nice little walk, and we did make a few photos.
Then we arrived at our dinner spot, Trattoria dal Biassanot, and enjoyed a dinner where … surprise, surprise … we had a bit too much to eat. I couldn’t finish my tortelloni, and we didn’t even bother with dessert. I’m hoping tomorrow will be a light meal day.
Our train is at a bit after 2:00 PM, so we have time to spare in the morning. And tomorrow is also a Very Important Day for two people in my life. You’ll have to stay tuned to find out who those two are (they know, though!). You also have to stay tuned to find out where we wind up. I can’t divulge that yet … gotta keep the suspense going. But you can try and guess if you’d like!
What a lazy day today. Dan was still not quite up to par, and we just took our time doing anything.
Dan figured out the shower (turns out the device on the thing is to turn on lights, a fan, and music. I’m sorry, but I do NOT want to listen to music when I’m in the shower! Oh .. wait … I lied. I am not at all sorry about that!
We had coffee in our room since they do provide that here (I didn’t pay for their breakfast), and eventually we got outside. There is an area with an indoor market, along with a multitude of restaurants and food shops, and we went into the market area to have another (and better) coffee, OJ, and we shared a croissant. So many of the croissants I’ve had in Italy have been sweet, and this was the case with this one.
We walked a while, seeing more graffiti than you can ever imagine. Or maybe not. Maybe you have a very graffiti-filled brain. Heck if I know. But there was a lot of graffiti. We knew to expect that this time: when we first came to Bologna years ago we were rather shocked. I think it’s the only city I’ve been to where, had I an implement that would work, I would feel nearly comfortable putting something up on a wall. (I hope there is nothing written that is offensive, but I don’t speak Italian so pardon me if that’s the case! I realize some just find graffiti offensive and I can’t do much about that. It’s just a reality in Bologna.)
Both of us began to feel a bit weary — Dan due to recovering and me due to that sweet croissant — so we we went back to our room where one of us napped and the other just wasted her time.
After a time Dan suggested I could go out on my own … a good suggestion because I was getting antsy and rather bored. So I took a somewhat long walk, wandering here and there with no destination in mind. I think I found the restaurant we ate the first time we were here. Pretty sure, anyway. I might have found the garage we parked in as well. I never did find the place where we spent the night though. If I remember correctly the entrance was rather nondescript, so it’s no wonder I can’t remember. (Plus we were barely here.) I think I could wander Bologna for a fairly long time. I did take one little break on a bench in the shade and just enjoyed the people passing by. (I’d never heard of the man pictured with the clarinet, but figured I’d post it in case any of my clarinet friends are interested.)
I came back to the room and decided to give that fancy shower a whirl. For the life of me I can’t figure out how to get the water to come out from above, but only from the side thingie (does that have a name?). After the walk the shower did feel mighty fine. I did not, however, listen to the music. Nope. I said I wouldn’t do it and I didn’t.
Out the door we went, and we walked a little and then headed to Sfoglia Rina for dinner. Neither of us had lunch, so dinner was on the early side (which is good since this restaurant closes quite early). I had lasagna and it was quite delicious! While we don’t eat meat at home, aside from some chicken and the occasional fish, here we try to have what locals have and/or recommend. So yes, I had lasagna alla bolognese. Quite yummy! The place is not your run of the mill restaurant. They have a board with items written on it (some crossed out if they are no longer available that day), and then you write what you want on the paper provided at your table, along with your table number (which we neglected to write … oops!), and hand the order to a server. While the photos below show empty seats it was full shortly after that and people were waiting outside.
We walked more, had (gulp … shame on me) a small cone of gelato, and yet more walking. We amble slowly, so I only got eight miles in today, but my watch is happy with me. Hey, maybe I’ll sleep tonight …? I can dream, right? Or, should I not sleep, I suppose I can’t.
We had to wake on the early side today so we could get to the Siena train station too early. Yes, you read the correctly. We always get to train stations too early! I’m fine with the waiting, though, as long as I can sit somewhere.
Goodbye Siena. We loved visiting you!
Todays travel meant to trains. The first, a slower train, was quite full, but we managed to grab two seats together. A few stops later we wouldn’t have been as fortunate, so I’m glad there were only two stops before ours. That trip took us from Siena to Florence, and we had over an hour to spare before catching the next train.
Hello Florence. Or at least Firenze Santa Maria Novella train station.
One thing to note about train stations, or at least the one in Florence: continue to check to see what track you are on. The Trenetalia app may tell you one thing, and it sticks to that. But the board will post the correct one. This happened both times at that station.
Train #2 was a fast train. My fave! As before, I managed to book seats that were NOT facing each other, but instead were back-to-back. I honestly don’t know how I blew it on every train, but I did (I just checked and our final train is the same issue. Argh! That one is somewhat full, so we may have to ask someone to switch with us. We’ll see.). Thankfully the train was rather empty, and we were only going to the very next stop so we could sit together (At the last moment two men came in and I was in one of their seats, but one man was more than happy to move into mine and the other one sat across from him.) I was sort of sorry our train ride was only 35 minutes (and so much was in tunnels), but we quickly arrived at our next city.
Hello Bologna!
I’m not really prepared for this city: I did no research, I’ve read very little, and Rick Steve’s doesn’t include it in the Italy book. We just knew we wanted to return because we were here for a very brief time some years back.
We got situated in our room (never had to even see anyone: I was sent codes to get into the building and then into our fourth floor room — thankfully with a lift for this, contrary to so many places we’ve stayed this time), and puzzled over how we use a shower with some sort of remote control. Guess we’ll learn soon! (Photos below show our room, the view from a window, the lift, and the interesting front door.)
Leaving our room, we ventured out. We walked to Piazza Maggiore, which we remembered from our earlier visit and I was disappointed to see a huge screen and chairs set up for movies. It also means photographing the Basilica di San Petronio won’t be quite as easy. But so it goes. I realize for people living here movie nights are probably great fun, but I was so hoping to photograph the square, especially at night when everyone comes there to hang out. I have very good memories of seeing that before. Ah well. There is also a whole lot of construction going on in the area. Seems to be the way things are this year in a lot of cities.
Then it was time to search out lunch and we selected a place somewhat rapidly and — DRUM ROLL — we only ordered one thing (pizza) and shared it and we didn’t eat too much! Yes. Miracles do happen, even in the 21st century.
After eating on “La strada del Jazz” (there are stars with famous jazz artists’ names on the sidewalk, two of which you can see above) we wandered a little, but I think we both were kind of weary. Funny how train travel can do that … it’s not like we moved around at all while on the train! So rest time it was.
After a while Dan started to feel a bit poorly (food poisoning, perhaps?) so we hung out longer than expected in our room. Eventually I opted to go for a short walk. As I headed toward the door of our “inn” (or whatever it’s called) I saw a passport on the floor. Earlier I had heard a woman outside our door — I think she was having trouble getting inside her room or something — so I figured it was probably hers and, sure enough, it was. She was, as you might imagine, very relieved, saying that had it been taken it would have been sold on the black market. Probably so (although only people staying in this place can manage to get inside, I think). Then out on my walk I went. I thought perhaps I could find the place we ate when we were here years ago, but that was a fail. So I just rambled a bit.
(And yes, the tower in Pisa isn’t the only one that leans.)
And now I’m back in our room. It’s a dinner-less night. That’s probably good, since I’ve been eating far too much! I just hope Dan feels better tomorrow.
After breakfast we walked to the Duomo. I had purchased tickets that got us in to the Gate of Heaven tour. It doesn’t happen all year, and had just opened up again yesterday. It seemed like it would be a good thing to do, despite my fear of heights, and I thought they managed the tour quite well: a limited number of us taking a long spiral staircase up, we are lead from area to area, and they close the area behind us. For the most part I could handle the heights pretty well, although I had my moments, and it really was fascinating. We could see tools that were used to build the church in one of the first areas of the roof that we saw, and as Dan pointed out, it really is amazing to think about how they built such a structure with what we would, I’m sure, call primitive tools.
From the Gate of Heaven we moved to the main part of the cathedral and we spent a good amount of time there. One room (I think they called it a library) showed old music, which was quite large, so all the singers could read it (no books for each singer back then). I couldn’t figure out the notation, but I didn’t spend a gob of time with it. In the same room the walls were covered with frescoes.
Mostly I marvel at the beauty of old churches, and wonder why beauty and good art don’t seem to matter to some denominations at all. I wonder if it’s a fear issue: art can be difficult for some people, and they might feel threatened by it. But I don’t know if that’s it. Just trying to figure it out. I am not comfortable with the pretty obvious adulation of Mary, but still, the church was amazing. Even in the places that aren’t seen by anyone (just like the Milan Duomo), there are decorations and such. Every part of the building seems to matter … I like that.
Next up was the crypt. It wasn’t huge, but it was, again, interesting to see the frescoes, albeit missing parts of the images. Than the baptistry. Turned out they were working on it (memories of Florence) so we couldn’t see everything. Kind of figures!
After a mediocre lunch we went to the Duomo museum: our tickets allowed us to go there and go up high (yes, I was giving it another go) and outside. We had to stand outside in line for a while. Then we went inside and had to wait to go up the stairs. Finally we went up, and ended up in another room to wait in a line. FINALLY we were admitted to what we thought was going to lead immediately to the outside. Nope. Another long line. It appeared they were admitting 10 to 15 people or so at a time, and we had a good (or bad — you choose) number of people ahead of us. After standing there for a while, and dealing with my aching back, Dan suggested we leave: we’d seen a lot, after all, and I think they really mismanaged this part of the Duomo experience.
Still, it was a good Duomo day, and I’m so glad we were able to get tickets since we only purchased them yesterday. (I do recommend getting them online: the line in front of the Duomo just to buy tickets was awfully long!)
We have gotten very good at our afternoon rests!
Dinner was at yet another recommended restaurant, and it was quite good. Of course I ate too much. Sigh.
Walking back to our place we went through the Piazza del Campo: they are clearly starting to prepare even more for the race. They put down a lot of dirt where the horses will race, covering up all the cobblestones. They must work quite fast! I felt as if I could sense the excitement mounting. (The race is a week from now.)
Now we have to pack up for the next, and second to last, city in Italy. G’night!
Today was our first (of two) full day in Siena. It began (huge surprise) with breakfast at the B&B. Then we were off to do a Rick Steves‘ walking tour. I’m sure those go quickly for some, but when you have a photographer on the tour it can take a good amount of time! I mostly did iPhone photography, but did force myself to pull out the Fuji camera at times. (I’m actually not in much of a photography mood when I’m on vacation.) As always, I will share iPhone images here that are reduced so they load more quickly. We started at the Piazza del Campo, wandered per Rick’s (Yes, he and I are on first name basis now. Heh.) instructions to various spots, saw the building that houses the Chigiana Academy of Music but things looked closed at the moment, saw a lot of other interesting buildings, and of course went to the Duomo. More walking. More fun things to see. As always, here is a whole lot of hodge-podge of photos:
Lunch came after we finished with Rick’s tour. We ate at a place very close to where we are staying, in an outside area. I am being better — just had a salad with tuna an chick peas. NO dessert (so far), but a cup of coffee after.
Then we went walking some more, and saw the Basilica of San Domenico. I’ve yet to figure these places out. The sign in front said NO photography or video, so we abided by that. But inside there were people taking photos and videos, and a priest (I’m assuming that’s what he was, seeing the collar) didn’t react to anyone doing photography and at one point a nun took photos! I also saw a man showing his daughters (or maybe granddaughters?) how to light candles and had them fold their hands to pray, and he was wearing a hat. So what gives? Hats okay? Photos fine? Dunno!
More photos of what we saw outside the church, since there was a somewhat nice viewpoint of the Duomo (but there’s a big tree in the way that we had to work around).
Before we went back to our room we went to a shop right next door. Dan is interested in buying an espresso cup and they had some lovely ones. Some are quite costly. I’m not sure I”ll get anything … I worry that whatever I get will break before we get home. But we’ll see.
During our room time I did some hand washing of clothes, and then we did some research about where to eat dinner. We had three possibilities and eventually went out to look at each. The second looked promising, but of course we had to check out the third. Turns out it wasn’t open (I’m guessing an August vacation), but we did see some nice views and the best bougainvillea I’ve ever seen!
We then headed back to restaurant #2. It is a place right underneath the tower in the center of Siena. I have to say sitting under some bricks that I knew were part of the tower could make a person wonder what might happen if there were an earthquake! The food was great, and we were glad to have gone there.
Now we are back in our room. Tomorrow it’s Duomo time.
I looked out our window this morning and saw that the street was wet. We knew we might get a bit of rain today, so it wasn’t a big surprise. Then the rain started to really come down, so we hung out in our room for longer than we had planned.
Finally out we went, to have our breakfast at Coffee O’Clock and I think I shouldn’t have bothered paying the 6€ each for these two days: we could have easily gone somewhere nicer for the same amount. Ah well!
We started walking and noticed a church with a sign in front that looked like it was showing concert info. As we neared the church we heard singing. Well of course we had to go in! It appeared to be a workshop for young conductors: there was a workshop leader, and a choir that the conductors were working with. We stood for a while to enjoy the music making. What a treat!
Then we walked for a while, checking two restaurants our B&B owner had suggested for dinner, as well as looking into the Basilica di San Francisco, and happened upon a plaque (or whatever one calls these) about Guido d’Arezzo, which was fun! We also hit the park we saw yesterday, and then checked out a third restaurant.
(Do you see the skull at the bottom of the above image?!)
We finally ended up at the main piazza, Piazza Grande, where we checked out a variety of restaurants for lunch.
As we walked around the piazza (there were restaurants all around) the sky got darker and looked a bit threatening. Just as we decided where to eat, and after the servers said, somewhat emphatically, to sit under the roof rather than under the umbrellas, the rain came down. And oh did it pour! (Right before the rain began servers all over were removing chair cushions from the tables under umbrellas: they get the job done quickly!)
There was thunder as well, but we didn’t see the lightning. We sat for a good long time, since neither of us brought our rain jackets and we had no umbrellas (didn’t even bring them for this trip — we figured we could buy cheap ones if we needed them). The piazza was empty of people and the water was pouring down steps in front of buildings. There was a covered stairway and a good number of people took refuge there as they waited for the rain to subside. It really was sort of fun as we all experienced the downpour there! For a short time it cleared so some people went back on the piazza, and then, rather suddenly, started pouring again and they sure moved quickly — well, except the one young, gum chewing boy who was too cool to move quickly!
When the rain finally seemed to be gone, or at least nearly gone, we walked back to our room, getting hit only lightly by rain a few times.
Side Note: In every city I think I’ll finally go into a store and look for a loose, waistless dress and some pants that are more comfortable than the ones I have that stick to my skin when it’s hot and humid. So far I just haven’t managed to do that, though. I hate shopping, for one thing, but I also figure I packed what I packed and I should just live with it. Yeah, I’m silly that way.
For dinner we went to the first restaurant we saw today. (Turns out it’s related to the restaurant from yesterday and we saw the same server at both — IIRC the woman who runs this B&B said they are both owned by the same family.) I had taken a photo of the menu I will share it here. (I should do that more often: it helps me remember the places we visited for meals!)
And now we are back in our room. I’m close to fully packed (I have a habit of setting out the next day’s clothes each night before I sleep so I don’t have to ponder in the morning.) Our train is at about 10:00, so I want to be ready to go.
