12 hours later and we are Heeeeeere

Day 1 in Venice, aka Venezia View photos

We land and get outside and its just as hot as FL. Not at all what the weather said but ok. No biggie. Catch a cabbie and the guy doesn’t speak any English. Hooray!  We tell him where we are staying at and that’s it. The ride to the hotel felt just like home. Crazy drivers. Big 18-wheeler trucks on the highway. However the cars are MUCH smaller. Lots of smart cars on the road. No SUVs that I can see. They have RAV 2 instead of a RAV 4. Funny stuff. Then trying to understand the cost to pay him was interesting. I had to dig deep to my school days of Spanish.

Then once we check in we venture off. Of course we get lost just leaving the hotel. We finally get out to the street and make our way to the public transit. We are staying just outside of Venice. So it took like 20 minutes to get there. Then we take a water taxi through the Grand Canal. Its pretty cool to see the gondolas and Gondoliers, to see the waterways. Again I feel at home with the canals and waterways. However, we don’t have cool buildings like they do here. The history of the buildings and how they don’t ever knock buildings down they just restore and leave it like it was built. Its quite breath taking.

So we ventured over to one of the piazzas. When you get off you have to go through all the street vendors. Its really cool to see all the artists. They had a lot of watercolor and oil paintings of all the famous areas in Venice. Then we went to the piazza, San Marco. It was really neat. They had these 2 huge columns and at the top was one of a griffin and one of a man killing what looked like a dragon or crocodile. They must have been like 200feet up. So mom and dad wanted to sit and rest for a bit so I went venturing. The buildings were just amazing. So detailed in decorations on the buildings. The way they have arches. The marble is so beautiful. I can’t believe it’s outside and not in MY house.  Then I come across this basicilica. Which is a church for you that aren’t familiar. The outside is quite amazing. There is a mural that is a mosaic. Which must have taken forever. It looks like there is gold plated also. I guess if they ever get desperate for money they could always huck a few of the gold mosaic pieces. Hehe.

I go to get my parents and decided to try this so called gelato that I heard so much about. I tried kiwi and bacio.I am not sure what bacio was but it was most delicious. Had some type of nut and it was chocolate. It’s amazing. The gelato was 2EU and a coke is 8EU and yet a water is only 2EU. So that will be my theme. Stick to gelato and water. My goal, to try as many flavors of gelato as possible.

We venture around and decide to go inside the basiclia. Its beautiful. I can’t believe how old everything is and how long ago it was built and how it was made.Pure craftsmanship. I wish we had people to have that type of talent.

So after a long day of walking around we decided to get some dinner. It would be our first meal there. The meals here are an ala carte way of eating. They have appetizers, then 1st meal which is like pastas, then 2nd meal which is your meats and main course, then you have sides which is served after which includes salads, potatoes, veggies, ect. The food is all very fresh. I don’t like uncooked tomatoes but in bruschetta form its amazing. The pasta sauce is fantastic. Hopefully I’ll have home made pasta on this trip. I ordered a filet which was delicious. They don’t seem to have much in the way of chicken, which is good I guess so I can have something different.

The sun sets pretty late here just before 9p. Its still like a dream that I am actually and FINALLY in Italy. I really feel at home here. Its strange. To feel that way but I do. Its truly magical. I am learning the words. Bonjourno and Ciao and Gracie. Which means, hello, good bye and thank you. The accent I can get down pretty quickly. I’ve had a client that would speak Italian and so I know how to mutter the few words. We tried to eat at a place that I read about that had the best sunset but we got there to early as we were expecting the sun to set on our time which is before 8pm and the place didn’t open till 7 and it was only 6pm. So we just stayed for a drink. It was so hot out that we needed to sit in some a/c. Which is a rarity we are finding out. Actually I don’t need the a/c but they folks did.  I decided to try the lemoncello which I’ve heard so much about. It’s a liquor made from the lemons which Italy is well known for. One taste and it was not what I was expecting. Very strong. I didn’t really like it much. Then after we decided to go across again to find a ristorante…aka restaurant. I’ll be throwing in Italian just to help educate you.  We found a place that was on the water, which actually most places are in venice. Hehe. It was quite a nice little place. There were these little finches that would actually eat out of your hand. I tried my first wine of chiati which is popular in this region. I wasn’t to impressed. It tasted more like a zinfandel but I’ll keep trying so that I can develop an opinion.

I got to see my first sunset. It was quite nice. I then realized that you needed to be on the opposite side so I took the boat across the canal to take pictures. Then we decided to head back. So even though its only around 930ish we’ve been up for like 36 hours. Which is just insane. Long day of travel and we still have to take the boat, take a bus, and walk back to the hotel. Of course stopping to get more gelato. We check in and get to the rooms. It’s a holiday inn. Mom’s friend had already stayed there so we knew it would be nice. They had hard beds but a nice flat screen and shower. There is this 2nd toilet, which I assume to be a bidet but never seeing one I am not sure. Then they have the shaver 2000 which is a hair dryer but not sure why is says shaver.

Its been a great day but I am pooped. Its extremely hot here for walking all day but I survived and so did my flipflops. Hooray for teva.