Finally....Venice, Italy!

Venice!  This is a city we’ve always wanted to see and it’s hard to believe we’re here.  It’s a chilly 11 degrees Centigrade (let’s see….double it, subtract 10%  and add to 32) or 52 degrees Fahrenheit and we’d heard reports that there had been flooding in the city.  Our hotel host had told us by phone, and repeated himself while we checked-in, that the reports had been greatly exaggerated and not to worry.  Guess what?  No worries.

We didn’t want to stay in San Marcos because the area is very touristy and expensive.  We stayed in San Polo because we thought it might be a little more authentic while still being centrally located.  Nothing is very far away in Venice; except the airport.  San Polo featured small winding streets with plenty of shopping and the occasional café.  We stopped at the first café we saw that had pizza and panini in the window. 

Good choice!  The huge slice of pizza we shared with a good glass of wine and a quality Italian beer was expensive but worth every centivo.  The pizza was properly warmed, oiled and spiced; it melted in your mouth.  Now that’s pizza!  The beer, the wine and the slice of pizza each cost about 7 euros; Venice was looking like it would be expensive.

We decided to wander around our neighborhood for a couple of hours before dinner.  Our host had suggested a restaurant in the area and we noted its’ location while we strolled.  The best way to really see Venice is to attempt losing yourself in it while walking.  The city is flat and although there are stairs on the canal bridges they are not steep as a rule.  It is next to impossible to get truly lost in Venice but the small streets and canals make for some wonderful walks, in which you may think you are lost for quite some time.  You can run across a dead end or find yourself on a street that ends at a canal occasionally but it is a very simple matter to adjust your route around it.

Wandering the narrow streets of San Polo is a medieval experience, especially as it becomes dark and the occasional lamps are lit in the streets.  The buildings are uniformly old and as you walk the alleyways open up into one square after another almost all featuring a church of other building of historical note.  It had been a long day so we stopped at the recommended restaurant (Osteria Trattoria) and had dinner with a carafe of house table wine.  The food and the wine were a little disappointing considering the recommendation and the price but we set out for our hotel looking forward to a full night’s sleep with full bellies.

Early the next morning, well okay it was around 10 but hey, we’re in southern Europe, we struck out with big plans starting in the famous San Marcos neighborhood; but first, some coffee and sweets at a lovely little sidewalk café with a gorgeous morning view of the Rialto bridge. 

Thus fortified we crossed the bridge and entered the fabulous San Marcos where we almost immediately ran into an Irish Pub!  It was already 11 o’clock so we stopped in to evaluate the place and partake of an adult beverage; more on that later.

It’s hard to miss San Marcos plaza because there are signs with arrows on every corner in the San Marcos neighborhood. 

After walking through the very expensive shopping district we found ourselves in the square and it being November, the square only had a few thousand people in it.  We snapped a few pictures and headed to the Ducal Palace which we had been told was a “don’t miss it in spite of the cost” place to see. 

32 euros poorer we entered the palace courtyard and climbed the “passage of gold” to the open entrance.

This place is enormous and each room has a placard, in several languages including English, explaining what the room was used for.  The first room we entered had ancient maps painted on the walls and two incredible globes, one of the earth as it was viewed in the 15th century and one of the heavens.  We were fascinated and stayed in that room for nearly an hour.  Unfortunately, there were security guards in every room enforcing a strict “no photographs” policy so we are only allowed to keep our memories in our minds.

This museum provides an incredible education about the history of the Venetian culture and their unique structure of government.  The public rooms were first on the tour and each was filled with priceless artwork and artifacts.  The ducal private quarters were even more lavishly decorated and ultimately began to overwhelm the senses. 

Working our way towards the exit we found ourselves in an enormous hall with incredibly detailed paintings on the walls and on the ceilings and, upon exiting we entered an even larger, more ornate hall.  Wow!  I wish I could have photographed even a little part of the interior of this museum.  Go there!  It is worth the trip.

Exiting we found ourselves next to the San Marcos cathedral and immediately paid the small entrance feel and stepped inside.  The cathedral is rather small, as cathedrals go but is intricately and elaborately decorated.  Again, there was a prohibition against taking photographs so I cannot show here what we saw.  Unusually, the exterior of this cathedral has a number of vaults that contain paintings of biblical stories and we were able to photograph a few of those. 

Suddenly we realized that it was late afternoon, we were hungry and thirsty and it had been almost four hours since we entered the Ducal Palace.

After a quick wash up at the hotel we decided to walk deep into the San Polo neighborhood to a restaurant we had noticed (Pane Vino - since closed).  Upon arriving we were seated, handed menus and told about the special.  The ambience was nice and the waiter was very friendly and after perusing the menus we decided to order the specials.  What a mistake! 

The food was poorly prepared (I had rubbery ravioli with an uninspiring sauce), of small quantity and we were shocked when the bill arrived.  We thought there had been a mistake but as it turns out, the special cost more than if we had ordered a-la-carte and we had been double charged for the small appetizer that we had split!  Further, even though we had ordered food we had been charged for a cover.  The waiter and the owner insisted that the pricing was correct and that we had received fair value for our 120 euros (before the overpriced wine).  They made no attempt to satisfy their well behaving but increasingly irritated customers.

Great day….lousy evening,  With a full day planned for tomorrow we headed back to our little guest house for a good night’s sleep.