Venice, Italy

We arrived at Venice's San Lucia train station (on the island) from Bologna at around 1:10 p.m. Once there, we purchased a 3-day Waterbus ticket for each of us (at $40/ticket) to enable us to use public transportation in Venice, Murano, and Burano.

I did not realize it then, but a machine sold those tickets next to the agent, and I could have purchased the exact tickets there (without waiting in the long line). Note - American Credit cards don’t work in European vending machines (but most restaurants process them successfully).

I also ended up having problems with my Keypoint ATM card. All banks require travel pre-authorization to enable them to work in foreign countries (this was not previously needed).

Inna rented an Airbnb apartment at Corte de la Cenere, 937. After taking the Waterbus 5.1 to Giardini, our host, Anna, met us. On the way there, we saw many beautiful gondolas along the Grand Canal.

As the water bus sailed past St. Mark's Square, I took a beautiful shot of Doge's Palace.

Anna was very gracious, meeting us at the Waterbus station and showing us the best way to the apartment. She showed us all of the apartment's amenities and highlighted the best restaurants to try and museums to visit.

After resting a bit, we headed to get lunch at one of the local restaurants recommended by her - Trattoria Alla Rampa. Anna also recommended Osteria Alla'Ombra, but prices there seemed much higher, so we first tried Trattoria Alla Rampa.

We ate inside Trattoria Alla Rampa, ordering typical Viennese dishes. Our first entrees were black squid ink pasta (which colored our lips and teeth black). Afterward, we looked like vampires!

The pasta was quite tasty, but not as delicious as Spaghetti Bolognese in Bologna. In general, we found that food in Venice is more expensive and of lower quality than in nearby Bologna (because all of Venice’s food has to be imported from the mainland).

After lunch, we took Waterbus #1 to Ca'Rezzonico, a Venetian 18th-century Venetian Art museum.

We spent a few hours exploring the museum's three floors and especially enjoyed the beautifully decorated rooms on floor 1. By the way, the Ca' in front of the name designates the location as a palace.

Everything is so lavishly furnished. It's just amazing!

The Murano glass chandeliers were jaw-dropping!

In many ways, Venice is Disneyland for adults. There are only 50,000 permanent residents, and as real estate is costly, most young people choose to live on the mainland. However, the exquisite beauty of the many palaces and churches numbs the senses. How did this place ever come to exist this way?

After the museum, we grew tired and decided to get a bite to eat. Anna recommended a place that serves small Venetian snacks and drinks - Taverne Remer. We had difficulty finding it and even used Inna's iPhone GPS to try to locate it. Google’s maps were of no help either! (In general, Google Maps is utterly useless in Venice). We even asked a couple locals only to find out that it's closed on Wednesdays (no sign indicating Remer’s working hours).

While walking around Venice, we saw many beautiful gondolas (mainly carrying tourists), though they were intended as primary transportation.

Giving up on Remer, we found the next closest restaurant - La Mascareta. We also had fun looking for it, getting lost a bit with all the turns.

We found many interesting shops on our way there, some selling Murano glassware and some various kinds of pasta.

Eventually, we did find it and ordered some Italian dishes. The food was delicious but not of Bolognese quality.

We ordered a "Mixed Plate" for our appetizer, which had a combination of all Venetian delicacies. It was pretty good.

In addition, Inna and I ordered Spaghetti with Clams for two, and we liked the dish.

The homemade Tiramisu was delicious, too, but not as good as the one in Bologna.

After dinner, we returned to Rialto Bridge and boarded our ferry home.

However, on the way home, we decided to exit at the San Marcus Square stop and see the beautiful Doge’s Palace and San Mark’s Basilica. We were amazed that even at 9:9:30 p.m.the square was still quite busy.

An orchestra played selections from Vivaldi and then an Argentine Tango, Por Una Cabeza. Getting a cappuccino and relaxing here would have been nice, but it was getting late. We boarded water boat #1 for Giardini and sailed home.

We saw lots of beautiful, lit palaces on our way home. Venice truly shines at night (when most tourists leave).

The Basilica of Santa Maria was well visible from our waterbus.

When we finally arrived home, we were all exhausted. We drank some hot black tea and went straight to bed.

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Since we had an early Citytour of Venice and Doge's Palace scheduled for 9:00 a.m., we woke up promptly at 7:00 a.m. and dressed. I stopped by a local next-door bakery, recommended by Anna, to pick up some delicious Italian croissants for breakfast. We made some tea with croissants and had a delightful breakfast.

We boarded our Waterbus #1 for Rialto Bridge, arriving just in time for our Citytour. The guide gave each of us a walkie-talkie with headphones to hear her explanations. Our tour of Venice began from there, and we walked through many neighborhoods.

The guide told us a bit about Venetian history. Venice started as a collection of separate islands with its own ruler and church. In fact, there are over 255 churches in Venice. Eventually, the islands united into one republic, ruled by a duke (or Doge) elected by 10 nobles. The houses are split into two types: the palazzi (palaces) for nobles and ordinary houses for everyone else. In a noble’s house, there was a separate water entrance. Because of flooding, the kitchen and servant quarters were frequently reserved for the lower floors (food was not considered valuable, and due to kitchen fires, proximity to water was considered desirable). The palazzo usually has ornately decorated windows and more elaborate window frames.

Since drinking water was scarce in Venice, special wells were built to collect rainwater for ordinary people (Noble’s Palazzo had its own water collection systems). It was a capital crime (one of few for which the death penalty applied) to those who destroyed or poisoned these wells.

Our guide showed us the arch of Marco Polo’s original palazzo (Marco Polo’s house is not there anymore).

She also showed us one of the largest (grand) schools. These are not schools in the traditional meaning. Venetian schools were organizations focused on helping the unemployed or the sick. One of the schools we saw in a particularly ornate building was used as a hospital.

Eventually, we ended up in San Marcos Square and entered the famous St. Mark's Basilica. It is one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen, designed in a Byzantine style with gold leaf mosaics.

We had a chance to explore the church and visit the roof. The church is a whole of gold leaf mosaics.

Our Citytour continued to Doge's Palace, where the Duke, or "Doge" as he is called in Italian, lived. A council of Venetian noblemen elected the duke.

There was also a jail in the palace for those who disobeyed Venetian laws. Those prisoners sentenced to a 10-year could reduce it to 5 years by choosing to row in a galley. In fact, the word for "jail" is derived from the word galley.

We had a great time on the City tour but were exhausted after 3.5 hours (the tour started at 9:9:00 a.m. and ended at 1212:30 p.m.We decided to go back home to rest and drop off Alex, as he was exhausted.

We decided to get lunch at Osteria Alla'Ombra, a local restaurant recommended by Anna. We were pleasantly surprised by the friendly and fast service and delicious quality food.

Alex ordered his Margherita pizza while I had the Spaghetti Bolognese. I liked my spaghetti and house wine. It was a thoroughly enjoyable lunch.

After dropping off Alex at home, we took the waterbus to see the Scuola San Ruocco (followed by the Friary Church).  On the way there, we stopped briefly in a shop selling Carnival masks. By the way, the word "Carnival" comes from the Italian word for meat or "Carne," and it literally means farewell to meat-eating (before the Christian season of Lent).

In Venice, wearing masks became a tradition for nobles who wanted anonymity while doing illegal things.

Inna got to try out a mask.

Scuola San Ruocco was full of large paintings by Tintoretto on walls and ceilings. Mirrors were provided to look at the paintings on the ceilings without straining one’s neck. Being a bit tired, I was not as excited about these Renaissance-era paintings.

I got a bit tired looking at the ceiling. There are mirrors available to help relieve one's straining neck. Inna walked around and looked at all of the ceiling paintings. This is like Tintoretto's Sistine Chapel.

Afterward, we proceeded straight to the Friary Church. It doesn't look handsome on the outside. All of the splendor is on the inside.

This is the only Gothic-style Church in Venice. Because all buildings in Venice have a stilt foundation, heavy buildings cannot be supported, unlike buildings in other cities like Rome and Paris, which are built on solid ground.

The Friary Church was built to be a lighter, shorter Gothic church. It is definitely a lot shorter than Notre Dame in Paris.

We saw many great paintings here, but the standout was “The Assumption of the Virgin” by Titian. Unfortunately, the painting is so far away that I had a better view of it in my Rick Steves book than in the church.

  This church has many monuments, and even Titian’s remains are here.

After visiting the Friary Church, we were a bit cold and tired, so we stopped by the local Bottega del Cafe to warm up over coffee.

We tried a few of their signature coffee drinks. Inna had the Cafe Bottega, and I tasted the Derciok. Both of the coffee drinks were delicious!

After coffee, we wandered the narrow cobblestone streets, marveling at the beauty.

It's a photographer's dream - every square inch of Venice is photogenic.

We returned to the Rialto Bridge and decided to try a few Venetian delicacies at home.

We purchased a few samples and tried them with hot black tea in the evening.

When we returned to our apartment, we decided to try a highly recommended Ristorante Oniga.

We were offered some small bits of bread and pretzels to start.

A dog was in the restaurant, but it did not bother anyone. For an appetizer, we ordered a Buffalo mozzarella salad. As usual, it was freshly made and delicious.

Inna and I shared some gnocchi for our next course.

After dinner, we returned to our Waterbus stop and returned to Giardini. Once home, we enjoyed trying out Venetian sweets.

Friday, April 10, 2015

After purchasing our usual chocolate and apple croissants from the local bakery, we had our morning breakfast with hot black tea.

Today was our day to visit the Murano and Burano islands.

We took Waterbus #5.1 to Murano, arriving around 9:9:30 a.m. At this time, Murano was primarily vacant (but not for long), and we explored all the exciting glassware shops showing off their Murano-made glass items.

There were many beautiful Murano glass items for sale - some costly and high-end and others reasonably inexpensive. In one of the shops, we saw a demonstration of how Murano glass is made. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take any photos.

The owner was making a horse out of Murano glass, and it took him very little time to do so. After the glass article is shaped, it must cool slowly (for over a day).

Otherwise, the rapid cooling will crack the glass. The process looked very low-tech. Many shops displayed many items, but it's hard to tell a genuine Murano glass article from a cheap foreign-made copy.

After exploring the island further, we decided to take the next waterbus #12 to Burano. This was a 30-minute sail, and we arrived in Burano just past 1:1:00 p.m. It is a small fishing village with colorful houses everywhere.

It is known for fine-quality lace; we saw many examples for sale. Inna checked the prices, which were very expensive (over 200 euros for any garment).

We had a wonderful lunch (but very expensive) at Anna's recommended restaurant - Romano.

This was the restaurant where Anna had her wedding, and we were impressed by the quality of the dishes.

We started with a delicious seafood appetizer with a selection of clams, mussels, and other delicacies.

Alex ordered a steak, and it was delicious.

We continued with a delicious Romano risotto - the best I’ve ever had. Usually, I am not a big fan of Risotto, but this one was extraordinary.

We finished our lunch with a delicious cake (it was as good as the cakes in Café Demel in Vienna). This was the best restaurant on our trip to Italy.

After our wonderful lunch, we sailed back to Venice. It took over an hour to get back to our Giardini station.

We decided to check off a few more items on our bucket list, so we sailed on water taxi #1 to San Marco’s Square and took the elevator to the top of the tower.

 

The view from the top was fantastic (but we did endure the ringing of the tower's bells).

Coming down from the tower, we explored San Marco’s square a bit more, taking a few more photos on this beautiful sunny day (with the sun setting).

It was hard to resist the urge to take more photos, as everything in San Marco’s square is so beautiful. I wish tourists didn't trash the square so much, as I saw garbage everywhere.

On the way to the Rialto Bridge, we stopped by a great Gelateria near Rialto - Gelatoteca Suso. Suso had some exciting flavors, including fig & walnut and panda. Inna and I shared a gelato with pistachio and fig & walnut combination.

We really liked the fig & walnut combination. The pistachio was also delicious and creamy but not as good as Bologna's.

For dinner, we considered returning to Osteria Trattoria Non-Risorto, which was pretty inexpensive (and in a less touristy area of Venice). However, on the way there, we saw a small diner - Il Sigillo da Mauro e Mimmo -  serving delicious-looking open-faced sandwiches, and we decided to try them instead. Inna and I shared a "Special Toast" while Alex munched a "Margherita" pizza.

After our long day, we motored back home on our waterbus.


Saturday, April 11, 2015

Our last full day in Venice! We had our standard breakfast of local croissants and pastries with hot tea.

In the morning, we decided to check out the Guggenheim Museum of Modern Art, followed by a ride on the gondola.

On the way to the Guggenheim Museum, we stopped briefly at the “La Salute” church. The church looks quite grand from the outside but is not so ornate on the inside. We spent about ten minutes walking inside it and then left to explore other neighborhoods.

Since the Guggenheim Museum opens at 1010:00 a.m., we were half an hour early. We walked around nearby streets, getting lost in the narrow cobblestone streets.

Eventually, we returned to the Guggenheim Museum, which was already crowded with tourists. We checked in our bags and went inside. The outdoor sculpture garden is relatively small, with a few statues.

Eventually, we entered the museum, looking at the works by Picasso, Chagall, Dali, and other modern painters. Alex really liked the museum and helped figure out the details in some of the paintings.

Inna and I were surprised to find kindergarten kids on a tour of the Guggenheim. They were being shown some of the paintings. It was nice to see kindergartners immersed in Italian art culture.

After the Guggenheim Museum, we wanted to catch a Gondola ride. However, all the gondola stations we asked seemed oriented toward ripping off tourists – offering a 20 – 25-minute ride for 80 euros.

Some of the gondoliers use fake gondolas. Authentic gondolas have a prow with 6 points (one for each district of Venice). Some of the black gondolas lack this prow and are cheap imitations. Rick Steves recommended discussing the path with the gondolier and paying him afterward. However, most gondoliers we met would not follow Rick Steves' advice. Our gondolier required immediate payment, and we were too exhausted to argue.

At one point, we almost gave up the idea and decided to get delicious gelato at our favorite gelateria – Suso. Every one of us got our own cup of delicious gelato, and I got my favorite Fig & Walnut for the first flavor and Nocciolo (Hazelnut) for the other flavor. Alex tried some cookie-flavored “Panda”  and liked it a lot.

We were getting hungry and decided to explore the fish market for a restaurant. The fish market was selling mostly souvenirs and nothing else. We decided to return to our previous less touristy Pizza restaurant, but on the way there, we found a little dive selling delicious-looking open-faced sandwiches. Inna and I shared a delicious “special toast” for 15 euros. Alex had his usual “Margherita” pizza, shaped like a trapezoid, and looked more like bread with cheese than a pizza.

After eating lunch, we found a gondolier near the Rialto Bridge and did our short gondola tour. We enjoyed floating through the canals, and our gondolier pointed out Marci Polo’s and Casanova’s houses. However, the tour was a bit too short, and the gondolier insisted on payment upfront (not a good sign). Despite feeling ripped off, I enjoyed the ride through the canals.

The canals were very narrow in places, and our gondolier navigated through them without scratching the gondola.

He even stopped by for a quick drink while on the job! (We saw many gondoliers talking on their cell phones while rowing.) Our Citytour guide told us that new Gondolas are made in Venice in a small factory and cost upwards of $30,000 euros.

We returned to our apartment to drop off Alex so that Inna and I could go shopping. Anna recommended shopping for Murano glass on San Leonardo Street in Cannaregio (San Marcuola Waterbus stop), where the prices for Murano glassware are lower than on the island of Murano. She also warned us that it’s impossible to tell the difference between an authentic Murano-made piece and a Chinese imitation, so buyer beware. We found some colorful drinking glasses for a reasonable price and purchased them. They were much cheaper than in Murano.

After finishing shopping, we decided to explore the Jewish Ghetto in Venice. The Jewish ghetto is a small region in Venice where Jews were permitted to live from the 14th century onwards.

Since no other section of Venice was allowed to Jews and space was limited, the building was built much higher to accommodate more families. I found the tallest residential buildings in this section of Venice. Since it was Shabbat, all Jewish stores and restaurants were closed. A few houses had Hebrew characters. 

We did not find the synagogue. Because of space constraints, Venetian Jews used a floor of houses for services. The one Kosher restaurant, Gam Gam, had a special meal for Passover (but it looked closed).

On the way back home by our boat, our 3-day boat passes expired. Our tickets were checked onboard and were found to have expired at noon, so we had to pay a fine of 60 euros per ticket.

When we returned to our apartment, we decided to have dinner at our local Osteria All'Ombra nearby. We had lunch there previously and were delighted to have dinner there, too.

We also ordered a delicious dessert.

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Our last day in Venice! 

We were sad leaving Venice on our way to Bergamo and then to Stockholm and Oakland, USA.

After carefully packing our things, we boarded Waterbus 5.1 for the Santa Lucia railway station. We purchased our tickets on the boat since there was no machine near the boat ramp.

It was a foggy day in Venice, but the waterbus motored quickly to the Santa Lucia train station, arriving right on time.

Once we arrived at the train station, we purchased train tickets. I was hoping to buy them online, but the Trenitalia ProntoTrano app for the iPhone is not available in the Apple U.S. store. Consequently, we purchased printed tickets at an agency since the standard Trenitalia machines do not work with U.S. Credit cards (European credit cards have PIN numbers). I did not realize there was a Trenitalia office nearby with people (to avoid paying the 8% agency fee for train tickets), which would have saved me 6 euros.

Our fast train #9714 departed from Venice’s San Lucia station at 1010:50 a.m. and arrived in Brescia at 1212:37 p.m. From there, we took the regional train to Bergamo, arriving at precisely 1:1:55 p.m. as scheduled).

We exited the train terminal and saw an airport bus parked a few feet away. We talked to the driver, and he told us to go across the street to board the other bus to the airport. I went inside the bus terminal, purchased bus fare tickets, and boarded the bus to Bergamo Airport (a 20-minute drive).

We were planning to check in and store our bags while touring Bergamo. There was supposed to be bag storage just off-site at the Bergamo airport.

When we arrived at the airport, we eventually found the Ryan Air booth. An agent there told us to purchase baggage tags for two of our large bags (both weighed around 15 kg). We went to the ticket booth and did so. However, when we tried to store our bags off-site, we were surprised by the high price - 4.00 euros/bag. With our 6 bags, that would cost 24 euros. As we were tired, we didn’t like the idea of being ripped off. We decided to forget about our Bergamo excursion and order lunch at the airport instead. This turned out to be a more relaxing idea.

We chose Vicook Restaurant & Bistro. At first, we almost did not go because the restaurant was on the 2nd floor and the elevator was not working. However, I found a solution. The restaurant's buttons inside the elevator did not work, but the ones outside did. So, I put all the bags in the elevator and walked upstairs. Voila! Problem solved.

We liked the décor and ambiance of the restaurant. Although the service was a bit slow, the food was the best of any airport restaurant I have ever tasted.

Inna ordered a Galician (Octopus salad with potatoes, tomatoes, olives, and mignon beans). Alex ordered a Caesar Salad that turned out to be ginormous! Alex called Pizza Nuovola (tomatoes, burrata, cream, and basil) for the main entrees. Inna ordered Chicken Cordon Bleau. I ordered Tagliatelle al Ragu. My tagliatelle was exceptional – among the best I’ve had recently.

We shared a “Mergingatti Al Frutti Bosco” – a delicious combination of meringue and mixed berries for dessert. Alex had a hot chocolate made from real chocolate – not the mixed cocoa usually served in most establishments. It was so delicious!

One minor problem is that Bergamo airport's WiFi is sluggish. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever had a good WiFi connection anywhere in Italy.

When we were 90 minutes from our scheduled departure time, 7:15 p.m., we paid our restaurant bill, dropped off two bags at the Ryan Air counter, and walked to the departure gate.

The Bergamo airport has much better eateries and stores than any airport I've seen in the U.S. I was impressed that the tiny town of Bergamo could have an airport like this.