Venice - gondolas, more gondolas and Vivaldi

May 13, 2015

Venice - gondolas, more gondolas and Vivaldi

On to Venezia. Let's get the travel sob story out of the way. Our train leaving Vernazza was ritardo 15 minutes, the train from Pisa was also ritardo, ultimately leading to missing our frecce treni to Venezia by five minutes. I thought - no problem there is a fast train every hour to Venice...except that it was the Thursday before good Friday, and the next train with available seats was five hours later! So a long wait in the Firenza train station, and an opportunity for some reading, and Donna to visit the nearby market again.

We are in Venice over the Easter weekend, making for a very busy Venice. There are major walkways (although not necessarily wide) that connect the various main areas such as the train station, the Rialto Bridge, San Marco Plaza, etc. They of course were filled with the tourist throng negotiating there way from one photo op to another. But get off these "main drags" and Venice becomes a wonderful maze of small streets and alleyways (not a straight street in the place) with lots of dead ends into yet another canal. That was part of the magic though...getting lost, eventually finding our way again, and taking it all in.

Our b and b (Angeles Inn) is down an alleyway only a half block from one of the main drags, but totally peaceful. Arnulfo is our b and b host, and is a very gracious man, good breakfasts too. When we leave he tells us it is most important to remember him in our hearts (We do remember him in our hearts, but I write a five star review on Tripadvisor too)

More good meals here, eating at Arnulfo's recommended places (the Three Arches, Veusivus; excellent food, not touristy). First night we walk down a side canal to our restaurant late (9 PM - remember that long delay getting here), and after dinner walking back the canal has come over the pavement in several places. So eating outside can be a bit of a crapshoot sometime (we ate inside).

As all tourists are, we are enchanted by the gondolas, but we decided not to actually take a gondola ride - it's pricey (80 Euros, for a 45 minute ride), and it just wasn't on either of our "need to do" lists. We take many pictures of gondolas though. Maybe next time (if there is a repeat visit some day)

One of our wanderings takes us to a very unusual and whimsical bookstore.; books in bathtubs, kayak, gondola’s etc. In addition to our random walks around Venice, we also take in the major sights such as the Rialto Bridge, San Marco Plaza and the "slow" Vaporetto Ride down the Grand Canal.

A highlight of Venice for us (and for our entire Italy trip for that matter) was a fabulous concert that we attended on Saturday night... we came upon posters advertising the concert and a venue where they were selling tickets, and just decided to "go for it". We later read in Ric Steves that this group (Interpreti Veneziani) is considered the best "group" in Venice. We sit 6 feet from the cello; Vivaldi’s Four Seasons’ Albioni, another Vivaldi work and a beautiful cello concerto were on the bill, and it was a sold out venue at the San Vidal church. They performed 2 encores, and it ranks as one of our most memorable concert experiences ever.

A magical time in one of the most unique cities of the world.