I'M YOUR VENICE, I'M YOUR FIRE, YOUR DESIRE...

The Bridge Of Sighs

After a lot of travel the previous day, we arise late to what is a very wet day, for numerous reasons as it turns out.We only have one firm booking in Venice and that's the Secret Tour (in English) of the Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace) at 11.45am. Carlo's 4 minute walk to St. Mark's Square (Piazza San Marco) turns out to be about 15 as we take a few wrong turns, before we are confronted by a sea of water.


Thought I was kidding didn't you!

Entry to the Basilica de San Marco



High tide at the Piazza San Marco

 If it was the canal then that would be fine, but this happens to be the Piazza and all the alleyways around it; shops and cafes are flooded and there are hundreds of people walking around on temporary boardwalks. My intial thought was that we'd slept through heavy overnight rain but no, this is now the daily ritual as the tide comes in - VENICE IS SINKING (scaremongers can substitute 'the sea is rising')! It's easy to spot the Venetians in the crowd - they're the ones in gumboots.



....and inside

Palazzo Ducale - outside





 We make it just in time. The palace is, quite simply, awesome and the vista superb even in the rain. The secret tour (limited to 20 per group)  takes you into the area of the palace not open to the general public, including the jails and access to walking across the fabled Bridge Of Sighs (it's the only way to access it). It was brilliant, expertly conducted, and full of insightful anecdotes and historical details (the open mouthed secret accusation boxes were a revelation!); los ninos both loved it - Liam was used as a model to display torture techniques (I took notes!) and also did a merry jig over the beauiful floor tiles to the amusement of all (including the tour guide), whilst the Aimster was infatuated by the stories about - CASANOVA! Anyone visiting (or who has) the city will go to the Doge's Palace; I strongly recommend that you partake of the Secret Tour (Travel Tip: the queue to get into the palace, let alone theSecret Tour was extremely long and gets ridiculously long from April onwards. Buy your ticket online at www.tickitaly.com who will email you a voucher. When you arrive just ignore the queue, walk into the booking office and exchange your voucher for your tickets - easy).

Secret accusation mouth - use it if you dare!

Gold leafed stairwells

Grand meeting rooom

Entry to the Bridge of Sighs

Next door is the spectaularly domed Basilica de San Marco (St Mark's Basilica). As the queues to get in are extraordinarily long (fascinating how even the non-religious are drawn to such wonderful houses of worship), it is worth booking a time online at www.basilicasanmarco.it This is essential from April onwards and is free to get in. It costs 5 euro to go upstairs to the museum; it's money well spent as there are some amazing artefacts dating back 1,000 years as well as the famous Triumphal Quadriga (Four Horses of St Mark's) - the ones outside on the balcony are, of course, facsimiles. The view over Piazza San Marco from the balcony is wonderful and it's easy to picture what it is like at low tide in the middle of summer with thousands of people mingling.



Basilica de San Marco

Basilica, clock tower & piazza



Triumphal Quadriga

A horse's view of the piazza

It must be fabulous in summer

 We take a slow stroll around Procuratie Nuove of the Piazza looking in all the shops that carry a 20% markup versus anywhere else in Venice, and we make our way to a special treat to end the day - afternoon tea at Caffe Florian. It is grandly ornate and just happens to be the oldest continuously operating cafe in the world, having been established in 1720. There was a short wait to get in (remeber that we weren't here in high season!) but it was worth it. We had a delightful afternoon tea, especially los ninos who partook of various delicacies. Luckily I just happened to have 2nd mortgage documents on hand to execute when the time came to pay - it may not be to you, but 9 euro for a cup of average tasting coffee (and extra 3 euro for cream!) is a tad over the top - but it was a GREAT coffee in Venice! Carlo later told us that the secret is to go early evening, order one coffee and sit around listening to the string quartet!


Up for the challenge

Procuratie Nuove



Caffe Florian - Est. 1720




Inside Florian - magnificent

Hmmm, what to have!

The ransom note!



.....but how good is that!

The LegsyBoys loving Venezia

We completed our day by getting totally lost trying to find a supermarket, then retiring to the apartment for a homecooked meal and a game of Melbourne Memory - WHICH I WON! it's waterlogged, crowded and very chilly, but we're in love with Venice.

 Photo Gallery For The Day:

CONEJO DE PASQUA IN ITALY

School holidays - hooray - and we're off to Italy. Rise and shine at 6.00am for the 15 minute drive to Barajas Airport and before you know it our Iberian flight is heading east. We touch down on time and in the rain and snow at MILANO's Malpensa airport, collect our bags and board the train to Milano Centrale where we have 15 minutes to board the Eurostar to VENEZIA (Travel Tip: Milan has 2 international airports. The main one - Malpensa - is over 50km from the city and the connecting trains which run on the 1/2 hour take 1 hour to get to Centrale station. We had a 3 hour window between airport arrival and train departure and made it with 15 minutes to spare).


Las Chicas at theGateway to Italia - Malpensa Airport

 

Strangers on a train??

Will we ever get these in Australia?

It's a pleasant 2 1/2 hour trip to the 'island republic' in gloomy weather (it hung around for most of the week), and whilst it had no direct impact upon us, it was surprising to find numerous females boarding the train at various stops and begging for money (to make matters worse, they looked 'organised'). I know it's tough times, but this was unnecessary and we were surprised it was allowed to occur on a train with on-board conductors.

First view of Venice from the station

Venice railway station

On board the #1 vaporetto

Heading off down the Grand Canal

Right on time, we cross the causeway and arrive at Venice station and it's very chilly. We buy our tickets (very expensive - 7 euro each regardless of age and distance travelled) and jump on board the #1 vaporetto (water bus) for the 45 minute ride all the way down the Grand Canal to the lagoon and our stop at San Zaccaria pier. No amount of 'heads up' can prepare you for the magnificent vista of this amazing city. For good reason, Venice is reputed to be the most photographed city in the world - Don LegsyBoy did nothing on the vaporetto ride (indeed our whole stay!) to allay this claim! It's difficult to know where to look as palaces adorn either side of the canal, the domes of cathedrals dominate the skyline, and of course the gondolas elegantly cruising the various canals and waterways - exquisite.

Rialto Bridge

Gondola

Across the lagoon

Venice is very small and one of the beauties of the city is getting lost; that's lucky because, despite the assurances of our landlord that the apartment was a 5 minute walk from the pier it took us 20 minutes due to several wrong turns. Our apartment is on Ruga Giuffa, a mere 4 minutes from the heart of the city, Piazza San Marco. The apartment landlords, an elderly couple Carlo & Vanda, are delightful; they live upstairs and are very helpful. It's a renovated 15th Century building with wooden beams and the famous Venetian tiled floors - it is perfect.Vanda doesn't speak English but when we leave she makes it clear that she thinks Buzzy is a very handsome boy (obviously has a plentiful dose of his father's genes!). There's several restaurants around the corner and we settle on Osteria Al Pozzo Roverso. Dulcinea and I are treated to a complimentary campari aperitivo as we share a deliciously refreshing bruschetta (and after a lifetime of uncertainty, finally I can lay to rest the correct pronunciation is brusKetta - that's how Italians say it, so that's good enough for me!). Los ninos enter into the spirit and both devour a huge bowl of spaghetti carbonara, Dulcinea devours a steaming bowl of vegetable soup (so thick it almost needs a knife), whilst The Don enjoys a local specialty, Triofa - seafood and vegetables fried in a tempura-like batter (being a small group of islands, it's hardly surprising that Venice's culinary reputation rests with seafood). Amiee and choclate plus Buzz demolishing a hefty slab of tiramisu, along with a half bottle of local vino bianco, completes the feast and we walk the 50 metres back to the apartment. I did,of course, to honour my Quest, partake of coffee and was somewhat bemused by the Italian interpretation of caffe latte (never mind the coffee ettiquette of the country in general - more of this later!).

Outside the apartment with Vanda and Pluto

Venetian floor



Dining room

15th Century beams



Work bench

The LegsyBoys at play



Osteria Al Pozzo Roverso



Triofa

Vegetable Zupa

Starving!!!

 



Apparently this is a caffe latte in Venice!!

Buzz's Tiramisu

We've travelled by automobile, plane, trains and boat all in one day, not something that occurs too often, and we've two full days ahead of us. The LegsyBoys are excited about tomorrow.......