The day is now Oct 27 and because of difficultys with the hotel internet service and the tour keeping me so busy I have not been aqble to keep up with the blog. However hopefully I will be able to catch up a little today. My last entry was when I was leaving Florence and on my way to Venice. On my last trip to Italy I had only visited Florence and Rome. I had missed Venice and Pompei, two places I dearly wanted to see. Now I was on my way to Venice for 2 days and I was very excited. The ride on the bus was good. I did sleep a little as it seems the rolling of the bus provides a lulling motion and it is hard to keep ones eyes open. However I was awake as we pulled into a parking lot next to the train station of Venice. At first you do not see much. A few food stands, the train station and the cars and buses in the parking lot. You do see one bridge, In order to get into true Venice we had to go over that bridge. I will say that this is the bridge to a city like no other city. Here is the city of many canals, ancient buildings, narrow streets, quaint shops and restaurants, and many hotels. The Grand Canal is the main canal that goes out to the lagoon and sea. Here you see all kinds of boats. Gonola's, speed boats, wooden taxi boats( looks like big century type crafts) and the bus boat( holds many people and are orange). As I walked over the bridge I wondered how long a walk we would have to go before we got to the hotel. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the Hotel Bellini was only about a long block from the Bridge.The first thing we did was to get to our room and arrange our luggage. First of all, this was a very old building. Nicely decorated in 17 century motiff. The actual room was small with huge curtains that looked like they could have used a good cleanning. The wall paper matched the curtains and as you felt the wall you realized it was a padded type of wallpaper. The bathroom was small but very modern. For the most part Glenda and I were happy with the room.
Our first activity was to go on a Gondola ride. There was about 18 of the group who had signed up for the ride. The couples rode side by side in the gondola with the musicians and singer.Those individuals who were single rode together in separate gondolas. About 4 Gondolas were gliding down the small canals off the Grand canal. The musician played an accordian and a tall, dark haired young man(very handsome) sang a variety of Italian songs. He was a great singer and had a great personality. Getting into the Gondola was a little frightening as they were a little tippy and one did not want to fall into the canal. Amazingly no one did. According to our tour guide in all the 23 years of her tours only one person has fallen in. And that was because a motor boat hit the boat as she was climbing aboard. I was glad I took the gondola ride as glided down beautiful small canals. I however missed my Irish prince and remembered the time we were in a gondola ride in Las Vegas at the Venician Hotel. Now that I have been in a Gondola ride in Venice I would not do it again unless John were with me and wanted to go on the ride. There are so many other types of boats to travel down the canals that are not so tippy. One almost felt like they were in a cannoe. However the gondola drivers were very good. They looked a little bored and were often busy talking on their cell phones. They wore a uniform of a black or red striped shirt and black pants.
That night we ate at a typical Venice restaurant. To get to the restaurant we took a water taxi. The restaurant was called Columbo and we had two courses of pasta,fish and meat and dessert. After that our guide took us to St. Marks square the most popular square in Venice. It is the square in front of St. Mark's Basilica which is a very famous church and said to be where his remains are buried. This is the same Mark who was the writer of one of the 4 major books of the Bible. Our guide told us that in the evening coming to St. Marks is probably the only time that you will see very few people in the square. During the day, every day there are mobs of people coming to the square. She said that every season and every day is a Venice day. When we got to the square, she was right in the fact that very few people were there. She said this is because most of the tourist stay at hotels away from Venice ( about an hour away)and stay in their hotels in the evenings. The reason they are staying in hotels so far away is that the hotels are fewer than before because of all the water damage and the hotels in Venice are also very expensive. We never found out how much our hotel cost but the price on the door said that that room could go for 800 a night. Glenda and I knew that our tour Group, Globus did not pay that much as that would have been one fifth the cost of our trip. walking though the square that evening we could listen to the musicians who were stationed at the various restaurants along the square. There were about 4 restaurants who had out door tables and muscians. When one group of musicians would stop playing another group would begin. The guide told us that couples who are on the plaza would dance and the some of the couples who were in our group did dance to the music. Our guide told us that we could stay in the plaza as long as we wanted but we all choose to go back with her as we did not want to get lost. In the square there were puddles of water forming. As I am sure you all have heard. Venice is sinking. At the time we were there it was a full moon and the tide was coming in. When the tide comes in the floor of the square floods almost to 2 feet. The guide said that the next morning the square would be under 2 feet of water. She said then as the day goes on the water dimishes and the square drys out.
We found this to be true the next day as we took a guided tour of the churches and moluments of Venice. The buildings, government and St. Marks have wonderful architechture, paintings, fresco's and statues. Our tour guide was very tall but very informative. He took us to the bridge of Sighs, St. Marks church and square. However when we went into the square true to our Guide, Christina's claim the square was now under about two feet of water. The water was even in the shops. Some people were wearring tall rubber boots were walking on the square but others were walking on a series of planks 4 feet wide that were set on scafeling that was about 4 feet off the floor of the square. The planks ran along the square so that people could see the square. I felt sorry for the vendors as most of the tourist did not have boots and were not willing to walk in their shops with the water up past there ankles and lower legs. After we left this area our next stop was the venician glass factory. Here we saw how venician glass was made. We had an opportunity to buy some. I did buy some items but as I do not want to disclose the items that I intend to be christmas gifts I will not tell you what I bought. Also in this tour was a lace shop and I bought a few items there too.
From the Venice tour, our tour director took Glenda and I with other tour group participants to a island off the lagoon of Venice. The lagoon is the big lake that is between the canals and adriatic sea. We went by this water boat to an island where we had lunch. Seafood and pasta. There also were more shops and we bought post cards and other souveneirs. From this island we went back to the Venice island. Our guide Christina had to go somewhere else but gave us a new map that would help us find our way back to the hotel. Glenda and I were with a few other people from the tour. We tried to follow the directions. Our tour guide had told us that everyone gets lost in Venice for 2 minutes and that was true for us, except it seemed like more than two minutes. We followed the directions with some aid from the shop owners. We were so happy to get back to our hotel.
We left Venice the next morning and I have decided that I definately would want to come back. Venice gets into to your veins and you never forget it.
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