Italy Trip 2016 - day ten and the rest (Venice and more)

finally reaching the end - you're so great to have read this far!


Day ten, plus more:  Venice and more


Last day last day.  Sad face.  There's still so much more to explore in Venice, how can we ever leave?!  We started our day in the extremely busy breakfast nook of the hotel - in fact, it was so crowded, they had to open another room for the overflow.  You had to stand in a long line just to get your coffee!  It was a little crazy, but oh well.  It was also free, ha ha. We knew that we had to take our gondola ride very first thing to make sure we got it in. Then we decided to split up for the day - the gents would explore on their own and my beautiful gal pals and I would do the same.

It had rained overnight, so when we walked out of the hotel towards St. Mark's Square, we noticed that platforms were up because the square was a little bit flooded.  Walking single file, across platforms, was an interesting experience.  Because the church was getting ready to open, the platforms were even more crowded.  We just sort of took our time to walk towards the opposite end of the square, where there wasn't as much water.

We had thought we'd go back to the Accademia Bridge to find a gondola (remember my photos in the last post?), but for some reason, even though we had just been there, we kept getting turned around.  So we just stopped at a nice looking canal and picked a nice looking gondolier.  Turned out to be a good choice - his name was Gabriele. The physics of a gondola are fascinating - we all got into the gondola, not really thinking about weight distribution.  As probably the heaviest person in our party, I thought I should be on the opposite side of where Gabriele would be, but he said I should stay in my spot and he maneuvered everyone else around.  When I got in, I felt like we were tipping pretty precariously, but he promised we wouldn't tip over.  He moved a couple of my pals around, but we soon set off.

photo credit: Gregg Moore

What a lovely thing is a gondola ride. You're smoothly gliding on top of a canal in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. There was no singing, but Gabriele did tell us about Venice, about the canals, gondoliers, and other things.  We asked him some questions and he was always happy to answer.  Until we got to one low bridge.  He stopped talking, unless he asked one or another of our party to move.  The water was so high, it looked like we might not be able to get under the bridge, but Gabriele was expert in maneuvering us and the gondola.  We made it through comfortably.  After that, it was an easy ride to the Grand Canal, where there are so many boats!  But it was such a free feeling to be floating along.

All in all, we were in the gondola for about 45 minutes, a little longer than advertised, probably because of our low bridge maneuvers.  But it was wonderful and I would love to do it again!  I can't wait to see the picture of all of us with Gabriele!  After the ride, we split up - the gents took off one direction and we went another.  And it was a perfect day - just shopping and wandering around Venice with my best friends.  We each thought about what gifts we needed to get before heading home, plus we wanted to find some lace.  We stopped in one shop that sold Murano glass and also mosaic art - the gal who worked in the store was so kind to tell us about how the mosaics were put together, how her family had owned the store for generations, and also where we could find lace!  She even wrote the names of the shops down for us!  She was lovely, as was the stuff in her store.  We may or may not have bought many things there.  

from Wikipedia

I feel as if we saw a lot of Venice that day, we walked from one side to the other, I think.  We went over the beautiful Rialto Bridge (and had a snack at a small cafe) and enjoyed ourselves over there as well. There was an amazing shoe store that made a little money from my beautiful gal pals.  We also stopped in a stunning church because we heard some music coming out the door - Chiesa di San Geremia.  When we walked in, we could hear the church choir practicing:  I'm happy to share a little clip of them HERE.  It was miraculous.  We wandered around the church for quite a while and noticed that, in front of the altar, were the remains of Saint Lucy, a woman who was martyred in 304 A.D, and is the patron saint of blindness.  What an experience - I had never been so close to a religious icon before.  Her head has a covering, but we could see her hands and feet, which I can hardly believe still exist after all these years.  Seeing that does get you to question your faith (or lack thereof).

After we had viewed Saint Lucy, we went into the bookshop.  The gentleman there told us, in Italian, that behind him was the original garment Saint Lucy had died in.  I asked him, sort of in Italian, if the painting behind him was indeed a Tintoretto and he said yes, and pointed to another painting above him.  All I could think was, there are Tintorettos in the Uffizi and they have one just sitting in this small bookshop?!  But I think he was pleased that we asked so many questions.  When we finally were on our way out, another man came up to us and gave us a book.  Gratis, he said.  I guess they don't see too many people in that church, which is too bad.  It was lovely and had a feeling of something bigger than myself. I can't really describe it.  I do know that being there, with my beautiful friends, was unexpectedly one of my favorite parts of the trip.

We kept seeing signs for Piazza Roma, so we figured we wanted to see it.  We walked so far, I wondered if we actually walked TO Rome!  Suddenly, after crossing a very large and modern bridge, we could see...buses! And cars! And a train station!  It was like walking out of Brigadoon or something.  We hadn't seen a car in two days and suddenly there they were.  The park across from the train station was brightly lit for the holidays and then we decided to walk back along the water to try to find a cafe for a drink and a snack.  We had already planned to meet the guys later for dinner.  I saw a cafe that looked open, but it was empty, so we kept going. We finally landed on a really cute spot, Orange Bar, which was filled with upbeat locals.  I got some delicious tea and we enjoyed relaxing for a bit.  The big screen tv was playing a show called Airplane Repo, which we sort of got obsessed with for a moment.  There was no sound, so we could make up our own story line, which was kind of a riot.  I keep meaning to do research on that show...

After our break, we walked back to the hotel to meet the guys. We saw so many wonderful shops, we have to go back, not just for the art, architecture and food, but because there was no way we could buy something everywhere we wanted to!  We got back to the hotel and sat down for a few minutes.  We decided we wanted to go to Osteria La Zucca for dinner, because it had been recommended to us by several people. After loading it up into a phone GPS, off we went.  It was a twisty, turny route to get there, through really narrow alleys and over really tiny bridges.  When we finally got there, we saw that we were behind a couple of gals who had walked alongside us for a bit earlier. They came out and told us there were no seatings at the restaurant that night until really late.  Apparently, Osteria La Zucca is really popular!  I wish we had thought to make a reservation, but oh well.  Next time.  My gal pals asked the owner of La Zucca if he could recommend another place nearby.  He gave them a couple of names.  We ended up at Osteria Mocenigo.  It was a very attractive place, but kind of empty.  Only two other parties were there, but they were both Italian, so we figured what the heck?!  I'm thinking it was the service that keeps people away.  Osteria Mocenigo's food was quite tasty, but, again, having a server who would rather be eating her own meal than getting ours, was not our cup of tea.  No one even bothered to ask us if we wanted coffee or dessert after we finished dinner.  It wasn't the best dining experience of the trip, but again, we had ourselves a good time.  We talked about what each group had done all day, which was fun (I'll put a picture from the gents' day at the bottom for you to enjoy).  And my taglietelle with pomodoro was pretty tasty.

Since no one asked us if we wanted dessert at the restaurant, we figured we would stop and get some on the way back to the hotel. But by this time, it was finally starting to get pretty chilly (we had been so lucky with mild weather our entire trip), so we just went back to the hotel to pack and get ready to leave early in the a.m. We had planned a bit ahead and booked a speed boat back to the airport, so at least we wouldn't have to drag our suitcases around in the morning looking for a boat.

Because we had booked that boat, that meant we didn't have to leave quite so early, so we had time for one more breakfast in the hotel.  Thankfully, it wasn't as full as the day before.  There was even a very attractive young man, sitting solo, that I briefly thought about chatting up. Then I remembered what I looked like and changed my mind.  I also snuck a few rolls, and some offbrand hazelnut spread, in a bag so I could have it on the plane, having heard a rumor that our plane would not be serving food.  At least not serving food for free.

Dragging all of our bags down the twisty turny maze from our hotel rooms to the lobby was a bit of an adventure, but thanks to generous friends who helped me get my too-many bags from here to there, it all worked out.  We walked over to the nearby spot where our motor boat was waiting and regretfully hopped on board.  It was an easy and too-quick trip back to the Venice airport.  It's a very manageable airport, though there is quite a hike to get from the boat docks to the terminal.  We had to wait in line at the British Airways check-in desk for quite a while and we started to worry there would be another issue with the boarding passes, like the last time we tried to leave Italy.  Hey, maybe that's the problem!  We shouldn't be trying to LEAVE Italy!

photo credit: Gregg Moore

Thankfully, once the gate agents finally arrived, it wasn't too hard to get our bags checked and boarding passes printed.  Well, I sort of take that back - only one printer was working for all the checked bag tags, so that took extra time, but at least they didn't have to write everything by hand.  We went through security, twice, I think, then found some seats.  I may have bought a few last minutes souvenirs in the gift shop.  They have everyone sit upstairs until the flight is called, then you go downstairs to hop on a shuttle bus to take you all the way out to the plane.  They were boarding people in the front and back doors of the plane, which was cool, and did get things moving a little more quickly. Even though I checked my bag, I still had too many carry-ons for the plane, so thanks again to my generous pals for hiding my beautiful new handbag until we got on the plane.

The flight to London was uneventful, thankfully, and then we got off at Gatwick, which is another pretty manageable airport.  We went to reclaim our checked bags, then went to the Norwegian Air check-in desk.  We were a little worried that we wouldn't be able to check right in because we had such a long layover, but we got everything settled pretty quickly.  The gate agent was very nice and was quite impressed that I got ten days worth of stuff into my small checked suitcase.  I told him it wasn't easy.  We decided to get something to eat before going through security again and found a nice pub, The Beehive, to sit down and relax in.  They had a special holiday menu on the table and I was very excited to be able to order the turkey/cranberry panini, but when I went to order it, the boy at the bar said they weren't available anymore.  Drat.  The chicken club sandwich I ordered instead was very tasty, though.

After lunch, we went through security and wandered to the terminal area.  I wandered around trying to find a bottled water (I also got myself a new Isabel Allende book, yay! well, new to me), then had a seat waiting to find out what gate our flight would leave from.  For some reason, I got my time change mixed up, when they announced our flight's gate, everyone in my party was really relaxed and not in a hurry, but I had it in my head that the flight was taking off in something like 20 minutes.  So I ran down to the gate, hoping my friends would make it on time (but I was the crazy one and got there an hour early, sigh).  With Norwegian Air, you go down to the gate and go through another line, where they check your passports and boarding passes, then you sit down in another gate area to wait to board.  This room was really crowded and I thought "all of these people are getting on one plane?!"  By the time my friends made it to the gate, I figured out that I was an idiot and had the time wrong.  We were just sitting around, waiting to board, when the automated airport announcement about our flight was broadcast - it was pandemonium, with people getting up and rushing the gate.  An attendant had to announce that we were indeed not ready to board, it would be another fifteen minutes or so.

Getting to the gate so early meant I didn't get in that one last trip to the restroom before boarding the plane.  I was a little nervous, then a beautiful gal pal overheard someone say that you could go the restroom, you just had to leave your boarding pass up by the passport check line.  So I did that, ran to the restroom, then ran back, thinking we would be getting on the plane momentarily.  Not so much.  As I was getting my boarding pass back from the agent, we heard an announcement that our flight was delayed for at least an hour and we should all leave the gate area and go back up to the terminal.  The gate agent looked as surprised as I did.  I pushed against the flow of people leaving to get back to my friends and my bags, and we all went back upstairs to a coffee shop to wait out the delay.  One of my beautiful gal pals needed to charge her cell phone, so she found a spot at a charging station.  I was sitting a ways away in a more comfy chair, but I noticed there was a seemingly-drunk guy appearing to bother my beautiful gal pal.  I wandered over there, thinking I would rescue her.  He wasn't really bothering her, but he was a little drunk. Suddenly, he spilled his glass of wine - thankfully, it didn't get all over me or my gal pal, but it did splatter us and it did leave a big wet mess all over the floor.  He made no move to clean it up, so I walked over to a nearby bar and asked for paper towels.  All I could see was someone slipping, falling and cracking their head open.  So I cleaned up the mess and the drunk guy who spilled it just stood there.  Sigh.  If that's not a microcosm of society, I don't know what is.

It was almost precisely an hour before we could get back onto the plane, but we finally did. We had to go through that stupid security line again, walk through that waiting room, and then got straight into a line to board the plane.  I decided that I was just going to carry on that contraband third personal item and someone could just tackle me.  It was dumb to try to hide it again.  And so I became one of THOSE people who figure the rules don't apply to them.  Oop.

The plane was enormous - my beautiful gal pal/seatmate and I were really lucky that she sat in the window seat, I sat on the aisle, and no one sat between us.  So I had space for that third contraband handbag.  I was happy we had personal movie screens, but it is so dumb that Norwegian Air doesn't supply any food or drinks for free.  You have to either order them in advance when you check in, or you can order things on the movie screen at your seat.  As I was watching movies during the flight, it was so annoying that it kept pausing so the flight attendants could announce that food service was either beginning or ending.  I was thankful I had smuggled those rolls and hazelnut spread onto the plane and at least could nibble on those.  I don't think Norwegian Air's fares are that cheap that they should deny people food.  Our flight back to JFK was still pricey.  But oh well.  I watched Far From the Madding Crowd, which I hadn't seen before (it was ok, I do love me some Michael Sheen), a British reality show where a Michelin-star chef attempts to train a casual dining chef (I took an instant dislike to the burger joint chef who quit his training because he didn't like the discipline), and I decided to re-watch Finding Dory, because I wanted something familiar and funny.

It was another flight with a lot of turbulence, so we had to stay seated through much of the trip.  I did get to get up and walk around a couple of times, so that was good.  I hope I didn't bother anybody.  When we arrived at JFK, it hit me that I really should've stayed in Italy.  Instead of quiet lines of security, customs and passport control, it was a mess.  My bag was probably the last one off the plane, no one was friendly, and then we ended up outside in that hideous taxi line.  No wonderful speedboat ride to a beautiful city.  Just road construction.  Ugh.  I think from the time we landed to the time I got home, it took over two hours.  My mom was panicking that I wasn't home yet, so she texted me and I replied I hadn't even left the airport yet!  Sigh.  

Getting back was a slog, but I was happy that my apartment was safe and sound when I got there.  To deal with the quiet (I missed my travel chums!), I just went right to sleep, and dreamt of Italy.  I'm sure I'll be dreaming of it for many quiet nights to come...

photo credit: Gregg Moore