Venetian tourist

For a long time, I’ve been infatuated by the idea of Italy. I love what I imagine the languid lifestyle to be, the dark, oversized sunglasses-type fashion, the picturesque scenery, the romantic language, the wine…etc. When recently soaking in the Venice sun, lamenting over why I couldn’t have fallen in love with an Italian man, M reminded me, “You only ever specified a European accent. You should have been more specific.” True. Oh well, maybe I can get my Dutchie to move to Italy some day.

My best friend M finally got the opportunity to take the 3-week long tour through Italy that she and I used to daydream about, long before the turn of the century (god that makes me sound old). Although she was traveling with a different girlfriend, I couldn’t miss this opportunity to catch up with her, no matter how much my bank account disagreed. It’s the first time she’s been in my neck of the woods, a.k.a. this side of the ocean, since I moved to Holland. I thought about joining her in Florence or Rome, but the timing wasn’t yet set of where they’d be and when – and P hasn’t yet been to those cities either. My new daydream trip is a driving tour through Tuscany with P. So instead, I met them at the beginning of their trip in Venice. I found some decent “cheap” tickets at Transavia airlines and flew into the most romantic city for a couple girlie tourist days. This was my second time in Venice (visited for the first time with my sister and father 3.5 years ago) and although I was only there a couple days the first time, it’s amazing how much I remembered.

Venice is an extraordinary city. Yes, there are a lot of tourists, but if you’re there, you’re one of them. For being there three full days, we accomplished quite a lot: got lost, got found, gawked at the silly pigeon covered tourists (my definition of pigeons – dirty rats with wings), wandered around the famous St. Mark’s square, visited a local grocery store:

2 liter water bottle at grocery store = 40 cents
Same 2 liter water bottle at vendor stand in front of hotel = 2.00 euros
Hmmmmmmm.

We rode the water bus from one end of the main canal to the other end (good 1 hour tour), visited Murano island and saw the true Murano glass being blown and formed. It takes 25 years to become a master. Wow. That’s dedication to your craft. We visited St. Mark’s Basilica, saw the special “golden altar” where people came to pay homage in prayer while we stood there gazing at the tremendous amount of gold sculptures encrusted with semi-precious stones. The museum above was well worth the extra fee, if only for the gorgeous view of St. Mark’s square from above, as well as the original 4 horses and seeing the mosaics up close and personal. We did the gondola ride, of course. I find the following true in Amsterdam as well: it’s so fascinating how different the view is from canal level. It’s a whole other world. I made the mistake of asking the gondolier if he sang, which inspired him to sing cheesy Italian love songs the whole time, fitting for the atmosphere I suppose. He was a sweet guy, quite a character. At one point, he steered us beneath the window of his Venezuelan girlfriend, who was either awaiting his arrival or heard him singing from afar. They exchanged quick love quips in Italian (or possibly decided who was cooking dinner that night).

We had one tourist-trap, not so good dinner and one really artful, classy dinner and found our favorite little bar/coffee/sandwich shop which we frequented several times. We also visited the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace), an amazing overdose of high relief, golden opulence. The high point was Titian’s Paradiso stretching across one wall of one of the largest rooms in Europe. From magnificence to the armory to a walk over the ‘Bridge of Sighs’ into the prisons of Venice, we saw quite a bit my last morning there. For a look at my pictures in Venice, click here.

That’s it for awhile – no more travel on the books until December. This next month, November, is focus on the new house month!