Day 1-Venice



Man oh man should have spelled check the last email,  just back from a very long day in beautiful Venice.  We went to the following places:
-museo di storia naturale
-palazzo mocenigo
-ca’ pesaro
-pizza for lunch
-piazzo San Marco
– basiilica de San Marco
-Dinner @ ristorante da raffaele (Accidentally found this. Reservations only but had a cute 23 year Rebekah along so matre’ d decided he had an opening.  Go figure!)
-took Vaporetta up and down the canal all day before we figured out that we needed a ticket.  
-purchased ticket for Vaporetta for Tomorrow. Today’s ride was on Venice.  

I have been directed all over Venice today by a strong, smart and very capable Rebekah Bradley!  She was armed with pre-pinned maps on Google and her wonderful sister Rachel’s, planning sheet which listed everything she wanted us to see, prices and times ( we missed that whole part about buying a ticket for the boats before hand and road around half a day before we figured out we needed tickets other than the one we bought to get from airport to apartment.  Different boats! 

My favorite part of the day was seeing “The Thinker ” the bronze sculpture by Auguste  Rodin. He is huge!  I also liked the a painting by Angelo Mobelli, The Christmas of those left behind.  Did you know that you can take photos in these museums without flash! I don’t believe I have ever been in a museum where it was ok to photograph!  Had to put a bandage on my camera though……Andrew!  Battery door doesn’t fit on this camera!  I literally am using a band aid to hold door shut.  

We also met a famous artist, Hugo Baracco.  He also shows in Austin Texas.  We were talking about Austin and he heard us and started taking to us about his showings in Texas.   We looked at his worK and he showed us his travel book and the Austin studio was in his photos.  His gallery is on 6th street.   Rebekah recognized the shop.  Funny because I had already fallen in love with one of his etchings and how that turned out is a surprise.  Lovely man, we stuck around and chatted with him.  He had been everywhere!  

I ordered gelato in Italian and she actually understood me.  I love Google translator,  I translated some basics for the trip and practiced on the plane.  Una tazza di gellato piacere con due palline, amareno e cioccolato.  She said not bad so I am felt pretty good even though she was probably humoring me but I certainly got my sour cherry and chocolate so I must have gotten that part right.  I am now in love with amarenos. Our goal is to taste every flavor of gellato available, I am already in trouble because I am stuck on Cherry!  

I ordered spaghetti carbonara and I may never eat anything else again!  Who knew that pasta, egg and bacon should taste that yummy.  Rebekah ordered tortellini.  She got half way through the plate and looked at me with determination and said that she was going to to push through because she was going to eat very bite!  I thought that I was going to have to carry her back to apartment.  We are both stuffed!   We emptied a bottle of chianti and emptied our plates as well. The waiter picked up the plates and said ottimo lavorro!  Which We guessed meant great job and we responded with Grazi which made him laugh.  Lucky guess on our part because he might have been offering dessert and we would have both exploded from food.  

We ended the day with a leisurely walk back to our cute little apartment located in San Marco right off the San Angelo boat stop.   We were going to take a gondola ride tonight but they wanted € 100 which sounded quite high so we decided to ask again tomorrow and see of he was trying to rip us off.  The canals were quiet and beautifully illuminated.  I may never leave. We are tucked away in a quiet little square and only minutes away from boats, shops, grocery, restaurants and more.  

We shopped, we laughed, we wandered and every minute that we are here we grow fonder of Italy and we have only seen a small portion.   Imagine what the next thee weeks will bring. 

Buonanotte e rimanette sintonizzati per ulteriori.

Ciao

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