Lago di Garda

It's Sunday, May 8, 2016.  Mother's Day.  I found cards from Jim and Jamie hidden in my suitcase. They are so sweet and thoughtful.  Mother's Day is always so bittersweet for me.  I always miss my mother, but days like this even more so.  Her passport is with me every day when I'm out and about. I feel like she is traveling along with me.

Today we went to Lake Garda.  My father was there during WWII and I wanted to see it.  Getting there should have been easy enough, but was a bit of a challenge.  We decided to go to Sirmione.  It's a town at the tip of a peninsula that juts out into the lake on the southern shore.  Lake Garda is the largest lake in Italy.  We chose Sirmione for two reasons.  We were told that it was a very characteristic lake town, and it would only involve one bus.  Let's just say that the Italians are not always great at instructions or signage.  Or maybe I'm just too dense.  Long story short, with a mixup regarding where to wait for the bus we departed an hour later than we should have.  It was totally worth it after arriving.

We admired the lake after we got off the bus and then spotted a castle or fortress.  We decided to check it out.  It was the Rocca Scaligera di Sirmione.  This is the narrowest part of the peninsula.  It was first a Roman building and was rebuilt in the 13th century.  The castle was made a fortress to protect the town from intruders.  It was a good thing we went when we did, as they closed at 1:00.  Everyone got booted out.

We strolled through the streets, then decided that we would have our main meal of the day here.  We wanted to be overlooking the water.  The problem was that many places close at 2:00 or 2:30 and don't reopen until 7:00p.m. for dinner.  We walked along the shore and enjoyed the beach.  I had to use the bathroom.  For €.50 this is what I paid for -

Further down the beach we found Lido delle Bionde, overlooking the beach.  Perfect.  We both had gnocchi with salmon and shrimp.  The gnocchi was homemade and it was a good meal.

It was a nice day to enjoy the lake, even though there were crowds there too.  When will we escape them?

Marie - Waiting for the bus.

The bus on the way back to Verona was running about 40 minutes behind schedule.  The traffic reminded me of driving back from Tahoe on a Sunday.  To mix things up we had gelato for dinner and called it an early night.  I haven't been getting to sleep until close to midnight most nights.  It's 9:40 now.  I might be asleep by 11:00!  

Fair Verona, How Art Thou

First, let me say that I do like Verona.  Very much.  But it seems far more crowded than it was when I was here in September 2010.  Is it the time of year?  Something else?  Who knows.  It isn't quite the Disneyland experience that Venice became, but it was much busier than I prefer.  Maybe one reason it seemed crowded was that there was a European Bicycling Challenge happening and some other things going on.

In the morning we got up, got ready and went downstairs for breakfast.  There were many choices, so we will not be bored with the selections after 4 days.  Then it was off to the city center and eventually we found the tourist information center (TI).  We bought 2 day Verona cards that would allow us to get into various attractions at no additional cost.  We waited for a short time to take a 2 hour walking tour to see some main sites and learn the history of important parts of Verona.  While we were at Piazza Erbe we saw dogs cooling off in the fountain.  It was pretty warm, and it must have felt good to them.

I had thought that Romeo & Juliet was a fictional story.  That isn't entirely true.  The Montegues and Capulets did exist in Verona. There is no evidence that there was an actual Romeo or Juliet, or whether there were star crossed lovers.  But it's a good story and I like it!  I had also heard that Guilieta's casa in Verona was just a tourist trap.  In fact the Capulets did live there.  The balcony was added when a Romeo and Juliet movie was filmed there.  We didn't brave the crowds to go inside.

After the tour we had a little gelato to get us through until dinner.  With the Verona card we went to the Roman arena, Castelvecchio and Torre dei Lamberti.  I had been to all three places before, but I enjoyed seeing them again.

Arena

Castelvecchio 

Views from the Torre dei Lamberti

We killed a little time walking the streets until time for our dinner reservation at Ristorante Greppia.  It was recommended by someone who works at our hotel.  I felt it was better than where we ate last night.  

After dinner we decided we had enough walking around.  It was time to call it a night.

Farewell Venice

Today is Friday, May 6.  We started our day by taking our bags to be stored at the train station.  We then positioned ourselves to tour the Grand Canal using the Rick Steves podcast.  There were no front seats on the vaparetto, so we sat all the way in the back.  Good enough.  We had already gone up and down the canal many times, but this time there was commentary.  Although the 'tour' ended at San Marco, we did not.  We went to Lido.  Sadly the beach was no where in sight, and our time was limited.  

This is looking back at Venice from Lido.

We walked around a bit, had an okay lunch, and headed back to San Marco Square.  What a zoo.  It really was like Disneyland in high season.  Even watching gondolas on the canals reminded me of the rides ending.  Everybody off!  

And this was a Friday in early May.  What the hell?  It didn't start feeling over crowded until Thursday.  I guess the weekends start early here.  After a nice respite on Lido we re-entered the zoo, but just long enough to pass through.  Darcy and her family were flying in and I wanted to visit a little while.  They live in Idaho, so it's not like we see each other much.  I haven't seen her since lunch in Paris in September 2014.  We waited outside their hotel.  They finally arrived, very tired from a very long day+ of travel. The woman at their hotel was so nice.  As we sat out on the courtyard visiting she brought out some prosecco and snacks.  We discovered we are overlapping in Siena, so we will meet for dinner there.

After a nice visit with Darcy and her family we needed to get back to the airport.  We had a 5:50 train to catch.  Verona, here we come!!

We got to our hotel, the Best Western Firenze.  It was not exactly where I thought it was, but it will do,  the room is very nice.  We went into the old town for dinner.   We've now settled into our hotel.  Time to call it a night.  Tomorrow we will explore Verona.

Cruising The Islands

It's Thursday, May 5.  Cinco de Mayo.  Can you believe they don't celebrate it here?  🙂

Today is our last full day in Venice.  We took the vaparetto first to Burano.  The houses are all painted bright colors and it is very charming.  Besides the colorful houses, Burano is known for their lace.  Of course there were plenty of shops selling things, including lace and Murano glass.  We slowed down by one store to look at a scarf and the guy working there dashed out to show us his wares.  We were trying to be polite and we let him talk us into seeing something in the store.  He showed us everything.  Everything!  And of course he would sell each item for less than the posted price.  He said it was much less than we would pay on Murano.  Marie slipped outside.  Gee thanks for having my back Marie!!  The man told me about a woman who had come in his shop yesterday and found the very same necklace she had purchased in Murano, but she had paid much more.  She cried.  Finally some other people came into the shop and he began talking to him.  I used the distraction to make my escape.  We walked away from the shop and just when I thought I was safe he came running after me.  Yes, running.  I thought maybe he believed I had stolen something.  No, he just wanted to tell me that I would not find prices as good as his in Murano.  He warned me that I would cry when I realized how much I would have to pay.  He actually started rubbing his fist at his eye in a dramatic crying motion.  It was so funny!  For the rest of this trip (possibly longer) the joke is going to be "It will make you cry!"

We went to Murano and I was hoping to see some glass blowing.  I have been fascinated by that since I was a child.  Unfortunately we were not able to locate a place that allowed observe them doing that.  We looked at some beautiful glass things, but resisted the temptation to buy anything.  We had gelato for lunch.  Again.  This might be an every other day occurrence.

This is a large glass sculpture.

When we returned to Venice we went by the train station to buy tickets for our train to Verona. We leave tomorrow at 5:50 p.m.  We will still have much of the day in Venice while we wait for Darcy to arrive.

We had reservations for dinner tonight.  Thanks to David we were going to have a really special meal in a wonderful setting.  The restaurant wasn't too far from St. Marks Square.  We arrived at the square early and were browsing the stuff people sell.  We ended up buying hats to keep the sun off our faces.  The added benefit is that if it is pulled down just a little you can avoid vendors trying to sell you their junk.  No, I don't want to buy a purse!  No, I don't want to eat at your restaurant!  We went back to the hotel that Darcy is staying in to make sure we knew the way.  It's a bit confusing and we didn't want to get lost with our luggage.  Speaking of which, I'm a little concerned about going to that area with our luggage tomorrow.  The vaparetto was so packed we were wondering what the maximum occupancy was.  I'm considering that it might be easier to walk there, then take the fast vaparetto to the train station.  Or maybe take our luggage to the train station early and get it when we are ready to leave.  We will have to figure something out.

Dinner at Ristorante da Raffaele was wonderful.  Such a great way to say goodbye to such a unique city.  The setting was lovely and the food was delicious.  I had sea bass and potatoes and Marie had tortellini with ham and peas.  Then she and I shared a Venetian specialty for dessert, Bicchierino "Avola".  It is a mousse of mascarpone with chocolate and amaretto.  Fantastico!!!

After dinner we returned to the hotel.  Evening is such a great time to be on the canal.  I will miss that.  We got our things together to make leaving tomorrow easier.  Parting is such sweet sorrow, but fair Verona awaits.  

Palaces, Prisons and Cicchetti, Oh My!

Today is Wednesday, May 4.  I'm going to start putting the date because I've had to post the following day.  I'm using my iPhone as a camera and it is taking a long time for them to appear on my iPad.  I should have just brought my camera!  

We had a full day today.  We started out by wandering around the fruit and vegetable market, located right next to our hotel.  There were some very interesting and colorful vegetables, along with fish that are very unusual.  Not to mention the live snails and little crabs.

From there we jumped on the vaparetto and headed to St. Marks Square.  We walked along the Grand Canal and admired the original art for sale.  We both bought small water colors.  Jim and I collect water colors that remind us of places that mean something personal for us on our travels.  We had downloaded a Rick Steves podcast that we followed around the square.  It explained what we were seeing.  We then went into the Doge's Palace.  It was full of incredible art and in some cases, over the top decor.  That lead us to walk over the Bridge of Sighs and into the old prison.  There was graffiti both painted and etched into the cells.

After leaving there we got some lunch.  We had our first pizza.  You'd think we were committing some kind of crime wanting to share one.  We were told we must order a side dish too.  We split a salad.  The waiter was a bit of a jerk about the whole thing, but the other guy that was helping couldn't have been nicer.  We headed back to drop some things at the hotel and then we did a little shopping.  

Finally it was time to meet Allesandro for our Cicchetti and bar tour.  What fun!  There were 10 of us, not counting Allesandro.  He was so funny and entertaining, all the while teaching us about Venitian history and customs.  We went to 3 bars, where we drank red wine and had Cicchetti.  They are small bites of food.  Their version of tapas and dim sum.  I'm not quite sure what everything was.  When asked, Allesandro would always respond "I don't know."  

The tour was from 6:00-8:00.  After it was over Marie and I decided to get on the vaparetto and try to see the sunset from the water.  We stayed on until it was dark, then headed back.  We were going to make this an early night.  It's 11:00 p.m. right  now.  Oh well, maybe tomorrow.

This trip was originally going to involve a week on our own and a two week Rick Steves Village Italy tour.  There was going to be a group of us from the Sacramento area, who met though the Rick Steves travel forum.  As it turned out none of us went on the tour.  David, who put the whole thing together, felt badly about the tour not working out for us, but I tried to tell him it wasn't anyone's fault.  He insisted on giving me some money for Marie and I to have a nice dinner.  Our Cicchetti and Bar tour was courtesy of David.  It was a blast, so thank you!  We are also going to have a nice dinner tomorrow, our last night in Venice.

Tomorrow we are spending the day on the islands, Murano and Burano.

Note - I'm going to post daily and insert photos when they are available.

First Full Day In Venice

To say I was tired last night is an understatement.  I was exhausted.   Much too tired to write much.  I will elaborate a bit on yesterday before I talk about today.

As I was standing in line to go through passport control in Frankfurt I was trying to decide how to approach the subject of getting my mother's passport stamped.  Then I started thinking about whether having someone else's passport is illegal and what could happen?  Would they take me into another room for integration?  Would I miss my connecting flight?  What would happen to Marie?  Yeah, I chickened out.  As we were flying to Venice I considered alternatives.  You know how some people bring an item, like a stuffed animal or something, on vacation.  They will pose the item in front of iconic sites like the Eiffel Tower.  Maybe I could place the passport in front of places?  I don't think so.  I will just keep it with me.

More about the water taxi.  I highly recommend it as a way to get to the island from the airport.  It meant we didn't have to take public transportation while we were exhausted.  We were dropped off as close to our hotel as is possible on the water.  Water taxis can be very expensive.  I did discover that a shared water taxi was not much more than taking the bus and the vaparetto.  There were 6 other people on our boat.  And it was so much easier.

So today, Tuesday May 3rd.  Our first full day in Venice.  We had specific plans for later in the day.  We slept in (a big deal if you know either one of us), showered and went down for breakfast.  It was okay.  There was coffee, tea and latte.  Latte means milk, so if you order one somewhere that's what you'll get.  They had nice fresh croissants, a few kinds of cereal and some really weird flavors of yogurt.  Coffee, pineapple, apple, banana...I tried the apple and Marie tried the banana.  It was really thin and kind of gross.  The croissant was good though.  Marie took some cereal that she thought was some sort of granola.  After eating some she came to the realization that it was probably oatmeal and hot water should have been added.  Oops!  I took some cereal that looked like cornflakes.  I would say it tasted like cardboard, but that is probably giving it too much credit.  Oh well, it was free!

It was probably about 11:00 before we ventured out.  We purchased a 3 day vaparetto pass at the airport, and we didn't want to use it until Wednesday.  So we walked.  And walked.  We went to St. Marks Square and bought a ticket that will get us into 4 museums.  We to the Correr Museum and we will save the others for tomorrow.  Then we walked, and walked, and walked.  Our destination - the Basilica S. Maria Gloriosa Dei Frari Church.  Commonly known as the Frari.  We had to get across the Grand Canal.  There were no bridges around.  So we took a traghetto.  It's like a gondola that is a ferry that takes people across the canal in areas that are sparse on bridges. 

 It was early afternoon and we discussed lunch.  Neither one of us was very hungry.  So we had gelato for lunch.  Why not?  The church was very interesting.  After that we headed back towards our hotel.  We were to meet with Lauri and Ed for a gondola ride.  Originally the plan was to meet at 5:30.  We changed it to 4:30, because the weather report said a storm was going to hit around 5:00.  Our meeting place was the Rialto Mercado vaparetto stop, around the corner from us.

After we met up we went in search for a gondola.  Ed was hungry, so after a quick stop for him to get a slice of pizza we resumed our search.. We didn't want a gondola on the Grand Canal.  We wanted to go on the small quiet canals.  We finally found one and away we went.  What fun!  We wound through some small canals and then the gondolier took us out on the Grand Canal.  Why?  He said we must see some important buildings.  We saw the 7 star hotel where George Clooney was married.  And some other stuff.  Who can remember after he distracted us with George?  Just kidding. We saw the University of Venice, a college of the arts and some other buildings that I can't recall at this time.  I did video a portion of that, so I will have to watch that.  We did learn why the canal is called the Grand Canal.  I had assumed it was because it was the biggest canal.  That would be grand, right?  Wrong!  It's because all of the houses lining the canal were occupied by very important people.  Grand people.  Hence the Grand Canal!

As we were on the gondola we could hear the rumbles of thunder.  The clouds were getting very dark. Then some raindrops.  But it never fully rained on us, even though the thunder sounded very close.  After we finished we talked about getting dinner.  As we tried to find some place to eat Lauri and Ed decided they were ready to call it a day.  They are heading to Budapest tomorrow.  We walked them to a vaparetto stop, then went back to our hotel for a pit stop.  

For dinner we went to Al Nono Risorto, and restaurant that several people recommended.    We both got the salmon with polenta.  It was very good.  As was the house wine.  They offered a 1/4 liter serving, so I got that.  Marie stuck with the 1/2 liter, because as she put it, she is more seasoned.  Another way to say that I'm a lightweight.  We sat there until the wine was finished, involved in conversation about some serious topics.  Enough of that now, we are on vacation!  Then it was time to call it a night.  Back to the hotel and we will be good and rested for tomorrow. 

Venezia!

We made it.  Finally.  After flights from Sacramento-San Francisco, San Francisco-Frankfurt, and Frankfurt-Venice, it made for a very long day. With no sleep.  We decided to enter Venice in style.  We took a water taxi from the airport to the Rialto Mercado stop near our hotel.  

The water taxi had just dropped us off.

Our room at Pensione Guerrato is very nice.  We settled in, then walked around until we could justify having dinner.  The food was good, as was the house wine.  A little more walking around, then back to the hotel for us.  It's early to bed so we are good to go tomorrow.  I'm sure the next post will be a little more detailed.  I'm just so tired...