Italy - Day 9 (Venice)

On Day 9, our tour started nearly early enough to see the sunrise over the Grand Canal... Our first stop was at the Accedemia Gallery. We were led on a 2-hour tour through the gallery by a local guide, Elizabeth. Elizabeth, despite having teased me for looking "Japanese" for carrying around my Nikon camera, was great. Her enthusiasm and knowledge of the art made this one of our best museum tours.

The museum was packed with paintings of Venetian artists. The most notable were probably:
Veronese - Feast in the House of Levi
Giorgione - The Tempest
Titian - Presentation of the Virgin

Canal somewhere in Venice between the Accedemia Gallery and the Frari Church....We got to the Frari Church at noon, but being Sunday, it was closed for mass until 1 pm. We passed the time by getting calzones, then going to the Scuola San Rocco. The Scuola is amazing. It's described as "Tintoretto's Sistine Chapel" Like the Sistine Chapel, the interior of the Scuola is completely covered with paintings depicting Christian history. I really like the virtual tour on the Scuola's website. Just click on the link above, select "English", click on "Virtual View" under the drop-down menu for Scuola Grande, then pick the Upper Hall.

Here's Brooke eating her calzone with the Scuola San Rocco in the back left.... Hardcore art lovers come to the Frari Church for its famous pieces of art. While many paintings have been moved from churches to museums for preservation and safe keeping, the Frari Church still holds paintings by Titian, Bellini, Veneziano, and a statue by Donatello. Brooke and I can't actually remember seeing any of these. We only remember how large and open the interior of the church felt.

The Frari Church....Titian's Assumption of the Virgin (inside the Frari Church)....Yet another photo of the Rialto. This was taken on our walk back to St. Mark's Square....Our tickets from the previous day's visit to the Doge's Palace included entry to a few more museums, one of which is the Correr. Maybe it was because we had already overdosed on museums, but the art in the Correr was forgettable. However, the view of St. Mark's Square from their cafe made the visit well worthwhile.... After the museum, we took an elevator ride to the top of the 300-ft tall Campanile. For the sake of my photography, it was unfortunately a hazy day. Otherwise, the sunset view was spectacular..... We had a couple hours to kill before our evening plans, so we spent the late afternoon randomly wandering though the east-side of Venice. Here are a few shots from our walk....We ended our stay in Venice with some distinctly Venetian activities: a Vivaldi Four Seasons concert and a late night trip to the bar for some bellinis....

Italy - Day 8 (Venice)

Our first night in Venice was miserable. I woke up with 3 mosquito bites, and this was after we closed the windows to our 80-degree room in order to keep out the mosquitoes. Why didn't anyone warn us about the mosquitoes? They were everywhere in Venice, Florence, and Pisa.

Our tour began with a 2-hour walk through Venice, while receiving a history lesson the entire time. We walked to the Rialto Bridge, the large post office (formerly the German merchant headquarters), and Campo Santa Maria Formosa.

View from the Rialto....The post office....
After the walk, we had the option to watch a free glass-blowing demonstration at the Galleria San Marco. It was obvious the shop did a lot of these demos: the salesman directed our group into one of several demo rooms, the craftsman was immediately ready to go, making a vase and a horse within a couple of minutes, then the salesman ushered us to the showroom. The demo was so amazing, it was definitely worth putting up with the 10-minute long sales pitch....

We had a couple of hours before our next group activity, so we decided to take the vaporetto ride that we skipped on the first day. We caught the "slow" vaporetto, which stopped at every station through the Grand Canal. We started at San Zaccaria station (near San Marco) , going past the Rialto, and exited at the Mercato Rialto Station.
Here are some photos from the ride....
At 2 pm, we met back up with the group for a tour of St. Mark's Basilica and Doge's Palace, including a walk across the Bridge of Sighs. If you like Byzantine architecture and mosaics (which Brooke does), then you'll definitely like St. Mark's. No photos were allowed inside, so here are just some exterior shots...The Bridge of Sighs was clad with billboards. Lancia Auto must have been sponsoring the restoration project....
A 40-minute gondola ride costs about 100 Euros, musicians cost extra. If you're willing to sacrifice some of the romance, the gondola can be shared by up to 6 people. A bunch of us from the tour group decided to share, so our tour guide organized for us to get 4 gondolas plus 2 musicians for a total cost of 22 Euros each. Here are some photos from our sunset gondola ride...

After the gondola ride, 7 of us followed the Rick Steves guidebook for a pub crawl, eating and drinking our way through the city. Prices in Venice were generally higher than they were in the prior cities, but these pubs were a real bargain. At the first place, we got 2 glasses of wine and an appetizer sampler plate (including some batter-fried fish) for 11 Euros. The second and third place offered similar deals. We tried for a fourth, but they were offering full dinners only, no drinks at the bar. Oh well, three pubs is a respectable number, right? The only mistake we made was starting a little bit too late. We figured a pub crawl is something meant to be done late at night, but they run out of appetizers early and they don't make any more after they are out. To get the best selection, you shouldn't start much later than 6pm.

Italy - Day 7 (Venice)

On day 7, we went downstairs to get the hotel breakfast and immediately felt under-dressed. Up until now, we had been staying in tourist hotels, but this definitely had the business crowd.
After breakfast, we packed up our stuff and got on the train headed for Venice. Today was the first day of our R.ick S.teves tour, and we needed to be at our hotel by 4pm to meet the group.When we got to Venice, we had two options for getting to our hotel, which was on the opposite side of the island from the train station. We could take a vaparetto, a big water taxi, which would take us down the grand canal to a stop close to our hotel...or the other option was to walk approximately 1 mile through the small streets and bridges. We took one look at the huge line of tourists (and their huge suitcases) waiting for the vaparetto and we decided to walk. Ten minutes into our walk we were incredibly frustrated. We knew that our hotel was within a couple blocks from San Marco Square, so our plan was to simply follow the signs to San Marco, and then use our map from there. This proved to be more difficult than we thought. Signs for San Marco would sometimes point in opposite directions, and at other times we'd arrive at intersections with no direction arrows at all. Did I mention it was around 80 degrees, muggy and we were carrying all our luggage?
A picture of the Rialto Bridge, about the half-way point of our walk.....Brooke and I have traveled quite a bit, but until now, we had never been on a tour and didn't know what to expect. Now I know I should expect to be bored....
Brooke and I like to travel quickly and spontaneously. Even our downtime is usually spent randomly walking through the streets. So when our first 90 minutes with our tour group was spent sitting in the tiny hotel dining room doing introductions, going over logistics, and getting a speech about the philosophy and history of R.ick S.teves Tours, I was more than anxious to leave.

When we finally got to leave the hotel, the first item on the Venice tour itinerary was an "Orientation Walk". It began by teaching us how to find our hotel from San Marco Square. Brooke found it to be very useful. I say "snooooze".

Here's our 28-person tour group in San Marco Square getting yet another long speech on the history of Venice. I'm sure it would have been more interesting if we didn't just spend the last 7 months planning and researching. Next, our tour guide took us to see the Rialto bridge, and then onto our first Venetian dinner. The food was only average, but it was nice to have time to get to know our tour members. As we had expected, we were one of the youngest couples there. But despite the age differences, we really enjoyed the company.

After dinner, we all walked back to San Marco Square and said our goodbyes. From here, Brooke and I stayed out to take night shots.
Looking south from the Rialto bridge....Looking north from the Rialto bridge....Just one of a hundred tiny canals...Being the young ones in the tour group, we were always given a room on the top floor, and of course there was never an elevator. Here's our room at the Hotel Mercurrio: 80 degrees at night, no air conditioning, and full of mosquitos.....

Italy - Day 6 (Milan)

Day 6. We said goodbye to Manarola (and the great views) over breakfast. In addition to the typical Italian hotel breakfast of coffee, juice, pastry, and yogurt, this hotel offered omelets, a mini pizza, caprese salad, and chocolate mousse. A very eclectic mix of foods....We took the small local train to Monterosso al Mare, the northernmost town in the Cinque Terre, in order to catch the larger trains to Milan. Unfortunately, our local train was late , making us miss the first train for Milan. There are certainly worse places than the Cinque Terre to be stuck for a few hours. With our extra time, we hung out on the beach and had some lunch.....Originally, our goal for the day in Milan was to see the Duomo, the Duomo roof, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, and time-permitting, the Sforza Castle for one of four Michelangelo Pietas. When we finally arrived in Milan at 3pm, we frantically tried to find our way out of the enormous Milan Central Train Station and catch the first taxi to the hotel. We finally got a taxi and loaded all of our luggage into the trunk, we handed the hotel address to the driver, he looked it over for a few seconds and then started laughing. Our hotel was clearly visible from where we were, it was literally across the street.

A few shots inside the train station.......
At $289 USD, our room at the Starhotels Anderson Milano, was by far the most expensive of the trip....but it was sure luxurious. High ceilings, bath robes, slippers, 2 TVs, 2 phones, large closet, and a great breakfast! The only minor problem with the room was that it was on the first floor, so anytime a subway went by below us, the entire room shook....

We got to the Milan Duomo at 4:30pm, half hour before the roof closed. Fortunately, unlike most other cathedrals, this one had an elevator (for a few extra Euros). The views from the roof were nice, but the Milan skyline is fairly flat and without many distinguishing features.

Interior of the Milan Duomo.... This place is HUGE. According to wikipedia, it's the 7th largest church by sq footage. That's Brooke at the far end of this picture.....Adjacent to the Duomo is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, a large shopping mall with a cross-shaped floor plan and tall vaulted glass ceilings.On the floor, at the center of the Galleria. Spinning on the bull's testicles is believed to bring good luck. Simply place your heel into the well-worn hole and spin around 3 times....

For dinner, we decided to try an Italian chain restaurant, Pastarito Pizzarito. In hindsight, the restaurant's goofy name should have acted as a warning. The food was aweful, the saffron risotto was crunchy, and the pasta was flavorless....After dinner, we made our way to a high fashion area of Milan. Window shopping is more fun in Italy. A majority of the store windows will include a price list.....As we headed back to our hotel that evening, we noticed there were a bunch of Obama posters in the subway stations. He's a rockstar in Italy.