italia part 1

for your reading pleasure:
i offer you more details than you probably want about our trip to italy:

venezia

giorno uno
we arrived in venice, and were met by paul and laura at the airport. this was especially nice because neither of us had gotten any sleep on the plane and neither of us had practiced any italian, so it was nice to just stumble off the plane & onto a bus with them and not have to think about it.

it did not however help at all on feeling like we were somewhere else, being with paul and laura made it fell like we could still be in philly it was a funny feeling. we took the bus to the vaporetto stop and caught a vaporetto (water taxi) to the stop closest to the apartment (just past the rialto bridge). we dragged our bags through the narrow twisty maze of streets and to the apartment which was very comfortable and big and right across the piazza from palazzo contarini del bovolo. the palazzo was unfortunately being restored so while the spiral staircase was still viewable the rest of the building was completely covered up. the restoration also meant that there was noisy construction going on from about 7-4, it wasn't that disruptive, but the noise was occasionally unnerving.

josh and i crashed for a mini nap and the ventured out with laura for a walk (paul was still recovering from a cold) we walked over to piazza san marco to see the duomo and people watch for awhile, we strolled around and headed back to the apartment, where we had a yummy dinner of prosciutto, parma ham, cheese, bread, salad, and such. and then to bed where i slept like the dead.

venice is beautiful. there are no cars, the city is made up of canals and bridges, the venetian lagoon is saltwater and a beautiful green color, but the place is filthy with tourists and it feels like you are on a movie set, or at a theme park maybe, it does not feel like a real place at all. the fact that we were jet lagged and delirious may have added to this perception of the the place, but i did not fall in love with venice, and i can't think of any reason why i would want to go back...other than the fact that it's just pretty. it is pretty. if you can tune out the hordes it is a beautiful thing to look at.

giorno due
josh and i got up and made a moka pot of coffee and walked over to the piazza san marco so we could go to the top of san marco's campanile and get an overview. we thought we would have to climb it, but there was an elevator. so we went up and had a look and snapped some pix and went back down. we found a cafe and stopped for a pastry and walked around for awhile. we headed back to the apartment to meet laura and paul and go across the grand canal to look at la escuela de san rocco which was all frescoed by tintoretto. after that we found a little place for lunch and had some mighty fine pizza. after the pizza we slipped into a cute little cafe/bakery and had our first (and is it turned out, the best) macchiato and some pastries. then we went back to the apartment and had a nap.

post nap josh and i went for a long walk. we wanted to go to the guggenheim, but it was getting a little late, so we walked over in that neighborhood and took pictures and looked and walked. after our walk we met up with paul and laura to go out for our first italian dinner, they had made reservations at a place they had read about and wanted to try, the sun was setting and we took a long scenic vaporetto ride up the grand canal and around to the southern "coast". we we the first customers of the evening, and i can't remember for the life of me what we ate, but it was seafoody and it was yummy. we walked home from there and went to bed.

giorno tre
up. moka pot. off the the mercado with l&p for looking and buying food stuffs.

fruit and veggie stalls and a fish market and lots of deli shops with all manner of meats and cheeses and other deliciousness.

we looked and shopped and stopped for a macchiato and a snack. we walked back to the apartment where we lunched on salami and cheese. josh and i weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves, we decided to go check out the biennale.

it is located in a part of venice we hadn't seen yet (the very SE tip), so we walked over there and spnet to much time in the main building, when what was really interesting was all the individual buildings that each represented an individual country, we only made it through a hanfull of them before they were closing and we had to leave.

we met p&l and headed out for dinner. we walked to a place that was described as having good cicchetti (italian tapas) but when we got there all they had was cold stuff.

we ended up at a very cute place alongside a little canal next to a bridge.

we had some vino rosso and some pasta and some amazing pizza.
walk home. bed.

giorno quattro
our last day in venice. we went back to the market to buy lunch stuff for our long train trip the next day (salami, cheese, bread, etc.). after that we went for a walk in the cannaregio area before meeting p&l for lunch at osteria la zucca where we all stuffed ourselves. it is a very cute place and the food is amazing. highly recommended. after zucca even though we were stuffed we stopped for a gelato and then walked, we stumbled upon the bakery cafe that had the amazing macchiato's and stopped in for more and bought some éclairs to bring back to the apartment for later.

that evening after we got all of our bags packed for the morning, we tried to go out for cicchetti again. we had walked by an interesting looking place earlier in the day that looked like they had a nice selection & so we went there. the bartender was unbelievably rude to us, initially she just ignored us and wouldn't even make eye contact, when she finally decide to wait on us, she got our wine order, but refused to even try communicate with us about ordering food, even though we were trying to speak italian, she was being a total bitch. so we drank our glass of wine and left, frustrated and discouraged. we tried one more place that was near the apartment & they were nice and friendly but didn't have much in the way of cicchetti left to offer. we had one polenta and pancetta thing and another glass of wine and then went home. bed.