Venezia

October 17 - 19

On Friday evening fourteen of us took Venice by storm. Or we wandered into the town late at night because our train was delayed seventy minutes and about an hour away I found out that we were short one double room because I had made a mistake with my final confirmation and reserved two doubles, not three. So luckily, Lorenzo one of the employees of Alloggi Henry found us another room at his friends place not too far away. It was a women who had moved to Venice years before from America and had settled there starting a boarding house. She was absolutely fantastic and I believe I will be going back there late February for Carnival.

Anyhow, so we settled in, dropping off our bags and made our way to a bar not far from our hotel. I followed the lead of Angie and ordered a medium Hoegarden. To my surprise when it came out it was about the size of my head and a half a liter of beer.

It took two hands.

Later that evening Angie ordered a small one and it was about a quarter of the size. It just didn't seem right.

Anyhow, after a few drinks and Shane and I discussed work we went back to the hotel to grab a couple of hours of sleep before heading into the heart of Venice and some intense sight seeing and even more intense shopping.

Saturday was amazing. We started at a little cafe for coffee and brioches. Then we were off to wandering through the little alleyways.

A wine store. You just have to bring an empty bottle. Any empty bottle, even a water bottle would work. This reminded why I think Venice may be my favorite European City so far.

Seeing pimped out gondolas

Checking out all of the bridges over the canals

The gondola drivers were quite skilled. Down this alley, there were one gondola after another and there were a couple close collisions.

San Marco's square

San Marco Basilica

The blue boats

Lizzie, Allyson, Hayley and I

More Blue Boats

Jumping pictures

The Bridge of Sighs. Normally there would be beautiful buildings surrounding this bridge. But while I was visiting, there was a large blue billboard advertising a luxury car. It took away just slightly from the architecture.

Then we caught a vaporetto that took us to Murano a small island about thirty minutes from Venice proper. Murano is known for its glass and all of the glass blowing factories.

Murano

Our first stop was a store that Mike had visited previously. Here the owner made his own glass, wine stoppers, rings, and his wife had a line of necklaces as well. I made my first luxury purchase of a necklace which was totally not me but I am going to work on it.

The shop turned out to be the first of many stops along the way where some of our group purchased plates, necklaces, and of course more wine stoppers.

Next stop was Burano which is known for its colorful buildings. Every home was a different brightly painted color and absolutely fantastic.

It is also known for it's hand made lace, which I wasn't really intrigued with but it was beautiful all the same.

Di Dove Blair?

At this point we had split up even more and Allyson, Martha, Hayley, Lizzie and I got on another vaporetto heading back to our hotel to wander some more in Venice before getting ready for dinner. However, those plans were altered slightly when we got back, changed and came into the lobby to find out that Mike had money stolen out of his suitcase. Lorenzo no longer was as helpful as he was the evening before and I went from Madame Blair to no name at all. From this confrontation the quote of the trip came while Mike was talking to Lorenzo about the cleaning lady who he called the director. Lorenzo assured Mike that there was no way that his director had taken the money because she had a million euro. To this Mike responded, "Great now she has a million euro and 200 francs." We laugh about it now but it wasn't a pleasant situation and nothing did come from it. So somebody is 200 francs richer.

For dinner we went to il stelle figi on one of the lower islands of Venice. We had to take a forty minute vaporetto ride and the restaurant was located right on the grand canal. Due to weather we sat inside but I would imagine it is quite beautiful in the spring. Prior to arriving in Venice Mike had arranged a set menu starting with a mix of seafood and mussels and clams. This was followed by a pasta dish and then lamb.

First Course

The seafood was the hit of the evening. Everyone had a strong desire to play with their food.


However, Sarah and Matt may have had the best exchange when Sarah stuck the scampi in Matt's face and said "smell it". The reenactment wasn't quite as good as the first but it does the trick.

And sometimes even act like it.

Some of us behaved during dinner.

After dinner we took the Vaporetto back to San Marco where we listened to music in the square and Mike and Erica demonstrated their dancing skills.

Sarah wanted to be a part of it too, so she even demonstrated her skills without the music.

After all that dancing in the square we stopped at a little pub for a beer and then off to a disco techa for a birthday shot with Angie. Around 3:30 we wandered home to catch a little shut eye before morning coffee at 9.

Sunday was a very relaxing day, stopping at the Rialto Bridge and wandering through all the little shops and carts that lined the streets and canal.

Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge

Hayley, Allyson, Lizzie, Sarah, Beth and Shane

The Rialto Bridge

Carnival Masks...I was very intrigued with them all weekend long. Some of the detail was just amazing and truly pieces of art that should be hanging on my wall.

One store was all wood carvings of Pinocchio, with a large scene outside the store front. Each of us took a picture sitting in the scene.

Pinocchio and I are very close.

However, the best was Allyson because as she was sitting posing for her picture a nice little old women almost sat on her lap to get her picture taken at that same exact moment. Allyson kindly stood up and allowed it to happen but we all stared in shock at the situation, with the women never realizing what had happened.

The day ended with a nice leisurely ride on the train, with no glitches and arriving on time. There was a lot of sleeping and reading on our trip back home. Much different then the loud excitement that had taken us there. I guess silence demonstrates how content and fantastic the weekend really was.