Honeymoon Recap, Part 2 - Venice
Wednesday, May 3, 2006
So we got on the Eurostar heading for Venice, but had a little trouble finding our seats. We were supposed to be in First Class, but couldn’t quite figure out where that was. We got on a car and tried to sit down, but there were people in our seats. As it turned out, we were on the completely opposite end of the train from where we were supposed to be, so we were a little embarassed, but at least we knew where to go after that.
As we got to our seats, I grabbed our bags to put them up in the luggage rack above the seats. As I did that, I saw someone out of the corner of my eye sitting in front of us that looked familiar, so I looked at him once, looked back, and then looked again. Turns out it was actor James Spader on vacation in Italy, which was certainly a surpise. Didn’t end up talking to him, but heard some of his conversation with people sitting next to him, and he sounded like a pretty personable guy. He was also taller and a little heavier than I thought he would be. Other than that, the rest of the 2-hour trip went smoothly and was uneventful, and we finally arrived in Venice in the late afternoon.
After arriving in Venice, we headed straight over to our hotel, the Hotel Ai Mori d’Oriente, which was in the Cannaregio district in Venice. The hotel was fairly nice and in a relatively uncrowded areas of the city (mainly because it fair distance from the main sights). We unloaded our bags and freshened up, and headed out to explore the city.
We wanted to get an evening view of the main sights, so we took a nice walk down through Cannaregio down to the San Marco district, which took us to the Piazza San Marco. After exploring that area some (and watching the birds chase Chu around), we continued exploring the San Marco area and the shopping areas. Then we headed over to the Grand Canal and the Rialto Bridge for some sightseeing, crossed the bridge over the canal, and then explored all through the San Polo district. We were pretty beat by this time (probably walked several miles), so we headed back to the hotel for the evening.
Thursday, May 4, 2006
We planned Thursday to be our in-depth viewing day of the sights, which included Frari Church, the Correr Museum, St. Mark’s Basilica, the Ducal’s Palace, and the Dorsoduro district. We woke up a little late (11AM), got a quick lunch, and then headed over to the Frari Church.
The Frari Church is an old Franciscan church in the San Polo district containing the works of many artists from the Renaissance. We spent over an hour touring the church, viewing the art and sculpture that adorns the walls and ceilings. Next, we headed over to the Correr Museum in Piazza San Marco, which houses art and artifacts from Venice’s history. Here we were able to get a good idea about the rise and splendor of Venice from around the 14th-19th centuries.
Next up was St. Mark’s Basilica, which is at the opposite end of Piazza San Marco from the Correr Museum. This cathedral had a number of old mosaics and artwork, but overall wasn’t particularly impressive to us. We then headed next door to the Ducal’s Palace, which was the historical home to the rulers of Venice. It also contains a meeting room for the Venetian senate, an armory, the huge Hall of the Grand Council, and a prison (which is connected to the palace by the famous Bridge of Sighs). After the Piazza San Marco itself, the Palace was truly our favorite sight in Venice.
We decided to spend the rest of the day walking around and exploring, so we headed over to the Dorsoduro district to have a look. We walked down past the Gallerie Dell’Accademia and walked along the Giudecca Canal for while. The sun was out and the sky was clear, which made walking along this canal extremely enjoyable. We then spent the rest of the day just walking wherever the streets and alleys took us, had dinner in the Campo Santa Margherita, and then headed back through the San Polo district to our hotel.
Friday, May 5, 2006
By now, we had had enough of Venice and were ready to move on. Luckily our plan was to leave early in the AM on the Eurostar to Florence). We got up early, ate our complimentary hotel continental breakfast with room-temperature milk (why don’t Italians like cold milk?), and headed out to the train station to catch our train.
Next up: Part 3 - Florence
Links: Venice Map, Italy Map, Venice Pictures, Venice Videos
