Romeo and Juliet

5/12/12:

After battling the demon hoards of tourists in Venice we decided on a change of pace. So we took a day trip over to the city of Verona. It's only a 1.5 hour train ride from here so it wasn't a big deal at all.

The city is almost the total opposite of Venice. Venice is actually quite large but the pedestrian avenues and canals are super claustrophobic. Verona is smaller but the avenues are wide and long and wonderfully devoid of tourists.

Our guide book has a few things about Verona so we just zeroed in in those and did a semi-guided walk outlined in the book. Ancient (1st century AD) arena, elusive column, ancient city gate, gelato, towers ... We saw it all. Even got to see Juliet's house! Well I'm not so sure if any Juliet ever lived in this house but the courtyard and balcony certainly fit the bill from the story. This was the only place we encountered hoards of people. People were jammed in there trying to get pictures and put expensive lockers on some iron grates and write graffiti on the walls. There's a statue of Juliet in the courtyard where people rub her breasts for good luck as we are already in love and blessed with good luck we did not partake in this activity but witnessed a host of older men rubbing and kissing her bronze boob. Pervs :)

We could have paid the astronomical €6 fee to go in the 'museum' and then up to the balcony but figured that was 2 servings of gelato which is a much better deal.

Oh, almost forgot. We did pay the €6 fee to get into the ancient roman arena but it wasn't even close to worth it. Cool to see the inside but there wasn't anything to really look at especially since its set up as a concert venue (complete with stage, lighting and loads of seating). We did get to use the bathroom which is always a win.

Later in the day we walked around a city sponsored mothers day festival eating gelato and ended up watching a small concert. The fact that we had sweat stache all day with it being 84 made us realize how much we love San Diego All in all a grand day!

Back in Venice we walked around our hotel looking for something to eat. Found the only eatery open, had wine, pizza and dessert then enjoyed the night in our ritzy hotel!

Tomorrow we head to Bologna and hopefully some fabulous food! My goal there is not to eat any pizza. Bologna is known for its great food so I want to make sure I taste it all!!!!

Pics:
1) Roman arena
2) Me by the river.
3) Carolyn trying to decide what to drink.
4) Us at a fountain in Piazza Erbe.
5) Piazza Erbe.
6) Another instance of Carolyn trying to decide what to drink :)
7) Juliet's balcony.
8) Alps fountain in Piazza Bra.

Tourist Mecca

5/11

I think Venice might have more tourists them Siem Reap. Vencitians are few and far between and the ones that are here work in tourism.
After an A+ breakfast at the hotel we headed to the islands where we opted for a 24 hour vaporetto pass (water bus). For 20€ you can ride as much as you want. We had an audio tour that took us from the train station to St. Marks Square, perfect! From there we toured St. Marks basilica, St. Mark's museum and Doge's Palace before taking a break. I remained positive and try to seem interested but touring museums with Michael is taxing, he needs to look at everything. Personally I'll live a happy life without seeing the wallpaper that they think was on the Doge's walls in the 1500's. We did run into an older couple from NY who were high rollers. It was entertaining to hear their impressions of Rick Steve's book (they think he's cheap, ha ha we think he's expensive) and Venice in general. Just goes to show you can vacation with a wide range of funds.
We went in search of gelato and passed Frari Church which was on our tour list and it was open even though it was long past it's operating hours, bonus! After that we decided dinner might be a better pick, finding a place that didn't charge a service charge and cover charge wasn't easy but we finally settled on a place before Michael died of starvation.
Since it doesn't get dark until 2100 we decided to take the vaporetta to the end of the line and then back towards the train so that we could take in Venice with it's glowing lights and famous canals. We opted to skip the touristy $115, 40 minute gondola rides. I know it's what everyone thinks of when they think of Venice but when you're actually here seeing it, it's not so romantic being on a canal in gondola traffic with 100s of tourists on bridges gawking, yelling and taking pictures of you, plus $115 is sometimes what we spend in an entire day. There were a few ginormous yachts on the water that were amazing but I wonder why someone would need something so big? We had yet to meet our 2 a day gelato requirement so we got off at a stop walked to St. Marks Square, caught some music, grabbed a gelato and headed back to the vaporetto, then took a quick train and ended at our posh hotel at 2330, another late night.

Pics:
- St. Marks Square
- us on the roof of St. Marks
- these people spent a fortune on a gondola ride with musicians but we all to benefit from it!
- we are on the Sighs bridge on our way to the prison
- after a gelato incident I had to rinse off in the canal :-)

This App does not like me

5/10/12:

So I wrote a Pulitzer prize worthy blogpost last night and wouldn't you know it .... This crap-tastic app lost it. So this post isn't going to be as wonderful :(

Today was a travel day which 1 month ago meant walk, sweat, bus, another bus, sweat, walk, tuk-tuk, pass out from dehydration. In Italy it went something like this:

Walk to local bus, pray it comes, take local bus to Como. Take train south to Milan. Take metro 3 stops to central train station then get on 1305 train to Venice. During our stop in Venice we managed to eat some seriously delish pizza, find a bathroom (it really is a small victory sometimes to find these) and located an elusive supermarcato.

Our train to Venice was fab! We had a small table between us, kinda like a picnic table and a nice dude came through at one point selling coffee and snacks. I figured Trenialia (the train company) needed some extra help so I went ahead and got a yummy cafe! 3'ish hours later we arrived in Mestre which is on mainland Venice. We're using airline miles for this hotel and the only ones we could afford are in Mestre. But this is actually good because we're away from the camera toting, fanny pack wearing monsters who inhabit the Venetian islands.

Our hotel is seriously sweet. Like ritz Carlton sweet. Ok not that nice but close. We even get robes!!!!! What what!!!! Anyhow, checked in, dropped our stuff off and headed into Venice via the train (only €1.10 each).

Exiting the train station we're greeted with the grand canal for the first time. Awesome!!!! We're also greeted by about 6000 hungry tourist monsters crammed into all the teeny tiny roads. We walked all the way to St Mark's square where I fainted from the sheer beauty of it all! Not really, but it is amazingly beautiful. The square is lined with restaurants and mini-symphonies, St Mark's basilica commands one end while some ancient buildings close off the rest. There's an awesome clock tower which is apparently the first digital clock in the world. It changes every few minutes and sure does have that 80's digital clock feel.

Had gelato and less than yummy pizza and walked around until heading back around 11 PM.

So far Venice seems like a living museum with the few actual residents only working in the tourism industry. Not much else going on in the city. Every square inch of ground floor space is taken up by either a restaurant, gelateria or silly trinket store Its also very very expensive. But that's to be expected in a place like this.

Tomorrow we'll head back and do the 'inside' sights.

Pics:
1) me with my cafe (only €0.80)!!!
2) The grand canal.
3) St Mark's Basillica and the Doge's palace.
4) Our first view of Venice out of the train station.
5) Carolyn holding up the Campanile Tower. She's doing a great job!
6) Campanile Tower, after Carolyn held it in place.
7) Mrs Blue in Venice over a random canal.
8) Bridge of Sighs near the Doge's palace.