Colorado Cruiser: Italy Day 7 Venice

After last night's food poisoning ordeal I slept the whole night very soundly and awoke feeling great. I was just a bit weak, but nothing that would stop us touring the city.

It was early morning, so St Mark's square was empty and very quiet. None of the restaurants or shops around the square were open. We walked around the square for a bit and took pictures, then grabbed a water bus back into Venice.

We stopped at the Rialto Bridge to take pictures. By now people were beginning to move around the city but it was still very quiet. We wandered back into the side streets looking for other photo opportunities. After a bit of wandering, we came across an outdoor market with seafood, flowers, all sorts of vegetables. Everything was raw so we couldn't sample anything. There were lots of little old ladies dragging rolling shopping bags around and buying their groceries.

After some more wandering we back came out at the main canal in time to see some large boats being rowed down the canal by men all dressed alike. We had no idea what the boats were doing or why they were decorated with flags, but we watched a while, then moved on.

Right behind one bridge we came across a man selling charcoal paintings. I'd seen him yesterday, but I was feeling so bad that we didn't stop. This time we stopped and watched him for a bit.

We continued wandering the back streets and taking pictures, then we started following signs pointing us back towards St Marks. It is very confusing and disorienting following signs left and right down what look like alleys and small squares. We crossed many bridges over small canals and eventually found ourselves in a pretty little square with a restaurant at one side.

We sat down and ordered some lunch. One of the things I've really discovered on this trip (Mike probably knew it already), is that restaurants don't mind if you sit at their tables for hours. You can order a small coke and just sit and watch people come and go, and the waiters won't keep bothering you or glaring at you the way they would in the U.S.

We were in a square on the main foot rout between the Rialto bridge and St Marks, so there was constant foot traffic in each direction. I enjoy just watching the people and guessing at what they might be on their way to or from.

Eventually we finished and continued our journey back towards our hotel. We stopped in our room for a bit to offload a few things, then headed back out. As we passed the front Desk, we noticed allot of activity out the back side of the hotel.

The square of canal behind our hotel and near the Hard Rock Cafe must be a real jumping off spot for gondola rides. There were always people and gondolas lining up and maneuvering to get in and out of the area. A gondola ride is one thing neither Mike nor I wanted to do on this trip.

After lunch, we went back out into St Mark's square. By now the square was fully alive with people. The line into St Mark's Basilica wasn't as bad as yesterday so we headed in. No photography was allowed inside the cathedral, so I didn't take any. The Basilica is famed for the amount of mosaic tile work it has. Nearly everything is covered including the pillars, arches, ceilings, and floors.

Eventually we climbed up onto a balcony at the front of the Basilica overlooking the square. We took pictures looking out over the square. I took a series of pictures to create a panorama of the square.

After the Basilica, we toured the Doge's palace. The Doge was the leader of Venice during the dark ages. The palace sits beside the basilica, and again, no pictures were allowed. We saw the room where court was held and political decisions were made. We saw the armory, the dungeons, and allot of paintings.

For the rest of the afternoon, we again wandered some of the back streets and crossed some of the Grand Canal's bridges. Once while watching traffic pass beneath the bridge, we watched a young man rowing a small boat with a girl in it. He was rowing the boat by standing up, facing forward, and using 2 oars that he would push forward and away from his body. I don't know if it was a date or what, but the girl looked relaxed and kept watching the boy row. They didn't seem to talk much. Water buses and other traffic veered around them as he rowed steadily up the canal and out of sight.

On our way back to the hotel we decided to look for some Gelato to eat. There were little shops everywhere and it didn't take long to find one. A small shop with a narrow door and almost as narrow window sat to one side with a few people in it. We waited our turn, then asked the girl behind the counter what her favorite was. She answered in broken english with a heavy Italian accent. Somehow we got on the subject of her english and how she'd learned it by watching TV. I told her she must have watched allot of westerns because she had a subtle drawl behind her words. She started laughing, then in clear english she admitted that she was from Texas and had come to Italy for a vacation and just decided to stay. She was working multiple jobs to afford living here.

We ordered our gelatos, I don't recall what Mike got, but I got a strawberry flavored gelato. It was great. We ate as we walked along the streets and peeked into the various shops. As I was nearly finished, Mike said "By the way, you know that gelato has allot of alcohol in it don't you?" "No" I said, how do you know that? He said "Anything citrus or acidic can't have milk in it, so here they use alcohol instead". "Gee thanks for he warning Mike"

Back at the hotel we took a short break, then went wandering the little streets and alleys around St Marks square.

Now, when I says streets, alleys, roads, or anything else like that in Vencie, I'm really always saying the same thing. There are no cars, so none of the roads are big wide things. Most are just 5 to 10 foot across at the most. And all of the buildings are multi stories tall. So it feels to me like I'm walking down a back alley between tall buildings, but they're just the roads of Venice.

Eventually we made our way to the last building on the island. It had a glass factory that gave tours. Nothing much was going on this late in the day, but we went in and wandered through their souvenier shop.

For dinner we wandered the narrow paths around St Marks until we found a restaurant that didn't have a 1 hour wait. I was in the mood for a steak. The menu had "Steak Saltambocca" listed, so I decided to order that. Mike warned me that it wouldn't be what I was expecting, but having ordered it, I wasn't about to back down. It certainly wasn't what I expected. It was steak, but it was pounded flat and very salty with cheese and prosciutto ham on it. It was ok, but I wouldn't go looking for it ever again.

St Marks Square early in the morning and empty of people.