Bellisimo

It was a long flight but finally at around 7:30am local time, we arrived in Venice.  I can not believe that we are finally here after waiting 150 days.  After getting our bags, we made the seven minute walk to the dock to pick up the Alilaguna water bus (15 Euros / person).  It was about an one hour ride from the Marco Polo Airport to our stop which was the Rialto Bridge.  The ride was really nice because we got to see a lot of the Grand Canal which looked exactly like it does on TV.

Accommodations on the island are very expensive, but Karen did manage to find an apartment (170 Euros) through VRBO.  The listing said it was steps from the Rialto Bridge and so we met our host at a store near there.  We started walking and after a few minutes I could not figure out why we were not at the apartment.  We kept walking and walking, lugging our 35+ pound suitcases up and down some of the 400 plus bridges in Venice.  Finally after about 15 minutes, we were at a building which was only steps from Piazza San Marco.  Needless to say we were confused.  We hauled our bags up two and a half flights of stairs to the apartment. This was not what we had booked but it is fine.  Pietro said something about the other apartment being under renovation and he thought that we  would like this one better because of it’s location.

The apartment has a kitchen with a bedroom and bathroom next to it.  Across the hall are three more bedrooms.  Karen and I were under the impression that we had the entire apartment to ourselves.  We were quite shocked that as we were unpacking, two ladies came into the apartment and entered one of the remaining bedrooms.  Karen emailed Pietro but we had not heard back from him yet.  Karen (aka KLM1) will not be giving him a good review on VRBO.  We had a quick shower and nap and we were good to go to go exploring.

My initial thoughts on Venice are how beautiful the buildings are, the food looks to die for and how many people have selfie sticks including Grandmothers.  We found a place called Ristorante Da Stefano which does pasta to go for around 6 Euros.  We got a box of Spaghetti Bolonese and Spaghetti Carbonara which we enjoyed at a spot along a canal.  After lunch, we headed over to the Rialto Bridge and picked up a gondola ride (80 Euroes for 30 minutes).  It was so peaceful gliding through the various canals.  The only difference between the gondola drivers here and the ones in Las Vegas, is that the Venetian ones do not sing.

There was some concern earlier in the day that we would have to cancel our photowalk with Marco Secchi (210 Euros) because of rain which did come down a few times during the afternoon.  But as luck would have it, the sun came out just in time for our walk.  The two hour tour we had with Marco was absolutely money well spent.  He did not take us to the tourist attractions of Venice but instead off the beaten path where only Venetians travel.  We saw lots of bridges, boats and buildings.  Many of the buildings date back to the 1300’s.  Besides giving us lots of opportunities for beautiful pictures, he filled our heads with knowledge of Venice that would take years to read up on the Internet.  Things like there are only just over 400 gondolier licenses and if you want one, you will have to find someone willing to sell it.  The price … over 600,00 Euros.  It is better to marry a gondolier who can make 2500 Euros a day than it is to marry a doctor.  He also explained how Venice was built and in fact it is not one island but many many islands.

We knew that Marco would have a dinner recommendation and he suggested Ristorante Nuova Valigia.  This is his and his wife’s favourite place to dine.  He told us it is one of the few restaurants in Venice that uses local ingridients from the Rialto Market.  He was kind enough to actually walk us to the place since he lives nearby.  We dined alfresco enjoying Lasagna and a Margarita Pizza as big as my head.  Since we had such a long day which included a lot of walking, we decided to just head back to the apartment after dinner and call it a night.