Italy 2019: The Journey Begins

Italy 2019

Venice

The view from the window of our room.

We arrived in Venice around 10 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24 and what an arrival it was. We took a private water taxi into the city. Kicking it off with a boat ride definitely helped shake the jet lag.

The red awning is our hotel. The water taxi took us right to the door. The windows of our room are just under the awning on the lower floor. The water laps almost against our windows.

We are staying at Al Ponte Antico hotel. It was built in the 14th century and, like much of Venice, it is in elegant decay…but in a good way. We love it.
Once we got into our room, dropped our bags and changed our clothes, we went for a walk and to get some food.  We crossed the Rialto Bridge, which is swamped people all day, and went in the alleys behind the market. Lots of little bars in the area sell cicchetti, Venice’s version of tapas. We had one with shrimp, another with salmon and one with some type of pork. We split three because we wanted to be hungry for dinner.
But, I have to confess, we’ve failed on food so far. We went to a recommended restaurant and I think it really is great, we just didn’t make great choices. First, we had a sardine dish as an antipasti. It was marinated in onions, vinegar and something a little sweet. It also had raisins and pine nuts. It doesn’t even sound good, but sardines are such an iconic item here that we wanted to try it.
It was awful. It was cold and fishy and sweet/sour.

It tasted about like it looks.

Then we ordered pasta dishes. I fell for the special because I heard the word pappardelle and that’s my favorite type of pasta. It had scorpian fish and chickpeas. It wasn’t very good.

Betsy ordered gnocchi with gorganzola sauce. It was way too rich/cheesey, which she knew before ordering, but the gnocchi were soft little pillows of deliciousness. Not gummy, not hard, just soft and melt-in-your-mouth.
Fortunately, we both loved our salad. This big bowl of arugula, which I dressed myself, was delicious.

But, we blame ourselves for not liking our food. We should have ordered better. We’re going to remedy that tonight.
Also yesterday, we visited the Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa Frari, the biggest church in Venice. The church features some important works of art including Tatians’ the “Assunta,” an oil painting. 

Then last night, we pulled two chairs up to the open windows and watched the world go by. It was fantastic. 

We stayed up late, enjoying libations, sweets and the retelling of the day, as we looked out over the Grand Canal and the Rialto Bridge (now pretty much devoid of people).

Today, Wednesday, Sept. 25

This morning, we were up at 6 a.m. and out in St. Mark’s Square not long after. It was so beautiful to be out in the early morning when most people were still sleeping. 

We did an audio tour of the square and then walked by the canal and looked at the beautiful hotels, which were once palaces. After stopping for breakfast, we decided to visit Doge’s Palace. It was stunning.

The tour included a visit to the prison. Justice (though we learned that was questionable) was handed out in the palace and then those convicted of crimes were taken to the prison walking through the Bridge of Sighs. It sent a chill down our spines to think of all the people who were kept in those primitive jail cells.
The Bridge of Sighs connects the jail to the palace. It’s called Bridge of Sighs because prisoners would get their look at beautiful Venice and sigh before serving their sentence in the dark, cold cells.

 Exterior Bridge of Sighs

Looking out of the window from inside the Bridge of Sighs

We also checked out the Cafe Florian, a place where the rich and famous would frequent when on the Grand Tour. Probably going back there tonight and sit at a table outside and pay way too much for a drink just to enjoy the atmosphere.
Below is a picture of the first leg of our trip, which was mistakenly posted and now we can’t delete it because it will delete all the other photos for some reason!!

More to come

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