Italy Trip 2016 - day eight (Peccioli and Venice)

We could hardly believe it was time to leave Borgo alle Vigne.  We had such a delightful week there, enjoying the beautiful sunrises, the kind employees, the handsome bread boy, and our terrific suites.  But it was finally time to pack up the car and head to Venice for the last few days of our trip.  We decided to hit one last small town on our way - Peccioli.  It was very close to the villa and the concierge described it as a lovely town.  So off we went.

You know, I forgot to mention earlier, so I'll throw it out now:  most of the days we took long drives, we drove through the town of Lajatico, which just happens to be the hometown of famous tenor Andrea Bocelli.  His picture is splashed all over town and there is an outdoor theater there, where he performs every year.  We were maybe the tiniest bit sorry we couldn't see his concert (but maybe we weren't, I'm sure it would've been packed!), but we got used to driving around that corner and seeing Bocelli's name everywhere.  Just wanted to insert this for your information and for my memories...

Back to our last day in Tuscany:  we packed up the car and drove to Peccioli.  it's a lovely drive, of course, and a sweet little town.  We suddenly realized that we probably shouldn't leave a rental car filled with suitcases unattended while we wandered through town, so we just stopped at a particularly lovely vista to get some photos, then we parked in front of a sweet church and took turns going in to enjoy it.  After that, off we went to Venice.

Driving to Venice was a trip.  The GPS sent us on the strangest routes - first we'd be on the highway, then it would have us get off the highway and drive through an adorable tiny town, then we'd get back on the highway, then we'd be on a stretch of road that had over 20 tunnels built into the mountains.  It was a very interesting trip, scenery-wise.  We made one pit stop after a couple of hours, because it was time for leg-stretching and caffeine.  I got a tasty cappuccino, and my pals also got some coffee/soda, then I went to the ladies room.  For once, I actually went into the ladies room (for some reason, on this trip, I had a difficult time going into the correct restroom, I have no idea why that was) and all seemed fine until I was ready to leave.  And somehow, I broke the toilet.  The lid and cover flew off and landed with a thud on the floor.  Standing there stunned, I kinda ran out of the place (after washing my hands, of course) and hoped we would get the heck out of dodge before the Italian polizia came for me.  I still don't know what happened, but I hope the person after me didn't hurt themselves.

Back to the drive.  Thanks to my intrepid friends who did ALL of the driving, we made it to the Venice airport in one piece. Dropping off the car took a little longer than it probably should've, then we went to find the "magnetic carpet" (as the guy at the car rental desk called the people-mover-thing in the airport) that would take us to the speedboats to Venice.  May I say this is how all airports should be.  Quiet, lovely, with access to speedboats. Much better than taxis.  We had to do a little negotiating with all of the boat gents who were just standing around trying to pick up fares (hey, that's like American airports after all!).  We found a guy who seemed honest enough, and after I confirmed the price was for ALL of us and not per person, we boarded the boat. 

What a wonderful thing!  Speeding across the water towards Venice at sunset!  Glorious!  The weather was beautiful and we were so excited as the famous sites of St. Mark's Square got closer and closer.  We passed a couple of islands, and finally came up to the beauty of Venice.  Our driver slowed as he got closer to the city, and took us in a narrow canal that was just down the street from our hotel.  Practically door to door service.  On our way to the hotel, we saw an ATM, and we got a little cash to tide us over our last few days in Italy.  We easily found our hotel, Antica Panada, and went inside to check in. The hotel lobby was very small, but quaint - it took a few minutes to get all of the paperwork done, then a porter showed us to our room.  

Good thing we had someone to lead us!  It was quite a maze to get to our rooms - we took the elevator to the second floor, took a left, walked down the hall, turned, walked down some stairs, turned, walked up a ramp, turned, and finally arrived. But the rooms were very nice and right across the hall from each other (boys on one side, girls on the other).  We took a little break then got back together to go out and find some dinner.  Again, early, but hey, we'll get the hang of it eventually.

We just sort of wandered around the beautiful narrow streets of Venice, looking for a nice place to stop and eat.  We did a little window shopping along the way and quickly noticed that Venice was going to be much more crowded than the other towns we'd been in.  Finally, we happened on a little cul de sac that had a few restaurants in it.  They all seemed keen to have our business, but maybe a little too keen.  But after looking around some more, we made our way back there and chose the one restaurant that wasn't too baldly looking for American tourists - Osteria Barababao.  I was still feeling the effects of the huge Thanksgiving dinner (dumb, I know), so I went with my trusty magherita pizza.  It was tasty, but not the best pizza I had on our trip.  I don't think this meal was the best meal of our trip, either, but the place had a pleasant enough atmosphere and we were a little tired.

We walked through Venice some more after dinner, enjoying seeing St. Mark's Square all lit up.  We kept walking along the Grand Canal for awhile, just soaking up some atmosphere. It was lovely and we were really looking forward to really seeing the city in daylight the next day.  So we finally called it a night and went back to Hotel Panada.  It was always amusing to see how full the hotel lobby was, no matter what time of day, most likely because it was the best place to use the hotel wi-fi.  The wi-fi didn't work in our rooms at all, which was annoying, but we didn't need to check our phones anyway.  Right?  Coming up, more Venice beauty...

photo credit: Gregg Moore

photo credit: Gregg Moore