We left Sorrento for Venice via airplane. The train would have taken too long. Prior to going to the airport, we visited Pompeii again. This time, we followed Rick Steves’ “streamlined tour”. It took three hours to complete! Imagine if we did THE WHOLE of Pompeii!
We arrived in Venice in the evening.
Ah, Venezia! La citta de amore! Actually, every city in Italy seems to be la citta de amore, but this may be the official one. Venice is beautiful, but our time here was short. We did, however, managed to acquire some art in the form of murano glass; from a Murano factory. In Murano. Actually, it was a sales pitch, so I got suckered into it. The piece is beautiful and I will post a picture once I get it home.
Venice is a bit of a maze, but once you get lost a few times, you start to find your way without a problem . Actually, you really cannot get lost, per se. You can navigate the island by foot in an hour or two and you just need to know two directions: Per Rialto and Per San Marco. We stayed at Albergo Pensione Guerrato; an 800 year old building founded in 1288. It was so old, it had no TV. Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. The hotel is quaint, but beautiful and it’s close to il Ponte Rialto on the market side known as Rialto Mercato.
We didn’t do the usual things lovers do in Venice: gondola rides, kiss at the ponte del sospiri (we did take a picture there, though) and attend an opera (there were none playing anyway). We did, however, got to see the history in the form of the Basilica di San Marco and visiting Il Doge di Venezia, which there is a funny story to this.
I usually would let Carline ask for directions since I do the ordering and negotiating for other things. So Carline walks up to two older gentlemen to ask for directions. This is what transpired:
Carline: (pointing across the canal to a basilica-looking structure) Dov’è il Doge? (she really pronounced it “doh-gee” instead of “doh-geh”).
Old man: (pointing to the same structure) San Giorgio.
Carline: No. Il Doge! (still pointing across the canal)
Old man: San Giorgio!
At this point, I’m just waiting to see what happens. The other man explains to the first that she’s looking for the entrance to the Doge’s Palace.
Old man: Do-ge (correcting Carline’s pronounciation and pointing behind him). Sull’angolo.
We weren’t particularly impressed with San Marco’s Basilica, but we loved the city and would gladly return and have more time to explore.
The gallery below is mostly filled with the art though there are bits and pieces of the Venician architecture that seems to soothe me when I look at it.