Europe 2007 – 6/29/07 – Venice. Click here for pictures.
We awake early this morning for a 6:50am train to Venice. We thought this was going to be easy – a quick ride on the Metro to Termini station and then on our train to Venice. We already have our ticket so there was no need to arrive too early. Unfortunately, no one mentioned that our particular metro line does not work at 6am. So we walked very fast to Termini station. We made it with 10 minutes to spare and exhausted. We boarded and found some nice seats. Shawn then got off to find breakfast and an ATM. When he got back on we settled back to relax. Not so fast, we were approached and told we were sitting in the wrong seats. We didn’t realize there was assigned seating. We get up, moved our luggage and find our real seats 4 cars down (and now we are not side-by-side, but rather across from each other).
The train ride is about 41/2 hours long. We manage to get next to each other about mid-way through. We look at our pictures on the lap top and watch a couple of episodes of 24. We arrive in Venice around 11:30am after passing over a long bridge to get us to the island. We get off and walk to our new hotel – Allogio Henry. It appears to be very nice, but we must check-in later. We leave our bags and then start walking around.
We are quite a way from St. Mark’s Square, but we manage to make our way there first. The square is massive, covered with tourists and a lot of pigeons. We grab a quick snack – reheated pizza – and eat it on the steps in the square. This day was actually devoted to Florence, be we decided to come to Venice early (to ease our traveling). We have nothing planned for today so we decide to start with a few museums.
First, we go to the Correr museum. It is located right off of St. Mark’s Square. We enter this museum and see a lot of paintings and busts. We also see some paraphernalia of the doge (head of nobility in Venice). We sort through lots of maps and books. We seek out the library in honor of our moms, but there are only paintings in there. Finally we learn a bit about the artwork from Venice by Bellini and Canova.
Our second museum is a bit more exciting – Doge’s palace. This was he home of the reining doge and the place where he and the nobility governed. We first entered the courtyard and noticed a lot of statues and a grand staircase. Then we went to the first floor and saw the apartments of the doge. We took peek at St. Christopher (which guarantees we won’t die today). Next we went to the second floor to see the lawmaking rooms where the doge and other nobles did work. One room was a grand hall with tons of hug paintings. Then we stepped into a smaller room where the Council of Ten carried out justice (deciding what punishment a criminal would get).
The Council of Ten was a secret council that had spies all around. You could drop an anonymous letter in the “Mouth of Truth” and tattle on someone. We walked up stirs to see all the weapons used by this council. Then we walked across the Bridge of Sighs to see where the prisoners convicted by counsel were taken. This bridge is highly photographed so it was fun to see the inside and look back on all the people taking its picture.
After Doge’s Palace we began our walk to the Rialto Bridge. We made a few stops along the way including a few small churches and their squares. We also found a hidden tower, somewhat like the leaning tower of Pisa (only it wasn’t leaning). We managed to guide our way through some narrow canals and pop out in front of the Rialto Bridge for some great photos. We climbed the bridge and explored the shops posted along it.
We then continued our journey to the Frari Church. Along the way we stopped at a mask whop were all the masks are hand-made. Unfortunately, they were closing when we got there. We’ll come back another day to look around. We continued on pass a fish market, but it too was closed. Finally we made it to the Church.
Now we are going back to the hotel to start our laundry. It is a difficulty walk back trying to cross the correct canal and make it to the right streets. After only a couple of missed turns, we make it to the hotel. We gather all of our laundry and walk to the Speedy Wash (a place we hand found on the internet prior to leaving). While the laundry is going, I walk next door to get us some dinner. Roast chicken and potatoes for Shawn and a “potato-like” pasta with cheese for me. It was delicious and cheaper since we got it “to-go”. After dinner, while the cloths were drying, we step next door to Planet Internet to check our email and write the family.
Once the laundry is finished we fold it and walk to the Hotel. We get everything put away and get ready for bed. Our hotel room is bigger than the previous rooms. The only downfall is there is no air-conditioning. So tonight we will sleep with our window’s open.