Week 9 - Venice

 Week 9 - We go to Venizia

Sunday and Monday, Oct. 24 & 25

Sunday and Monday involve preparation for our trip to Venice.
- We have our round trip tickets (seats reserved)
- We check our itinerary given to us by Anita, our travel agent, who has scheduled us an escort to the Hotel Kette on a water taxi
- We start packing

The instructions that Anita gave us.
What a great decision
to find a travel agent!
Anita from the Travel Store
has been great.

Tuesday, Oct. 26

I call a taxi for a pick up to take us to the train station
- easy, peasy. . . so far, so good

The train leaves on time 

10:20 am departure from Santa Maria Novella

Arrival to Venezia Santa Lucia at 12:34 pm

We are met by Maria from Avanti Travel to escort us

to the Hotel Kette

The first view of what's
to come.

Waiting for our water taxi

And we are on our way to Hotel Kette
via the Grand Canal

Our "escort"
Maria

Are we having fun yet? Yep!

We've turned off the Grand Canal

We're almost at
Hotel Kette

The water taxi landing.

Kette Hotel Lobby

There is time for a quick rest and figure out where we are.

Just a 5 minute walk to San Marco Piazza
our first sighting ...

The canals and gondolas...beautiful

Finding our way back to the hotel, 

we stop at the Chiesa di San Moise which is 

our landmark to find our hotel.

Chiesa di San Moise 

Now we ready ourselves for dinner...

Ristorante Al Teatro Goldoni

We start
with mussels

then...
Grilled Turbot

John was going to order fish and chips,

the waiter suggested the turbot for two...

we were glad we order the turbot

The finished plate
-Delicious-

Apple tart for dessert

John finishes with
Kalua & Brandy

The complimentary
Lemoncello and biscotti

Francisco & John

"Bob" our waiter

We get lost on the way back. . .

Still beautiful (and safe) at night

So ends our first night in Venice...

***

Wednesday, Oct. 27

On our itinerary, there is a small/private tour of the Doge's Palace/Palazzo Ducale.  We are scheduled to meet the tour guide at 8:15 am (???). We are the first to be at breakfast for coffee, croissants, etc., then bundle up for the 5 minute walk to Piazza di San Marco to meet our guide.

We wait until 8:30 and I call the tour office.  The person says we aren't scheduled until 9:30. So we walk back to the hotel, warm up some, use the bathroom.

Antonia is waiting for us in front of Café Florian when we get there at 9:20.  We are having a private tour this morning.

We start by looking at the Outside of the Palace, then move to the Chiesa San Marco.  It is time for the Moors to ring the bell. We wait and watch the chiming of the bell and then the bells of San Marco.

We then continue around Chiesa di San Marco

to view the Bridge of Sighs.

Torre dell'Orologio

The Bridge of Sighs

We enter on the Canal side of the building, go up 5 flights of stairs and the look into the piazza

Here we see the cisterns for the Palace.  
Rain water runs into the drains and
water is retrieve from the wells.

The Golden Scale
Goldleaf

Faith Force of
the Republic

Hall of the Council of the Senate

After judgements are made in the courts, the guilty are sent over the bridge to the jail cells.

Now, over the Bridge of Sighs

Window of the
Bridge of Sighs

    

The last look of the
free world...
Sigh 

A cleaned up cell.

We leave the Ducale Palazzo at Scala dei Giganti 

(the Giants Staircase)

---

 

We take a break, have a caffé latte in the shadow of Chiesa di San Marco.

In the late afternoon, we go to the Museo Correr - The building Napoleon built for himself to live in while ruling in Venice.

We do some window shopping and walking before resting up for dinner.

Canals and gondolas...

Oh, and I get a new coat!

Dinner down the street from our hotel

La Colomba

Prosciutto e Melone

Lovely dinner...

Prosciutto and Melon

Mushroom Risotto

Prosecco

Pannecotta

Lemoncello & biscotti (complimentary)

Mushroom Risotto

It was a beautiful dinner, just down the street, so we didn't get lost in the night.

I got to wear my new coat with my dinner dress, too.

Thursday, Oct. 28 - Murano 

After breakfast, we schedule a boat/tour to Murano with the hotel.

9:30 am the water taxi picks us up with 4 other people.

Another trip through the canals and then out to Murano

We go to a factory and watch a demonstration and view a gallery of their work.

We walk around a little, buy a gift for Yuko.  Not really impressed with this main street.

A quiet Piazza

We find a place to sit and decide what to do and realize the water bus is at the other end of the piazza.  We go to the station, buy our one way ticket to San Marco Square and get in line.

Waiting at the dock

Yes, this is the waterbus.
Nice that the schedule is on the bus.

We're on our way

We are disembarking
at San Marco Sq.

It did take a while on the water bus, just like the city bus.

The afternoon is spent wandering 

The Rialto

On the Rialto

On the Rialto in my new coat

In a piazza near the Rialto
Gondolas waiting in the background

Back to the Hotel to rest up before dinner.

Some quick shots of the hotel while John is resting...

Outside the bathroom window

The 5th Floor window view

5 stories of stairs
We use the elevator

A look out the window
The restaurant awning...
La Colomba

Our last evening, we (or at least I) want something more than a pizza, sandwich or salad but don't want to have to dress.  We find a nice Pizza place that serves real entrees.  I have spaghetti with clams, John has Calamari with polenta (? the polenta looked a little like one of those white bumpy erasers.) The calamari were great, so was my spaghetti and clams.

This place was charming and very casual.
Perfect for our last night.

Friday, Oct. 29

One last breeze through the streets and 

one last caffe latte in the land of Venus.

The horses at Piazzale San Marco

Campo Stefano

(Near Ponte Accademia)

I wish I were those students
sketching in the piazza

Le Café
for our last Caffe Latte in Venice

I made John walk over Ponte Accademia

so we can say that we have walked over the Grand Canal

in two spots - Ponte Accademia and Ponte Rialto

Ponte Accademia

In the lobby waiting
for Francisco

Loading the water
taxi

Francisco is getting on

The last look at the little canals

Now the Grand Canal

Stazione di Venezia Santa Lucia 

Countryside

Countryside

We get home safely

Saturday, Oct. 30

It's a day to rest and recoop.

BUT, we decide to go to the laudromat for laundry - we have 3 loads of laundry and we need to get some groceries. John also wants to send some clothes and books home.  

So errands for the day:

• laundry
• shipping
• groceries

We gather things up and check the bus schedule and go out with our bags of stuff to wait for the bus. Down the street our neighbors come home in a taxi with bags and bags of groceries. They wave to us and send their youngest boy with the message, "No bus today!" The parents wave and motion that they will send the taxi up to us.  We load it all up and I get dropped off at the laundry, John goes farther to the shipping store.  We have a sandwich at Tuscan Taste, our new favorite food place.  John finishes up the laundry while I go grocery shopping. We meet at the grocery store and walk to the taxi stand to taxi home.

It was an expensive day:

round trip taxi ride 

3 loads of wash and drying

Lunch for 2 

Shipping 20# of stuff 

Groceries for the week

An expensive day for rest and recoopertion.

Next Week

back to a routine, maybe Boboli Garden

and then get ready for Zurich