Griego’s Page

Day two in Venice. We were told last night that we would be moved from the room that we had stayed in previously to a different room. Stefano, our host, had to apologize that he had to move us into the best room in the hotel. He said this with a big grin, and in a way that we felt he meant that he was proud to put us there. The room itself is by far the largest that we have been in so far on this trip, and beautiful. The furniture and floors are all of a darker wood, polished to a shine. The ceiling, we are told, is the original and over 400 years old!

Today we headed out to the island of Murano. This is where some of many of the world’s greatest glass artists work. We were told that our hosts at the Hotel Galleria would arrange a free transportation to the island of Murano. They were true to their word. We were delivered by a water taxi straight to one of the glass factories, the Vetreria Murano Arte. We watched a couple of the masters create some vases and learned a little about what it takes to create the works of art. After the demonstration, Kim and I were invited behind closed doors on what we can only describe as a personal tour for the high end pieces. For the hour or more that we were in their gallery, there was only one other couple that was taken back to view the items that we saw. We were treated first class all the way here. Our personal representative, Paulo, took us to a terrace with views of Venice. What better way to see some of the pieces we were interested in than in the full sun! We were served beverages while we decided if we wanted to purchase any items.

With the new room that we were moved into and the way that we were treated for the tour, this is truly a special day. We realized then and there that if we were “wealthy”, we could live a lifestyle all-together different from what we do now.

After the glass factory, we went browsing through the island, and it’s many, many glass shops. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to take pictures of the glass works there, but for those that have been there before, words will hardly describe the beauty of some of those pieces. The colors, clarity, and artistry of them all. As the heat of the day started looming, we headed back and took the vaporetto back to Piazza San Marco. I would have loved to have toured the palace there, but there seemed to be many thousands of people milling about. The lines were long. Bah, those pesky tourists! We made our way back to our new room to rest the feet and maybe even take a little nap. Life is good!

We arrived in Venice, strolled out of the train station and were met with an image of the Grand Canal and the first large bridge crossing, named Ponte Te Scalzi. Our destination… a hotel overlooking the Grand Canal, at the opposite end of the city. Considering that we are on an island, it’s hard to say that you can go in the wrong direction. However, as I showed Kim today, there are certainly longer ways of getting to any one place on the island. Sorry about that.

We originally had planned on taking one of the vaporreto (water busses) and it would have dropped us off right next to the Gallerie dell Accademia and the Accademia bridge. But I didn’t think that it would take us more than 10-15 minutes to get to the hotel. Again, we are on an island. Well, the time estimation would be about right, had I not completely overshot the destination. For those who have been to Venice before, you know that it is NOT wheel friendly. I told Kim before we ever came here, that cars, skateboards, bikes, wheelchairs, etc. just don’t go here. She thought that was a little discriminatory towards the disabled until we got here. There are probably hundreds of bridges spanning small and large waterways. It is impossible to get anywhere in Venice without crossing at least half a dozen bridges, all with stairs, no ramps. Not discriminatory at all, just simply the way that it is. For me, it was not a simple journey as I lugged a pair of 35+lb luggage bags up and down many, many stairs.

We ended up much further than originally anticipated, and had to backtrack a bit until we finally found the Hotel Galleria. It is a very small door that leads into the hotel, followed immediately by a spiral staircase. We were greeted by a wonderful woman who showed us to our room. As promised, it does have a crescent window overlooking the Grand Canal. To our left, we can also see the Accedemia bridge and all those who traverse it. We are able to open our window, and sit upon 2 large backed wicker like chairs, on a small platform. The platform puts us right next to the window so that we can watch all the water taxies, gondolas, vaporettos and other boats float by our window. Many were the stares and finger pointing to the people looking out the window (us) to view the Venician life float on by.

Well it was time to eat. We ended up going to Piazza San Marco in search of good eats. It appears that they may only serve enough food to keep you drinking. And the drinks are very expensive there. They did have a large stage set up for some sort of music… we may have to discover what that is all about. Kim wanted to be on the water to take advantage of the breeze that was blowing in offshore, so we headed back the way that we came. We found a nice little restaurant, Kim had some plain old spaghetti and I had the largest calzone I’ve ever seen! Topped off the dinner with a fruit salad, and a nice little bit of rain. That really refreshed us. After the sun set, we had a lightning and thunderstorm! Very cool to see over the water. Tomorrow, we plan on going to the Island of Murano, to see the world famous glass factories.

Oh well, it gave us time to relax in a cafe, eat some “American Toast” which is essentially a grilled turkey and provologne sandwich, and knock back some cold Coke. Ahh Vic, you would love the Coke

We have also confirmed with our hotel in Venice, and are going to be spending a couple of nights there. The room that we got normally runs for 180Euro per night, but for us, and with cash, we get it for 100Euro. Even better it is a double sized room (for them), private bath and overlooks the Grand Canal. It is located right near the Academia, and just a short walk from Piazza San Marco. We are merely waiting for the next couple of hours to pass so that we can board our train…

Our journey to Pisa…

We are on vacation, albeit in a foreign country, but still on vacation. With that said, we slept in today. We managed on getting out of the hotel room somewhere around 11. That is 2am to most of our friends and family.

We took a pleasant train-ride over to Pisa, which was a little over an hour away. There is something very relaxing about riding a train. The gentle rocking of the cars and the scrolling scenery has a propensity to put a person to sleep. Once we arrived at Pisa, we had to walk from the train station to the far end of the city where the leaning tower is located. There are a couple of main roads that lead to the tower and initially we took the road less traveled. Meaning that there really weren’t all that many tourists as you would expect, so we switched back over to a road to the west and bingo! Lots of tourists. About half-way down the street, we saw that it was under construction, which was nice. It turned the whole street into a giant walkway, except for that one section of construction.

A little while later, we turned a corner and saw the compound where the tower was. Heck, it was even open to tourists to travel to the top. We took the pictures from the ground up, as there was a height thing to consider. Especially when the tower is leaning and would tend to give the impression of falling out while standing still. The grounds there are beautifully maintained, and on a beautiful sunny day such as this, it made it even nicer.

We came, we saw, we went the long way back to the train station. Of course the one time that we go the long way, Kim had to find the bathroom rather urgently. Drinking tons of water will do that to a bladder.

So now we are back in Florence (Firenze) and had a nice dinner at Il Gardino Di Barbano

http://www.pizzabarbano.com Hey Larry, nice place you got here! We are hoping that all of the pasta that is being consumed will not make us sick of pasta once we get home. It is a staple of ours. We will be spending one more night here in Florence, then heading up to Venice for a couple of days.

With the evenings entertainment over, it was time to find a vendor to sample some of the world famous gellato. Mission accomplished!

Sleep beckons, and a new adventure awaits, we’ll update more shortly.