Day 4: from Venice to Torino

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Today we met for breakfast at 8 instead of 9, so we could be checked out by 11.  All of the hotels where we stay include breakfast on premises, so it saves quite a bit of time and money.  The breakfast usually includes things like fruit, yogurt, pastries, sliced ham and cheese, juice, espresso, and espresso drinks.

Here you can see that the tide has risen, coming into the hotel's boat doors.

I had purchased tickets a couple months ago for the 1:30 train, so we had some time to burn after we checked out of the hotel.  We left our luggage at the front desk, and wandered.

Many people in Venice have dogs, although there aren't many grassy areas like we're accustomed to with our dogs in the states.

Here's a pretty piazza.

This cat was watching a nearby pigeon.  I suspect it's a daily ritual for the cat,

On the outside of a church bell tower.

Some bakery photos!

And a cheese shop.

At the meat market, spiedinis sell for about $9.11 per pound.

And we saw some elaborate door knockers.

Our train is the white one.  Our first rainy day, but we're on the train for 5 hours, and the rain had already cleared Torino by the time we arrived.

A view of the passing countryside, through the train window.

The highlights of this day: seated across from us on the train was a woman with a dog that looked very much like our dog at home.  She spoke no English, but when I showed her some photos of Carrie on my iPad, she knew what we meant.

The other highlight: a washing machine at our apartment in Torino.  No dryer, but I have a travel clothes line, and we started washing clothes shortly after checking in.

A tiring day of travel, so we just ate dinner at a neighborhood pizza/pasta place.  It was unremarkable.

Venice day 3

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Another nice day in Venice, so we headed to St. Mark's Square to see the Basilica.  On the way, we walked through the outdoor markets, and that's always a good photo opportunity.  When you look at the prices below, they're in euros, so if the price of something in the photo is 16 euros, that would be about 18 dollars.

The photo below is from Mascari market, an old family specialty market in Venice, offering all kinds of spices, Italian wines, olive oils and other specialty foods.

This is a couple of obituary postings on a wall outside in Venice.  I thought it was interesting way to share the news of someone's passing.

Here, the yellow sign points the way to Rialto bridge, but I was looking at the dragon lantern hanger when I took the photo.

Several statues adorn these churches in Venice:

Now this is a coffee machine!in the photo, it is brewing 4 cups of espresso.  It is much cheaper to stand at the counter to drink your espresso, rather than sit at a table.  1 euro for espresso at the counter (about $1.13), 4 euros to sit at a table for the same thing, and here in the U.S., about $2.80 for espresso at Starbucks.

At St. Mark's square, as we were looking out over the water, I saw this very sleek yacht.  Than I zoomed in and noticed the hatch in the back, where a smaller boat is loading or unloading something.  Swanky!

The highlight of today was lunch.  We were looking for a place that wasn't touristy, so we started to wander on some back streets.  In one restaurant, we saw a table of 5 gondoliers eating lunch, so we went there.  Absolutely fabulous!  Pasta with scallops, pasta with sea bass, grilled vegetables and more.  I'm sorry, but we were so hungry that I forgot to take pictures.  

Tomorrow we depart Venice and take the 5 hour train to Torino for a 3 day stay.

Venice day 2

Monday, September 21

The weather is just about perfect, mostly sunny with temperatures in the low to mid-70’s.  Sister Mindy and sweetheart Jenae, ready for a day of wandering:

We started the day off by heading towards the Frari Church, known for art and sculpture within.

As we were leaving Frari Church, other tourists where shooed from the church as a wedding was about to begin.  Weddings are usually held on Monday in Italy.  

Wherever you walk in Venice, you'll be crossing bridges, and here's Nate perched upon a small private one that demonstrates some nice craftsmanship:

In Venice, there are no cars or trucks, or even bicycles.  Everything comes and goes via boat or cart.  As we walked around, we would encounter various delivery carts, bringIng merchandise and supplies to stores and restaurants.  Here's one of the garbage carts, designed for negotiating steps and bridges:

A few street scenes along the way:

Later we went to the Accademia Museum, and saved some time and steps by taking a vaporetto, which is a water bus.  Even though it was our second time in Venice, it was our first time on the vaporetto, because Venice is compact enough to walk almost anywhere.  Here's a couple of them in the canal:

At one point as we walked among the shops, we passed a pigment store:

And an interesting sculpture alongside the canal:

Many gelato shops are scattered about.  Here's a group of customers deciding which flavors to get:

In the evening we returned to a jazz and blues bar for the second evening for a couple of drinks before dinner.  We met some nice folks from Scotland and New Zealand, while other patrons, both locals and tourists, cheered on soccer and rugby that was on the television.

For dinner, a seafood restaurant, of course, because it is very common and popular in Venice.  Also a big platter of risotto and more grilled vegetables.  Sorry, no pictures of that meal - the photos that I took didn't do the food justice.

Thank you for following along - I'll start working on Tuesday's entries right away!

Venice, day 1

The flight from Philly to Venice was uneventful, and arrived at 8:40 this morning, after flying through the night, about 20 minutes ahead of schedule.  I thought it was going to be a 9 hour flight, but I was wrong, and it was only 7 hours 45 minutes.  Here we are, shortly after takeoff.  My sister Mindy and her boyfriend Nate are seated directly behind us.

After we got through the passport check at the airport in Venice, it was a 50 minute boat ride to our hotel:

Mindy and Nate:

And we checked into the hotel at about 10:30 am.  Here's our room:

We got cleaned up and changed, then started wandering about to look for lunch.

Dogs are popular companions in Venice:

Here's my favorite photo from the day - a child chases a bubble in a piazza:

After lunch, we rested in our hotel rooms for a couple hours, and then walked to St. Mark's square, and up to the top of the bell tower for the views:

Followed that with more wandering, then drinks at a small bar, then dinner at the same restaurant where Jenae and I had our very first meal in Italy 4 years ago, at Osteria Antico Giardinetto.  Mussels, grilled vegetables, panda cotta, and more:

Now it's 11:30 here, so time for bed.  Tomorrow, museums, churches, more wine!

Italy 2015 departure

It's 9:30 in the morning as I start to write this blog entry, and Jenae and I are awaiting our first flight of the day, from Austin to Charlotte, NC.  From there we'll go to Philadelphia, and on to Venice.  This trip is special because it's not just the two of us this time; we'll be meeting my sister Mindy and her boyfriend, Nate, in Philadelphia, and all four of us will be together for the first week in Italy!

It will be a long day of travel for Jenae and I, because after the two flights to get to Philadelphia, the flight to Venice is about 9 hours.  We're scheduled to arrive in Venice at 9:05 am, which will be 2:05 am in Austin, so we hope to get some sleep on the flight, and if we're very lucky, the Venice hotel will have our rooms ready.  Otherwise, we'll leave our bags at the hotel and wander about Venice.  We're all quite excited!

Speaking of luggage, I've had a couple of you ask how we manage to take a 2 week trip with just carry-on bags.  With original encouragement from seasoned traveler friends (thank you Alison and Dick), and a couple of luggage organizers, we're able to bring enough clothes for more than a week, but we also wash a few things if there's a convenient laundry, or even in the hotel sink.  The luggage organizer keeps folded items compressed and keeps them from shifting, so fewer wrinkles.

    

In the folded stack I have 2 pairs of pants, 1 sweater, 3 long sleeve shirts, and 6 short sleeve shirts.

And here you see that the closed stack is no taller than the length of my hand.

Now it's 5:20 in Philadelphia, we've met up Mindy and Nate, and we're relaxing for a little bit in the American Airlines Admiral lounge.  We're all set for the 9 hour flight to Venice.

Tomorrow I should be able to share some photos from Italy with you.