Monday, June 7: We were up at 6:30 to clean up the apartment a little bit before leaving. We got our luggage together, descended those 78 steps one final time, and decided that for 1 euro, it would be worth taking the lift down to the station. At the bottom, there was no one to collect the fee--good for us. We took the 8:37 train from Riomaggiore to La Spezia and switched onto the 9:19 intercity train to Pisa Centrale. At Pisa, we changed to the 10:54 train to Firenze (Florence) and then onto the 12:27 Eurostar train to Venezia (Venice). The Eurostar is an ultra-modern high speed train. We had reserved first class seats, but they were one in front of the other (both at the window). Fortunately we were able to swap with a couple who had the aisles one behind the other. The Eurostar was a great ride and we arrived in Venice at 2:24pm.

It's a bright sunny afternoon and the temperature is quite warm.
Vaporetto stop
Canal traffic Rick really loves this city. Just standing on the steps outside the train station looking at all the activity on the Grand Canal excites him. Before setting off for our apartment, we bought our reserved tickets to Milan for next Monday, and two 7-day vaporetti passes at 50E each. Vaporetti are like buses that travel on the canals. We will have unlimited rides on the vaps while we are here. At 6.50E per ride, we only have to take one ride per day to make it pay. No problem!! We caught the #51 vap for the Giardini/Biennale stop. Gloria's directions were perfect and we arrived a little after 3:30 to find Signora Franca (who works for Gloria) waiting for us. Our apartment is charming, on a side canal, and within a few minutes walk from both the vap stop, a beautiful park (which we will explore), and the Via Garibaldi where restaurants, groceries, veggie markets, and other services are located. We are quite pleased with our home for the next week.

Once we got the hang of things, we were off to check out Via Garibaldi. Rick
Tree-lined walk
thru park
Via Garibaldi at
San Marco basin found a gelato shop and for 2E, had a combo berry and chocolate gelato! Then we wandered along the San Marco basin waterfront toward Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square). The street along the water is lined with souvenir stands, restaurants, hotels, and all things that a tourist might need whether she knows it or not!! There are also several Servizio Gondole--places where you can hire a gondola for a 40-minute cruise. The rates start at 80E, but we're aware that we can bargain at the less frequented locations. We also read in our Rick Steves' guide that there are 7 traghetto locations along the Grand Canal where you can cross from one side directly to the other on a gondola for 50 cents! We'll be checking that out tomorrow. There were 5 huge cruise ships at anchor in the basin, their passengers no doubt frequenting the souvenir shops and the sites of Piazza San Marco: the square itself, the
Piazza San Marco
Basilica San Marco Doges Palace, St. Mark's Basilica, and the Campanile (Bell Tower). We were disappointed to see that there were huge advertising signs surrounding the Bridge of Sighs, we're hoping only due to restoration work in progress behind them. Since we hadn't really eaten all day, we thought we'd stop for an early dinner. One of the restaurants offered an appetizing looking touristico menu, but didn't seem too interested in having anyone order it. After sitting down and checking their drink prices, we decided we'd go elsewhere--back to Via Garibaldi. On the way we stopped at a "hole in the wall" for some euros only to find that BOTH of our cards were rejected! We bought some gorceries and headed back to the apartment to call VISA and find out what was up. They showed no record that we'd been denied, explaining that it was probably a problem with the ATM unit. We'll try a different one tomorrow, but for tonight
Clock Tower
(San Marco)
Gondolier we've got sufficient funds for dinner. Prices in Venice are higher than where we've been so far, at least for food. But souvenir prices are considerably less than in the five Cinque Terre towns, probably because there are so many of them! We did find a pleasant little place on the Via Garibaldi for dinner, then walked through a tree-lined street to the water for a look at the evening activity. We are pretty tired and want to get an early start to our first full day in Venice tomorrow. We're back in the apartment around 9:30. Rory finds a collection of classical CDs, and along with a glass of wine, settles in contentedly.

Tuesday, June 8: It poured rain last night. Rick awoke around 2:30, satisfied himself that no rain was getting in at any of the open windows (all of them were open). This is Rick's kind of country. Everyone is up early; the
From our apt. window
Vaporetto street noise started around 6:30. They work hard until around 1pm, take "siesta" until 3:30 or 4:00, work until 7:30 or 8:00, then eat dinner and do whatever they do at night! After a much-needed shower, Rick went out to the market for fruit and veggies. Everything in Venice has to be brought in by boat and they have to be able to navigate the narrow canals. All along the canal outside our apartment there are construction boats and boats delivering produce, fish, meat, and various other products to be sold in the small shops and grocery stores.

We think we'll go to Murano today. We want to see the glass blowing demonstrations and visit the Glass Museum (which is closed tomorrow). When we were here 9 years ago, we went on a Saturday. Many of the glass shops were open, but the glassblowers don't work on the weekends, so we didn't see any demonstrations. The vaporetto to Murano (#41) leaves from the San Zaccaria stop (one stop back toward San Marco from ours, and a short walk). We will begin to really take advantage of our 7-day vaporetto pass today!

We're in Murano by 10:30. Rick's right big toe has been bothering him. (He'll
Murano
Glass light sculpture spend the rest of the day walking tenderly.) The main street has a canal that runs through it. There are glass shops on both sides, separated only by the occasional pizzeria. There must be several hundred of them and before we're through we will have looked in or gone into every one of them!! They sell everything you can imagine--all made of glass. It's all supposedly made right there in Murano, but there is a controversy brewing. Apparently the Chinese are importing glass products claiming they're made in Murano, and selling at supposedly discount prices. (What else is new?) There are signs in the windows of many shops stating that they don't sell Chinese glass.

Our main order of business is to hit the ATM as Rick is down to his last 30E. Again, we are unable to access our account.This time the ATM message is that it's link is down. We'll try a couple of times in the next hour or so with no luck. There's a large shop just at the entrance to the canal where we can see some glass blowers at work. A gentleman named Francesco (who looks a lot like the former Boston Burins hockey player, Phil Esposito) explains what the blowers are doing and how much work goes into each piece. It takes over 15 years of training for an apprentice to learn enough to begin to make his own creations and 30-40 years before he can hope to become a master craftsman. We visit the show rooms with hundreds of pieces worth thousands of euros each. You can't take pictures of any of this stuff, unless of course, you buy it! Our host demonstrates how proper lighting brings out the colors and that varying the light will change the colors dramatically. When we were here 9 years ago, we bought a piece (at another shop) that "sang" to us, but not this time. When we're done at the showroom, we have a pizza lunch. Afterwards, in one of the shops, the sales woman tells us there's another ATM that we might try. On the way, we pass the shop (Antica Vetraria) that we bought our piece from and stopped in to tell them how happy we were with it. They told us that the artist had retired and that our piece would never be made again. We find the second ATM and thankfully, it works just fine, and our solvency is restored. We get all the way to the end of the canal,cross a bridge, and visit a few more places before retracing our route on the other side. When we've had enough, we return to the vap stop. The #5 vaporetto goes directly back to San Marco, and we get a seat right on the bow for great views of the waterway and the panorama of Venice.

Once back in San Marco, we switch to another vaporetto to cruise up the Grand
Masks for sale
(everywhere)
Gondola at Rialto Bridge Canal to the railway station. We wander up there for a while, past the Hotel Principe where we stayed 9 years ago. Finally we're ready to return to our apartment and freshen up for dinner. On our way to Via Garibaldi, we notice a small restaurant (Al Tosi Grandi) down a side street to the right about two blocks from our apartment. The menu looks good, the prices are very good (at least for Venice), and there seem to be several people eating in the courtyard at the opposite end of the restaurant. We'll give it a try and are more than glad we did, The food is excellent. There are no tourists here--it's a local place, off the tourist track. We doubt they get more than a few non-locals eating there in a year! They don't have a website, so we can't provide a link, and we're not sure they'd want us to if they did. We were treated well and will be back again before we leave. We don't get back to the apartment until almost 10:30

Wednesday, June 9: Our plan today is to catch the #2 vaporetto (which is the express version of the #1) and then take the #1 back, following Rick
Scalzi Bridge
Grand Canal scene Steves' Grand Canal tour. We're lucky enough to find seats in the bow again, and doubly lucky to meet a delightful couple from England/South Africa. (They spend 6 months in each place.) When they mention they'd like to visit Charleston and Savannah, we give them our card and invite them to visit us if/when they do so. We get a return invitation and perhaps one day in the next couple of years we'll take them up on a visit to South Africa. They're in Cape Town. After getting off at the station, we're about half way across the Scalzi Bridge which crosses the Grand Canal opposite the station when we see a couple trying to take their own picture. Rick offers to take their picture for them and at the same time Rory sees another couple in need of the same service. The first couple is from Louisiana, the second from Knoxville. We wind up spending almost an hour talking with Nelson and Alice the latter couple. Of course, the end result is the exchange of contact information. We've got to believe that living so close, we're likely to reconnect in the near future.

We stop at one of the gondola stations where one of the gondoliers reviews the choices we have to schedule a ride. We have promised each other to do this
Gondolas fro hire
Pesce Mercado after not doing so in our previous visits. We decide we'll do a twilight cruise tomorrow night. Our plans to follow Steves' Grand Canal cruise are tabled for now, when we get off the #1 boat at Rialto Mercado and wander the markets just north of the Rialto Bridge. We're especially interested to see the Pesce Mercado (Fish Market) and are entertained by the gulls trying to steal fish from the displays. We have lunch in a Chinese (for a change) restaurant not far from the Rialto Bridge, down a side street. The food is quite good and very reasonable--nice break from pasta and pizza. We wander some more, hop another
Grand Canal from Rialto
Retired gondoliers? vap. (We've now gotten full value from our 7-day passes and have more than 4 days during which we'll be using the vaps effectively free!) Rick's toe has really acted up--it's slightly swollen and looks like it will need attention. We find a pharmacy and the pharmacist recommends some cortisone/antibiotic cream. Rory is more alarmed about the condition of the toe, than Rick is, but he's beginning to think it's about time we did something to fix it. As a result, we decide to cruise back to our apartment, get Rick off his feet, and eat in tonight.

Thursday, June 10: Today we're going to San Giorgio, a small island
Venice panorama directly across the lagoon from San Marco. The attraction here is the church of
entrance to Grand Canal the same name and the bell tower. We see a notice posted at the vaporetto station that the Actv (government agency that regulates transportation in Venice) will be struck for 24 hours beginning at midnight tomorrow. There will be limited boat transportation on the canals. We make a note to explore the area closer to our apartment tomorrow. The #2 vap takes us directly from the Giardini (our station) to San Giorgio. We're free to explore the church and are most
this tower
leans, too impressed with the floor in the altar area. It's like an Erte painting--very striking and slightly disorienting. The main reason for coming, however, is the bell tower. The lift takes us high above Venice for incredible views. Three reasons for doing this tower as opposed to the one in San Marco (which we did 9 years ago): 1) it costs 3E rather than 8.50E, 2) there are only a few people who bother to visit this site (no crowds!!), and most importantly, 3) you can photograph all of San Marco including the Campanille (bell tower) from here. We spend a good bit of time taking photos and chatting with the French, English, Japanese, and German visitors. It's truly awe-inspiring. We are all surprised (not a strong enough word) when, at 11:30, the bell gongs! Everyone is startled! Then everyone laughs, and vows to leave the tower before noon!!

After San Giorgio, we take the #2 vap to the Ferrovia train station at the beginning of the Grand Canal. We are going to make a reservation for a gondola
a Vaporetto stop
Scalzi Bridge ride this evening and want to avoid the congestion at the San Marco end, not to mention that the water is much choppier at San Marco due to all the boat traffic. We cross the Scalzi Bridge and turn right at the bottom. There's a small Servizi Gondole station there. We're looking for Fabio, who we talked to yesterday, but he's not there. Roberto takes our reservation and a small deposit. We'll be back at 7:30. There's a nice restaurant (Vittoria) at the foot of the bridge where we enjoy excellent pizza. Their prices are very reasonable and it looks like a good place for dinner as well, after our gondola ride. After lunch, we wander through the narrow streets and along the lesser canals. Venice is called "The City of Masks" and there are hundreds of mask shops that sell high quality masks not to mention the souvenir stalls. Here is a link to one of the better mask shops that we visited. We're looking for the University of Venice, and ultimately find it, despite several inadvertant detours. We have an OK map, and manage not to get too lost... At the university, we overhear two students (Cleo from Vermont and Robert from California) speaking English. They are Harvard students taking advantage of the opportunity to study in and experience Venice. We spend a few minutes talking with them--Rick, being a college "student" himself, easily relates to them. They are interested (amused?) that he is studying acting and taking drum lessons, and about our life in retirement. We give them one of our cards and invite them to send Rick a Facebook friend request! We stop for gelato in one of the large piazzas, limone (lemon) for Rory and ciccolatto and frutti de bosco (chocolate and berry fruit) for Rick. At Academia, we hop on the #2 vap and return to Giardini and our apartment to relax and get ready for our gondola ride.

We don't want to be late to the gondola station, so we leave our apartment at 6:00.
Our gondola
for 40 minutes
Gondolier Roberto This will give us plenty of time, even if we have to wait for the vaporetto. It's a really nice cruise up the Grand Canal in the late afternoon. We have time to walk around a bit. Despite two previous trips for Rick and one for Rory, for various reasons, we have never done the "gondola thing". Sure it's pricey (80-100E for a 40-minute ride, depending on what time you go), and very "touristy", but, like climbing the Tower of Pisa, ya gotta do it!! (Once.) Rory has packed a bottle of wine (chilled in ice and wrapped in towels) and two plastic wine glasses we found in the cabinet in our apartment kitchen. Roberto helps us into our gondola, which is very ornate (and looks a lot like a French whore's bedroom, but it's perfect), and we're off. Rory pops the cork, pours some wine, and we "salude" everyone we pass who is photo-ing or video-ing us from one of the vaps. This is an extremely relaxing way to spend 40 minutes,
Cheers! not to mention 100E. We start at the top of the Grand Canal and turn into one of the narrow ones to the right. It is very quiet on these lesser canals. We wonder what it must have been like in the 14th and 15th centuries, when Venice was the richest city in the world. What would these buildings and palazzos, now in various degrees of ruin, have looked like then? We pass under bridges so low that the prow of the gondola barely passes under and Roberto has to duck down to avoid knocking himself unconscious. People on the bridges are taking our photos, and one older gentleman salutes us as he crosses over and we glide under a low bridge. The trip is over way too soon, but we are more than happy with the experience. Roberto takes a couple of photos for us, we pay him (with a small tip), and we're back on the street along the Grand Canal, ready for dinner.

The menu at Vittoria offers plenty to choose from at reasonable prices
Rialto by night
San Marco (at least for Venice). Rory has a big salad and Rick has a grilled swordfish dish with tomatoes, olives, and capers. It's after 10pm by the time we've finished and waited the inevitable 20 minutes to get the check and pay it! The vap stop is just across the Scalzi Bridge, and we manage a seat at the back of the boat, but outside. Watching Venice float by at night is even more unique than seeing it in the daytime. Our boat will take us directly to Giardini on it's route through the Grand Canal and past San Marco. We've had a great day!!

Friday, June 11: The vaps are on strike as promised. There is limited service so people can get to the train station, but that's about it. We're going to be doing a lot of walking today!. We start out toward San Marco and visit the TI (tourist information) office. Rory has read about a short film
early gondola traffic
Teatro Gallo about the history of Venice. We're going to find out the particulars and how to get tickets. As usual, the people at the TI are very helpful and we leave the office with vouchers for two tickets to the 6pm showing later today; and directions how to get to the Teatro Gallo, where the film is shown. We wander through the narrow shopping streets behind San Marco and find the theater, where we exchange our vouchers for two tickets. Having accomplished that small mission, we continue to wander the narrow streets and cross whatever canal bridges we come across. The gondoliers are doing a booming business (probably because of the strike) and the canals are jammed in some places. Doesn't look like nearly as much fun as we had last night! and we congratulate ourselves for good planning! We come out at the Grand Canal just south of the Rialto Bridge and, hey!, there's a vap going non-stop to the train station. This will be our only vap ride of the day. We find a little place called "Gino's" for lunch of pizza and salad (both of which we share). Since we're far enough north, we're going to visit the Jewish Ghetto.

This is Rick's third trip to Venice and he makes it a point to visit the Ghetto
Entrance to Ghetto Nuovo
Ghetto Nuovo each time. It's a very emotional experience for him. There is an uuobtrusive entrance into the Ghetto and just before we reach the main piazza, we notice a poster depicting various ceremonies in synogogues around Europe (some of which no longer exist). We stop in the adjacent shop (The Studio Michal Meron) to inquire about purchasing a copy of the poster. The gentleman in the shop explains that it's not for sale as
Synagogues of Europe a poster, but will be available as a print on canvas as soon as a couple of errors are corrected. He is the husband of the artist. They have a studio in Sunrise, FL. He takes our contact information and promises to send us additional information so we can avoid shipping from Venice. He shows us some extraordinary work that his wife has done--the complete illustration of the Torah including
Wedding in Venice English and Hebrew summaries of each section. It took her over 4 years to complete. The copies of the original complete with scrolls cost $9,000. We spend several minutes talking with him. Rick explains how he feels when he comes to the ghetto. We ask permission to photograph the poster outside and he tells us to go ahead. Next we proceed to the piazza surrounded by the old ghetto
Barbed wire buildings, the tallest being seven stories. Although the Venetian government encouraged the Jews to settle there during the time of Venice's greatest power, they were relegated to the ghetto, and, since land was at a premium, forced to build "up". Some of the original buildings still stand and it's interesting to note that in addition to be higher than any other buildings in Venice, the
Short doorway height of each floor is significantly less than anywhere else. In the piazza, there are several memorials to the Jews who were rounded up during WW II and taken to concentration camps in November of 1943 and August of 1944. Some of the original barbed wire remains atop one of the walls.

Having completed our little "pilgrimage", we leave the ghetto and stop for a cold drink and a yummy chocolate strudel for Rick. We'll spend the next
Chocolate treat couple of hours wandering the streets and canals until we somehow find our way back to the Teatro Gallo. Just before we get to the Piazza Gallo, we pass the same area of gondola congestion as we did earlier (just in front of the Hard Rock
Late traffic Cafe - Venice). Only this time, it looks like a can of gondola sardines! They are everywhere and people are lined up to take a ride. They are definitely doing a big-time business today. While we're waiting for the show to start, we have a drink in the piazza and watch the pigeons. The film is 30 minutes long and depicts the history of modern Venice
Canal less traveled coupled with scenes of Venice as it appears today. Unfortunately it stops with the decline of Venetian influence in Europe. Even so, it's interesting history. Afterwards, we walk all the way back to the apartment (about 30 minutes). We have dinner at the same place we ate at the night before last, but we're not nearly as hungry. Tomorrow we'll have the vaps at our discretion and may take one out to Burano, another small island, famous for it's lace-making.

Saturday, June 12: We got a bit of a late start this morning. Nice to see the vaporetti running again. We ARE going to Burano and in order to get there we have to take a #1 or #2 vap to San Zaccaria stop, then switch to the LN line for the 1 hour and 20 minute trip. We have to wait for the 12:15, and are the first to board, which gets us primo seats at the stern, outside! On the way we start talking with a couple from NJ who have retired in the FL panhandle They are Brian and Ann, who are traveling with their friend Ken. The two men are retired pilots and have been friends for years. Rick talks cameras and photography with the two guys, while Rory and Ann talk about where they're from and traveling. When we get to the Burano stop we part ways, but Burano is a small island and we will continually cross paths throughout the afternoon. As previously mentioned, Burano is noted for it's lace making and most of the shops here sell lace: clothes, table linens, bookmarks, toilet paper holders, you name it. We aren't much into lace, but there are two other attractions of

Leaning tower in Burano

Really leans

Holding it up?

this island that do attract us. One is the leaning church tower which dominates the Burano "skyline". The other is the bright colored buildings and homes--and we mean BRIGHT: red, yellow, pink, blue, brick, purple, orange,,,,you get the point! The photo ops here are endless so we've just included a few of those we took. ENJOY

We caught the 5:30 vap back to San Zaccaria and walked to the Via Garibaldi to get a few things for dinner. We're eating in tonight and trying to figure out how the washing machine in the apartment works. Tomorrow is our last day in Venice. We've really enjoyed it. Venice is a fabulous city!!

Sunday, June 13: Church bells are gonging all over the city this morning, including one just across the canal from us. We're not in much of a hurry. We're going to (finally) walk through the gardens that give this area its name (Giardini). Rick has awakened with another of his pressure headaches. (He gets too many of these; maybe he needs a different prescription for his glasses. We'll find out when we get home.) After a short stroll--the gardens are very peaceful and filled with sculptures (none of which have any description). It parallels the Venice Lagoon. There are people sitting on benches reading the paper, others are walking their dogs, children are playing on very elaborate and brightly-colored swing/climbing structures. Exiting the gardens, we have a short walk to the vap stop. We're going to Lido to see what the beach is like. It seems that other than San Marco and the train station, Lido is the most popular destination in Venice.

We have our usual problems with the ATM. It's Sunday, and our bank is usually down for maintenance early on Sunday morning. (It's not "up" yet.)
Little westie
Hotel and spa So even if it's almost noon here, it's before 6am back home. It'll work fine later! We stroll the main street lined with shops, restaurants, and hotels. There are cars here and traffic: cars, buses, bikes of all kinds, scooters, and motorbykes. Just outside a supermarket there's a little Westie yelping--his people are in the market and have left him tied outside. We give him some rubs and sit down to see his excited reaction when his people come back. An older lady sits next to us, and, though we don't speak much Italian, we do agree that it's "caldo" (hot). We'll pass her a couple of times as we wander down the street window shopping and she stops to sit every couple of hundred meters.

The beach is a public beach and is very crowded as you might expect for a
Beach statue hot Sunday in late spring. Just before the beach entrance, there's an interesting statue of two very large people hugging. Rick's headache isn't getting any better. We stop for a few minutes and then decide we'll just go back to the apartment. We stop at a charming little restaurant so Rory can get some lunch, have a successful encounter with the ATM and catch the vap back. After about a 2 hour nap, Rick feels better. Time to think about packing. Our train to Milan leaves tomorrow morning at 9:00.