Venice

Our flight left at 2 AM out of Abu Dhabi on 23 July, and after a quick jump through security, we were on board the plane and ready to experience our first Etihad flight in coach (instead of the usual business or first class we’ve gotten accustomed to).  The seats were somewhat comfortable (better than domestic coach in the States), but the temperature on the plane while waiting on the tarmac was unbearable.  The cabin doors were open, no air-conditioning, and it was a sweltering 100 degrees at 2 AM.  Let’s just say we were happy to take off.   The rest of the 6 hour flight was smooth and uneventful.  Jill had no problem sleeping, while I had serious back and neck issues and lack of leg room (yes, we are very spoiled).

We arrived in Malpensa airport outside of Milan, and immediately caught our first train in Italy to Milan.  We both felt a little overwhelmed.  Once in Milan, we caught a cab to another train station that would take us to Venice.  Of course, 30 minutes into the 18-day trip, Brian’s backpack broke.  Not a huge deal but enough to make us wonder if buying cheap knock off North Face bags for the trip was a good idea. 

The train ride from Milan to Venice was pleasant and about 2 ½ hours long.  Once we arrived in Venice, it was on

The first thing we needed to figure out, was how to use the Vaparetto taxis (those are the water taxis that service all of Venice).  After a few minutes of Brian huffing and puffing and fighting all of the other tourists, we found a self-service station, got our tickets, and boarded the taxi.  Venice is truly a city unlike any other with boats and walking being the only method of transportation.  They even have brown UPS boats, trash boats, fire boats, and of course the quintessential Gondolas. 

Our hotel was conveniently situated right down the street from Rialto Bridge and very near San Marco square where the famous San Marco Basilica, Doge’s Palace, and museums are located.  Brian had been reading up on all of these places in Rick Steves’ books, so we knew (or at least thought we knew) what we were getting into.  Hotel Centauro was a very nice, but quaint, hotel, and the staff was extremely friendly and welcoming.  Our room was small but comfortable, with the only surprise being the shower, which was about 1 ½ feet by 1 ½ feet (no this is not an exaggeration).  Jill could barely fit in the thing, and you can imagine how I did

After grabbing a quick bite to eat (and an extremely large beer), we set off to San Marco square and began the sight seeing.  We started by going up in the Campanile, which is the very large tower that provides a wonderful view of all of Venice.  After snapping some awesome photos, we proceeded to visit the Correr Museum which was OK but forgettable.  After Correr, we walked across the Piazza and headed into Doge’s Palace.  This is where all of the Doges of Venice (kind of like the President) lived for many years.  This was a very cool place.  Aside from seeing how the Doge lived and all of the artwork in the Palace, we also got to see an inside view of the prison that is attached to the Palace as well as walk through the famous “Bridge of Sighs”.  People who were condemned to life in prison, must walk through this tunnel to the prison, where they could catch one last glimpse of Venice and the Piazza before they were locked away for good, hence the name.  Also, Brian enjoyed this for a much simpler fact that the video he has been playing has a few scenes from here in it.  I believe his quote was “Look Babe, I killed one of the Doges right over there last week”.  One interesting thing that happened while in the Palace was that the skies opened up and it poured buckets for about 15 minutes.  While those back home are saying, “Who cares”, we were SO happy to see rain since it’s been forever. 

That night, we decided to hire a Gondolier to take us on a nice tour through the Grand Canal, under Rialto Bridge, and through many of the local canals in Venice.  At one point, Brian had to move to the front of the gondola, and both of us had to lean to one side to get under one of the bridges.  Needless to say this was a highlight of ours in Venice.  Just watching the ordered chaos of gondoliers and Vaparettos avoiding each other is a sight to see.  Our gondolier was very informative and gave us lots of good facts about Venice. 

The next day, we started a very long walk over Rialto, through the local fish market, and to Frari Church.  Frari Church was interesting because of the artwork, but also it has the tomb of Titian, who was a very famous Venetian painter during the Renaissance.  Unfortunately, like many of the places during this trip, no pictures were allowed inside.  After the church we visited the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, which was an amazing building.  Another very important painter from Venice, Tintoretto, was commissioned to paint the entire inside of this building.  He spent 24 years of his life painting 50 scenes from the history of Christianity throughout the building.

After the Scuola, we walked through town to the Academia, which is the famous art museum in Venice.  Again, lots of paintings, very cool, but we both started realizing we might get a bit bored with Renaissance paintings for one simple fact.  Every painter basically painted his own interpretation of the 8 scenes depicting the life of Christ.  After seeing the 200th version of Mary ascending into Heaven, or Madonna and Bambino, you get a bit glazey-eyed.  But, it is important history and we both appreciated seeing it all. 

From Academia, we proceeded to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, which we were both excited to see since it wouldn’t be the same stuff we’d been seeing for two days.  While the collection was cool since it was actually her house and she is buried in the back yard, Jill and I realized very quickly that modern art is not our forte.  There were a couple of neat Picassos, and one or two Dalis, but most of the art was a paint splattering that looked like someone took a brush and flung it at the canvas.  Slap a couple of neat words on it like “Dog sitting under a tree eating an apple while wearing a hat” and you got yourself a masterpiece

Last stop was the Basilica of San Marco, which was incredible!  This was the first time Rick Steves paid off.  In the book, he mentions a way of skipping the line (which was about 2 hours long) just by checking your bag first at a nearby church, and walking through past the guard.  It worked like a charm and all of the suckers standing in line had a priceless look on their faces   The Basilica was very cool.  Inside the entire ceiling is decorated in tiny mosaics that cover what is essentially the size of a football field.  It’s hard to describe it in words but it was definitely everything we thought it would be.  This would be the church to set the bar for the remaining churches we would be visiting in Italy, and it was set very high!

We decided to cap off the evening by walking around, and sitting in the Piazza drinking wine and listening to a live band play.  It just happened to also be the same night that Norah Jones was holding a concert there in the square so we got to listen to some of that as well.  What a way to end such a wonderful trip to the most unique city either one of us has seen. 

Venice, you are now on the top of our list of places we would gladly go back to if given the chance.