my last day in Venice

Friday was my last full day in Venice. It was an overcast day which reflected my mood as I was not yet ready to leave Venice. My first stop of the day was to a little pasticceria shop on Strada Nova in Cannaregio for my morning coffee and a pastry. I ordered one of those delightful pastries from Naples called a sfogliatelle. Big mistake! The pastry was indeed delicious but there should be a warning placed on this pastry saying “Do Not Eat in Public”. I made such a mess. I must have gone through at least 10 napkins.

After leaving the pasticceria, I wandered through more of the Cannaregio area. I wandered down the Fondamenta degli Ormesini, through the Ghetto area, and also down the Canale di Cannaregio. I took some photos along the way:













One of my “to do” things for the day was to get to a post office. I wanted to mail the cards I tried to mail while in the Newark airport and I also wanted to mail asmall padded envelope full of stuff about Venice, which I would no longer need. I remembered seeing a Postale sign when walking to the train station the day before. While walking towards the train station, I saw an arrow pointing down a side street where I found a little post office. As I waited in line, I rehearsed my Italian vocabulary that I would need to mail my cards and padded envelope. There are two places I am still intimidated by when in Italy - the post office and the grocery store (the power those ladies have sitting on their little thrones at the cash registers).

When it was my turn in line, I stepped up to the window and nervously passed my 3 cards through the little slot, asking to have them mailed to the US. The cost for each card was only .85 each, which I thought was a great deal! I then tried to fit my padded envelope through the slot. It was too thick. I had no idea what to do next. The woman sort of rolled her eyes, told me to wait, and then pushed some button, and magically the slot became slightly wider to accommodate my envelope. I had read that the Italian post office system likes to have packages mailed using their special yellow boxes and so I was a little nervous that my padded envelope that I brought with me from the US would be rejected. Fortunately it passed the test.

While the woman weighed the envelope, she asked me if I wanted it to go by air. I asked what other options I had. She said just air, no other options. SO, the big question is “Why did she ask me if I wanted it to go by air?”. This type of question is one of the mysteries I will never figure out. It reminds me of the sign I saw while in Rome that said, “open every day, closed on Mondays”. How can something be open every day and also closed on Mondays?

The package cost 8.70 euros. I wasn’t expecting the cost to be so high, but splurged, and decided to mail it as it would save a little weight and space in my bag for the rest of my trip. Note: I am happy to report that my package arrived safely and was waiting for me when I arrived home.

I have never walked to the Piazelle Roma area and so after leaving the post office, I headed that way. My goal was to see as much of Venice as I could. I wandered through some of the streets in this new area of Santa Croce and then thought "La Zucca"!! La Zucca is a restaurant I discovered during my last trip to Venice and has turned out to be one of my favorite places to eat in Venice. It is usually pretty crowded and often reservations are a must. I was thrilled that tables were available when I arrived for lunch. I ordered my favorite Taglietelle con Ricotta, Pecorino e Pomodoro and a salad and savored every bite.



If anyone is able to get me the recipe to this amazing pasta dish, I would be forever grateful.

After lunch, I took the vaporetto from the San Stae stop to the San Angelo stop. My one must for the day was a visit to La Fenice. When looking at the map, the San Angelo stop looked like the closest stop. Somehow though as usual, I became slightly lost. I ended up in Campo San Stefano.



I had never been in this campo before but have often read about it. Campo San Stefano is another one of the campos where a person could spend hours just sitting and people watching. I was thankful for getting lost and discovering this campo. After a little more wandering, I found La Fenice.



The ticket to visit this opera house cost 7 euros, which included an audio guide. I loved loved loved this tour. I can’t believe it has taken me four visits to finally visit La Fenice! Of course, it was still being reconstructed during my first two visits to Venice, and so I really only missed visiting it during my visit last year. This website has a couple of nice pictures and some general information about La Fenice. This website gives a nice summary of the history of the opera house.

No photos were allowed inside but we were able to sit in the Imperial Box and wander through much of the opera house while listening to the history and reconstruction information at each station along the tour. The tour lasted about an hour and ended just as they were closing. I would highly recommend this tour to all. It was one of the highlights of my stay in Venice along with the Clock Tower tour.

This picture was taken from the back of La Fenice:



After leaving La Fenice, I headed to the Santa Maria del Giglio vaporetto stop (which I discovered while looking for La Fenice). I just missed the vaporetto heading back towards the Rialto Bridge and instead took a short trip over to the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Salute to take a peek inside the church, figuring that I could catch the next vaporetto heading back towards the Rialto Bridge instead of just waiting at the other vaporetto stop. Last summer, I spent some time photographing this beautiful church but did not get to go inside since the church was closed when I was there. I was disappointed to discover that this year the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Salute was covered in scaffolding, but the good news was that the church was open. I took a quick peek inside and then caught the next vaporetto back to the Rialto Bridge.

Once back at the Rialto area, I did a little shopping. At one point, the skies turned black, and then the sky opened up and it started to pour. I hurried on back to my apartment and later saw on the TV that there was a destructive tornado in Mestre at an outside concert that occurred about the time that the sky turned black in Venice. We were very lucky that all we had was rain.

My last dinner in Venice ended up being a little disappointing. I had made reservations the day before to eat at Vini di Gigio. I was really looking forward to this dinner. I got all dressed up, wearing my nice skirt and nice shoes. When I arrived, I was seated in the second room. I noticed right away how cold it was with the A/C on and wished I had brought my sweater. I was seated at a table in the back corner next to a group of 3 American couples. I should have asked right away to be moved to the other room as it was not as cold, but when I entered the restaurant, I noticed that all of the tables had reservation cards on them and I didn't realize at the time how uncomfortable the AC would end up being.

The waitress was extremely nice and attentive. I ordered scallops as an appetizer and then a pasta with crab for my main course. Throughout my time in the restaurant, I could not help but overhear the people at the table next to me. They were very loud, as if they were the only people in the restaurant and were having a private dinner party at their house. They talked about fundraiser dinners that they throw for big charities, about all of their trips, as well as a variety of other topics. Football, specifically college football, seemed to be another main topic. There was even some gossip discussed about some player getting kicked out of college for something.

At one point, they became upset at the waitress for messing up their order. I felt bad for her as she seemed to be very kind and they were not very gentle about pointing out her errors. I was not there when they ordered and so I can't say for sure if the error was indeed the waitresses fault or perhaps a misunderstanding with the language translation but it was the way they spoke to the waitress that really bothered me.

I tried my best to ignore the chatter and reflect on my time in Venice, look at some of my pictures on my camera, and write in my journal, but it was pretty hard to concentrate. I noticed that most of the other diners in this room were also Americans. I wondered if the “local” diners or more regular customers were seated in the other room. I also wondered if perhaps the Americans were seated in this room because it is sometimes a generalization that Americans like cold air-conditioned temperatures. These were all just questions and not accusations of the restaurant. I just did not feel the same "warmness" that I felt at La Zucca.

My scallops were very delicious, but for the price, I was expecting more than 3 scallops. My pasta was good but not great as it was a little on the dry side. I was not feeling that well by the end of my meal and was even feeling a little nauseous, which I later realized was the beginning of a migraine. I ended up passing on dessert and just asked for the bill. I was glad to warm up a little when I went back outside. I would like to give this restaurant another try as I have read wonderful things about this restaurant, but next time I would insist on sitting in the first room and not next to a large party.

Although my dinner did not turn out to be the most wonderful dinner, I still had one of my favorite meals of my trip at lunch and a wonderful time touring La Fenice. All in all, my last day in Venice was a great great day. I am already dreaming about all the places I want to visit during my next stay.

the Sargent exhibit and the Correr Museum

I awoke Thursday morning to a cloudy day. It was tough to figure out if the clouds meant rain. I brought my raincoat with me just in case.

After having my morning coffee, I went in search once again for Peter Pan, the mask store I had been searching for. I took the vaporetto over the San Stae stop and tried to retrace my steps from last year when I stayed near that stop.

Just after getting off the vaporetto, the skies opened up and the rain came pouring down. I was glad I decided to carry my raincoat with me. Even with my raincoat on, I was drenched. I saw a few older ladies stopped under archways waiting for the rain to stop. To me, it looked like it would be raining all day. I walked as close as I could to the edge of the road to try to escape some of the rain. After about 20 minutes, the rain stopped.

During my search, I stopped to ask a shopkeeper if he knew where I could find Peter Pan. He had no idea what I was talking about. I told him it was a mask shop. He then told me that there are mask shops everywhere. At that moment, a guy, who must have been a friend of his, walked through the little piazza. He yelled out to him, asking him if he knew where Peter Pan was. No luck. I thanked him and decided that would be it for Peter Pan this year. I will just have to return to Venice again to find that mysterious mask shop that no longer seems to be where I remembered it was located.

I walked over the Rialto Bridge, enjoying the view of the Grand Canal from the top. I realized at that point that I had not yet bought my train ticket to Brescia for Saturday. I headed back through Cannaregio toward the train station. Along the way, closer to the train station, I noticed a second ATM machine that had one of those slots where you put your card in to enter a more secure ATM machine inside a little booth. I stopped to give my ATM card that had not been working another try. I thought perhaps it was just the other ATM machine that did not seem to like my card (later when arriving home realizing that it liked my card enough to charge me the money I never received). This machine did not work either. I used my back up ATM card, withdrew some more money, and then continued on to the train station.

At the train station, I located the automatic ticket booths. I stood in line behind a woman who seemed to be finishing up her purchase. She put her money in to buy her ticket, but her money got stuck and her ticket did not come out. She started banging on the machine, and I believe there was some swearing in Italian, and then walked away in frustration. I felt bad for her and wished I could have helped. That incident helped me make my choice of using a credit card to purchase my train ticket. I also figured that I better try another machine just in case she was able to find someone to get the money out of that machine.

I found another machine that was free and proceeded to buy my ticket. I just read about the new Amica fare and gave it a try. Wonderful option as it saved me about 7 or 8 euros. I also needed to get my ticket for Bologna since the little Rovato station where I would be departing from did not have an automatic ticket booth.

When I punched in my train time and ticket choice; Rovato to Milano, Milano to Bologna, a warning message appeared (in Italian) stating that there was some sort of train track work and there may not be enough time to make my connection. It was then that I made that fatal decision to instead choose the other connection, which went through Verona.

That led to my, let’s just say “colorful” train experience when my first train was canceled, there were no seats on my second train, and I missed my eurostar connection, resulting in taking a later train and then having to explain why I was on that train with a eurostar ticket to the conductor. I later found out that when I was at the Rovato train station, the train I was originally going to take to Milan left on time and the train I instead took to Verona with a 40 minute window between train changes ended up being 50 minutes late and then canceled all together.

After buying my tickets, I sat by the edge of the water at the train station for a while, enjoying the view and doing a little “people watching”.

Here is a picture of the train station I took the day before while on a vaporetto:


My stomach started grumbling. I headed back to my apartment for lunch, having another delicious caprese salad and some pasta with pesto.

After lunch, the weather was still pretty overcast. I headed back towards Piazza San Marco to visit the Museo Correr. Somehow, I took a wrong turn and ended up in front of La Fenice, the opera house that burned down. After reading the book, City of Falling Angels, which was about the fire of La Fenice, the restoration, and the arson trial, I was thrilled to find La Fenice! I went inside to check out the possibility of touring the inside of this opera house. There happened to be a performance that night and so the tours were already closed for the day. I jotted down the time for the tours for the following day, looked on my map to make a note of just where this opera house was located, and then continued on to the Museo Corrrer.

One of the main reasons I wanted to visit the Museo Correr was to see the Sargent exhibit. I had read about Sargent and his work and was excited that I would be in Venice while the exhibit was still there.



When I picked up my Clock Tower ticket, I was told that my ticket would also get me into the Museo Correr. That was true, but a separate ticket costing 7 euros was needed to see the Sargent exhibit. The cost of the ticket was definitely worth it! The Sargent exhibit was increditble!! There were so many beautiful paintings. I am not very good at describing art but here is a link that describes the exhibit and includes copies of a few of his paintings. The exhibit was recently extended until the end of September so if you are in Venice, don't miss it!

After spending quite a bit of time enjoying the paintings in the Sargent exhibit, I entered the Museo Correr. This museum is huge! I had visited a few of the rooms before taking the Clock Tower tour the day before, and so I zipped through the first few rooms and started where I left off.

My mission was to find the Bird's Eye View of Venice print by Jacopo de Barbari that the tour guide from the Clock Tower tour told us about. The print was indeed incredible. The Bird’s Eye View was a detailed map of Venice done in the 1500’s made by six hand-carved blocks. After admiring the print for a while, I continued on through the museum.

My feet were getting pretty tired as this museum was huge! I came to a stairway, which led to more collections. I debated whether or not to go up that stairway or to just call it a day. I am so glad I chose the stairway. The original hand-carved blocks that made the famous Bird’s Eye View print as well as I believe the original print was in one of the rooms on this next level. I highly recommend a visit to this museum to see this amazingly detailed print of Venice. Unfortunately no photos were allowed inside the museum

At the entrance to the museum where you purchase your tickets, you will find a cool replica of the Clock Tower (can you tell I am a little obsessed with the Clock Tower?).



After leaving the museum, I couldn't resist a few more shots of the beautiful Piazza San Marco.





My next thought was gelato! I had yet to visit the Dorsoduro area and one of my favorite campos, Campo Santa Margherita, where you can find a few highly recommended places to get a good gelato. I hopped on a vaporetto and headed over to the campo. The vaporetto pass in my opinion was well worth the cost. I loved the idea of being able to hop on and off without having to buy a ticket.

When I arrived in the campo my big decision was, which gelateria to go to? What a nice dilemma to have! I decided on Igloo Gelato. I chose pistachio and coconut. YUMMY!!

Well, I now have just one more day to go and my trip report part of this blog will be complete! I will continue to add a few more pictures that correspond to some of my previous posts.

ciao!

views from my 2nd tower of the day

The island of San Giorgio Maggiore has always fascinated me.



I have taken many pictures of this island from afar but I have never actually visited this island. After a wonderful lunch, I headed back to take a vaporetto to finally go into the church that dominates the island and to go to the top of the clock tower.

The vaporetto was a little tricky to find as there were either two or three docks close together (am having difficulty recalling the exact number now) and I was not sure which one would take me to San Giorgio Maggiore. I went to the wrong dock, but was redirected. I still was not sure if I was at the correct dock (which is why I am thinking there must have been three docks) but then saw the route on the board and knew I was in the correct place. The vaporetto for this route did not run as regularly as the others. Fortunately for me the next vaporetto was set to arrive in about 10 minutes. The boat was not too crowded. This allowed me to take some good close up shots of the island.

As we got closer, I was amazed at the beauty of the plain white church against the deep blue sky. The church was so simple and yet so stunning.



There were only a few people outside of the church when I arrived. I headed into the church and looked for the clock tower lift. As a fan of climbing towers, I was a little disappointed that there was not an option to climb this tower, but it was still exciting to be able to get to the top. I had heard that the views were incredible.

Finding a person sitting in a lift collecting money for tickets no longer surprises me after a few encounters over the years, but I still wonder how they can do this job day after day. The guy in this lift was young, possibly in his early 20's. He barely looked up from his book to collect my money and give me my ticket. He then moved his hand to press the correct button without even glancing at the buttons, all the while continuing to read his book. I guess if reading books in enclosed places that go up and down all day is your thing, this would be the job for you!

The views from the top were indeed incredible. I took a little video but it came out pretty blurry. Here are a few pictures. I have been trying to keep the pictures sizes smaller so that my webpage does not take forever to load for those with a slower connection but I did make a few of the pictures below a little larger in order to see more of the details.













After spending about 30 minutes at the top, I headed back down to catch the next vaporetto. I continued to go around the island for a view of the Zattere and the Guidecca instead of up the Grand Canal. I love being on boats and never tire of riding the vaporetto, especially when I get a good seat in the front. As we came closer to the train station stop, I took this picture of one of the three bridges that cross the Grand Canal.



Instead of heading back to my apartment, I decided to get off at the new Rialto Market stop to go to Peter Pan, the mask shop that I spent time in the previous year. The woman, who actually made many of the masks herself along with her sister, was so kind, taking the time to explain the process and telling me about the history and significance of many of the masks last year. I wanted to buy a mask last year but because I visited the shop on my last day in Venice, I did not have time to get to the post office to mail home my mask and definitely did not have room for a mask in my luggage. I decided right then that the next time I returned to Venice I would buy a mask a this shop. I was so mad at myself for not bringing the card with me, as I could not find this shop. I clearly remembered it being in the Santa Croce district not far from the hotel I stayed in last year. I could have sworn that I remembered just where it was located but could not find it.

I finally gave up, but did come across an internet site during my search that I stopped in to update my blog, check my messsages, etc. By then, it was getting late and I was getting hungry. I took this picture on the vaporetto on the way back to my apartment.



After a quick stop at my apartment, I headed over to La Strega, a pizzeria recommended by Chow Venice, which was located just past the beautiful Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo. I had a delicious pepperoni pizza (again peppers/not the meat). Although the peppers on this pizza were sliced peppers instead of grilled pepper, the sauce and the cheese were so ono!

A great way to end a wonderful and busy day in Venice!

my visit to the Basilica di San Marco

After finishing my Clock Tower tour, now that I understood all about the different ways the time was displayed, I wanted to watch the time change and the bell rung by the Mori. I took another little video of the time changing and bell ringing but again, I need to figure out how to do the youtube thing before posting the video.

In addition to the time that is displayed with the numbers on the two wheels (see previous post), there are two more clock faces. The clock face on the front of the tower under the Virgin Mary displays the time of day, the Zodiac sign, and the current phase of the moon:



The clock face on the back of the tower, which you can see when taking the street to Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square) I believe only displays the time:



It was a little after 11 am. I realized there was only a tiny line to get into the Basilica di San Marco (Saint Mark's Basilica). I hadn't planned to go into the Basilica as I had been before, but I couldn't resist with such a short line!

My first stop inside was to go up top where the horses are located to get yet another view of the Clock Tower as well as the rest of Piazza San Marco. It was pretty packed but I managed to find a few spots which were not so crowded. For those that don't know, the horses up on the balcony are replicas. The original horses are located inside and with no photos allowed.


Here is my favorite picture of one of the horses on the balcony:



I wanted to get a good picture of the 4 horses up close, but a girl was posing as if she was in playboy (but with her clothes on) for the longest time right under the horses, which was very irritating! I don't think she had a clue that the rest of the people on the balcony did not need to take her picture home as a momento. I finally gave up waiting and just took a picture and then cropped her out, but that also meant cropping out part of the horses.



Here are some more pictures I took while on this amazing little balcony with the 4 horses:













I think this statue next to the lion was the same Doge, Doge Agostino Barbarigo, which was originally next to the lion on the Clock Tower before it was destroyed. He's kind of cute!



I snuck a picture of the inside of the Basilica from the balcony. Unfortunately no photos allowed inside. The mosaics are incredible. The picture ended up a little blurry but for those who have never been, it at least gives you an idea of what the inside looks like.



After touring the rest of the Basilica di San Marco, my stomach started to grumble. I had found a place I had read about in Chow Venice Tuesday afternoon called Osteria da Alberto. I had read that this place fills up quickly. When I arrived, there was only one other couple at a table which was nice as it ended up being easy to get a table. I had the ravioli with swordfish, shrimp, and zucchini. It was delicious!!

Wednesday was an ambitious day for me. Since the past two days were cloudy and rainy, I figured I better take advantage of the good weather and the clear skies for good views. I headed back to the San Marco area and took a vaporetto over to San Giorgio Maggiore to go to the top of yet another tower. This one however had a lift so it was sort of cheating as far as towers go. I will post another thread with pictures from San Giorgio Maggiore.

the clock tower

Wednesday morning, I awoke to blue skies!! A beautiful sunny day is the sure cure to my nasty little bug.

...will write more soon as I have been here much too long...will leave you with the knowledge that the clock tower tour was amazing!! a wonderful day!!

jet lag & rain

Sunday morning was pretty peaceful in Venice. The skies were blue, the sun was out, and the temperature was perfect. Not too hot, but also not too chilly. It was amazing to stand in such an empty Piazza San Marco. There could not have been more than 30 or 40 people in the entire square. Even the pigeons had not arrived. I guess they wait for the vendors with the pigeon food to arrive. I had a nice chat with the man standing by the Basilica door about how empty it was. I asked him if it was because it was Sunday. He said that every morning at 7 am most of Venice is still asleep. Although this will not convert me to be a morning person, I was glad to be there in the wee hours of the morning to enjoy the piazza without the crowds. After taking a few pictures, I walked down as far as the Arsenale area and then took the vaporetto back to Ca' Doro, stopped for my first italian coffee (heavenly) and then headed back to my apartment.

I was pretty wiped out and took a long nap. I woke up feeling the beginning of a cold coming on. I thought I escaped that nasty bug that many of the teachers at my school caught the last month of work. I took my cold snap, wellness capsules, and drank some airborne. Unfortunately none of that helped.

Later on in the day, I explored some of the Canneregio area where my apartment is located and then stopped at the grocery store again and bought some pesto and pasta for dinner. I was feeling pretty terrible by this point and decided that I would eat at home and get to bed early again. I had some more cherries hoping that would help with my jetlag. Unfortunately I forgot to have some again the night before and so it will be hard to tell if they work or not since I have not been eating them regularly right before dinner.

I fell asleep pretty quickly. I woke up at 2 am and could not go back to sleep! I found a cable plug in the bedroom and moved the tv to the bedroom and tried my best to go back to sleep. The tv usually will put me back to sleep. I finally got up at around 6 am and saw that the weather was gray and cloudy. The "METEO" (weather report) was not promising. I headed out after having some breakfast. I stopped for my morning coffee and then decided to walk down to the train station in search of an internet site along the way. I remembered seeing one last year but could not find it. I thought perhaps there might be one in the train station. Just as I arrived, the skies opened up and it started to rain. Umbrellas popped up everywhere. I headed over to San Tomà to go to the agency that arranged for my apartment to pay my bill. After paying, I stopped in a paper store and then decided to try Casa Mia for lunch.

Casa Mia is one of the restaurants recommended in the Chow Venice book I bought. A great choice! I had a delicious pepperoni pizza (peppers not the meat). Delicious! After lunch, I was feeling pretty lousy and was not up for walking around in the rain. I had dinner at my apartment again and tried to stay up as late as possible.

Tuesday morning, I woke to another cloudy and overcast day. I slept until about 4 which was an improvement. I was feeling horrible but decided to head out anyways. I walked to the Fondamenta Nove area and then took one of the vaporetti around the island. I got off at the Giardini stop and thought about visiting the Biennale but decided against it. The weather looked like it was going to start raining at any moment and I still not feeling too good. I took the next Vaporetto and stopped at the COOP at the Piazzale Roma stop. I bought some food for lunch and dinner and then headed back to the apartment and hung out for most of the afternoon until finally it cleared up and a little bit of blue sky peeked through.

I headed out searching for a recommended gelateria. I found it after a few wrong turns but was not thrilled with the flavors. I had pistachio on my mind and they did not have any. I stumbled into 2 amazing piazzas, Campo Santa Maria Formosa and Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo. I found a gelateria with pistachio. After hanging out for a while, I headed back to my apartment. As I was walking back to my apartment, I saw another restaurant recommended that I wanted to try and made a mental note as to how to get there again for a lunch or dinner later in the week.

I was wiped out and had dinner once again at my apartment and then watched a movie on tv. I can't even remember the name of it at the moment but thankfully that was the last night of my jetlag haze.

the good, the bad, & the ugly

The good:
Another wonderful check in experience at the Honolulu Airport. No line for the agriculture inspection. A long line for Northwest, BUT no line for Continental!! Because I already printed out my boarding pass, all I had to do was check my bag. There was an open kiosk available when I arrived. I quickly checked my bag (32 pounds) and went to the screening area. The aloha spirit is alive and well at the Honolulu Airport! The line was not very line and so I was not very concerned about the wait. But, a very kind man suggested that anyone leaving from gate 27 go to the next screening area because there was a shorter line there. He was correct. It took a total of 5 minutes to breeze through. This was the first time I flew since the new liquid rules. The person in front of me was a flight attendant and so I just followed her. It was sort of like an assembly line. Off go the shoes, everything goes in little bins, and one by one, we walk through the metal detector. The baggage screeners were very cheerful as I passed through.

After gathering all my belongings, I tried to figure out where my gate was located. My glasses were in a bag and so I tried to squint to read the signs. I saw a couple of ladies sitting on carts and went to ask one where gate 27 was. She said to hop in and she would give me a ride! WOW, that was probably the highlight of my flight. And it gets even better. Along the way, I asked her where I could buy some water. She said that the stores by my gate were already closed but she would pull over to one of the stores along the way and wait for me while I purchased my water. We picked up an older man along the way and quickly arrived at my gate. Simply amazing!

My flight took off on time and was as pleasant as a flight could be in coach. I ate some dried cherries (a tip I read that helps with jet lag) and slept much of the flight.

Once in Newark, I had about 5 hours to kill. It took 2 hours before my gate was announced so I basically wandered and stopped to watch the latest with Paris going back to jail on CNN. I also searched for the mailbox I had seen in the past to mail some cards that I should have mailed before I left and found out that there no longer are any mailboxes or mail slots inside the airport. The only way I could mail my cards was to go outside and then go through the security line again. Needless to say, the cards are now in Venice with me.

I had a grilled pepper and cheese sub, YUM!! and then headed over to my gate about an hour before it was scheduled to take off. A large group of people all flying together were sitting near me. We chatted a little and then slowly learned that our flight was not taking off on time. First we got the "Ladies and Gentlemen, we will be shortly delayed as we need to clean the plane" and then once we all boarded were told that we were out of order for the runway and it would only be a 15 minute delay. I'm sure you all know how that goes. Well, I really really had to pee by the time we finally took off. I leaped out of my seat as soon as we seemed to be leveling off and bolted for the restroom. Two of the flight attendants started to stop me but I pleaded that I had a medical condition and it was an emergency. They both were extremely kind and one of them, a very cute flight attendant was assigned to our section and was very kind to me the entire flight.

I sat next to an interesting guy that works for Diesel and live in Switzerland. We chatted for a while until we were served dinner and then it was movie time. I forgot to have more cherries, but fell asleep anyways pretty quickly and slept much of the flight.

We arrived about 90 minutes later than scheduled and zoomed through the passport control area.

The bad:
The luggage guys seemed to be taking a break as nothing moved for over 30 minutes. I chatted with a couple that did not have a very good travel agent as they were booked at the airport hotel for 2 nights! I didn't have the heart to tell them that staying at the airport area was probably the worst choice they could have made. They wanted to go to Venice one day and Lake Como the next. They probably should have stayed at Lake Come for the 2 nights instead. Finally the bags started to come out. I grabbed my bag and realized (THE BAD) that my handle was broken!! It would not budge. While I lent my phone to the wife to call the hotel for a shuttle (and sadly she was told to take a taxi), the husband tried to help me pull up the handle. He was able to pull it up about 4 inches and that was as far as it would go. So much for the new tote bag I bought specifically to slip over the handle.

I easily found the bus to the train station outside of the airport and handed my luggage to the driver to put underneath and grabbed a seat. The bus ride was as pleasant as a bus ride into the city could be. I bought my ticket and 30 minutes later I was on the train to Venice. We took off about 5 minutes later than scheduled. I was on a Eurostar train and so it was a very pleasant 3 hour train ride. Once we arrived in Mestre, we were told that there would be a slight delay. Outside, you could see tons of people waiting for trains. Later I found out there was some sort of strike taking place. We ended up being 30 minutes delayed by the time we arrived at the Santa Lucia train station.

I met Ketty, the woman who was to take me to my apartment at the train station. We sent a few SMS' (text messages) back an forth since my arrival at the airport in Milan. I needed to buy my Venice Blu Card ticket, which I reserved ahead of time and gives me 7 days of access on all vaporetti. There was a HUGE line and she did not want to wait. She said it was just a short walk to the apartment and that the maid was waiting there with the key and needed to leave. I knew the route that we were about to take and this was NOT part of my plan. There were lots of people along the way and Ketty walked at a brisk pace weaving in and out of the crowd. I tried my best to keep up while pulling my suitcase with the broken handle which was not too easy to do. We had to cross 5 bridges. Now 5 may not seem a lot to you, but by the 5th bridge, my arms were shaking and I could hardly lift my bag. We arrived at the door of my apartment and Ketty buzzed the maid. The apartment is on the 3rd floor (2nd floor for Italian lingo). I tried to lift my bag but my arms were not budging. Ketty helped me by grabbing one end and finally just carried it on her own. I was pleasantly surprised by a very nice apartment and after Ketty quickly announced the name of each room, she said goodbye and started to leave. I asked her to wait until I was sure about using each key and then said goodbye.

By this time, 30 hours after taking off from Honolulu, I was completely exhausted. I unpacked my things, stopped at an ATM, went to the grocery store (Billa), and bought a few things for dinner as well as some toilet paper. There was not even a square left for me so that was a priority! I then went over the to Rialto Bridge vaporetto stop and bought my Venice Blu card. At first, the woman was going to make me go back to the train station but after I explained how long I had been traveling and asked her nicely if I could buy the ticket there, she agreed.

I made myself a caprese salad for dinner and went to bed. I woke up at 1 am and was not able to get back to sleep. I finally got up around 5:30. I watched some TV, had some yogurt and cereal for breakfast and then headed out to explore Venice.

Sunday morning in Venice is pretty quiet at 6:30 am. The street cleaners (men with brooms, not machines) were hard at work. I was amazed at all of the trash. I have to say though that there are not many wastebaskets around, not that I am making an excuse for littering.


The ugly:
OK, are you ready for the ugly?? After wandering my neighborhood for a while, I decided to head towards Piazza di San Marco. Thank goodness I looked down as at one point I just missed stepping on a dead rat!! Yes, you are reading this correctly, a big fat rat. I assume he or she was dead but perhaps it was just asleep. I guess the street cleaners did not get to that street yet. This is my 4th trip to Venice and in her defense, this is only the first rat I have seen. I would say that definitely qualifies as the ugly!