We haven’t posted in a few days due to lack of internet and
photo import problems but all is well now so here is some catching up…
Venice
The trip from Verona to Venice took only a little over an
hour by train. We passed through
green fields, orchards, and vineyards.
The last few minutes were a 1.5 km creep along a narrow causeway taking
us into the city of islands (118 islands to be exact). You don’t really see the city until you
walk out of the train station onto the Grand Canal.
We had a little over an hour to soak up the atmosphere on
the steps of the station. We had
to wait until the vaperetti (water buses) started to operate after the pilots
completed a three-hour strike. A
strike by the vaperetti can be quite devastating in a city without roads. Eventually we made our way to St. Mark’s
Square and found our hotel after a five minute walk through the narrow alleys using
Deborah’s phone GPS. (Thank you
Mike for the tip on using the cell phone GPS without having the costly data
roaming turned on!)
 |
Deborah looking out our Hotel window |
Walking in Venice is quite challenging. It is a maze of canals and narrow
walkways. It really makes for some
very interesting exploring and lends itself to great photo shots. Nothing is on a grid and the islands
are not all connected by bridges.
We came across more than one person completely lost. One night we were approached by four
folks who could not find their hotel after imbibing in one too many with their
dinner. We weren’t able to help
them and left them giggling and crying.
We didn’t go anywhere without a map in hand.
 |
Evening walks looking for the "just" the right restaurant and bridge for a picture |
 |
Rush Hour in Venice |
Venice is an expensive city to live or travel in. It also caters to the rich. Deborah enjoyed seeing the shops specializing
in all the most exclusive fashion houses of Europe. Unlucky (lucky?) for her she didn’t want to overload her
pack for the walking bit yet to come.
We knew it was going to be expensive when it cost $2 to have a pee in
the train station and the walkways were made of marble. September is the first month of the
fall prime travel season. July and
August are too hot but prices are more reasonable we are told.
We did the usual tourist things. Saw lots of picturesque scenes of water, boats and old
buildings. We had to say no to
lots of beggars and aggressive “no’s” to guys selling blue-light things you
throw in the air. We took a walking tour of the city that included the St. Mark’s
cathedral built in 100 AD. We also
saw the Santa Maria del Giglio church across from our hotel and the Peggy
Guggenheim Art Collection amongst others.
Although these names meant nothing to me before our tour they were no
less impressive. We also took a
Grand Canal tour and experienced Venice by water. The thing that stood out for us was the architecture. Every period of European architecture
is represented here. Pisa has nothing
on Venice with its one leaning tower.
All the buildings in Venice lean.
I guess that is what happens when you build large buildings on wet
sand. I can just hear them back in
the day, “lets build a huge church on this soggy spot and lets use lots of
marble and limestone, it isn’t that heavy.” Everything is sinking.
St. Mark’s Square flooded at high tide. You walk on the marble square and all of a sudden the seawater
started bubbling up from the drains.
We had a lightening and thunderstorm our first night and that may have
contributed to the flood since locals said it doesn’t always do that.
 |
St. Mark's Square at High Tide |
One of the cooler Venice experiences was attending a concert
featuring the music of Vivaldi. I
must admit out of the 1200 plus tunes on my IPod, I don’t have any Vivaldi, and
most likely never will but… to sit in a small concert hall, built 1000 years
ago and listen to music composed 400 years ago, just down the street, was truly
an amazing experience. Surprisingly
I recognized much of the music but not by name.
 |
The picture doesn't do justice to the flying fingered fiddler. |
 |
View of Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge. |
 |
No building is square. |
People watching was a huge highlight. There were folks and languages spoken
from all over the world. Clearly
it is a destination for many and the fact the Mediterranean cruise ships call daily
makes for a very eclectic group of visitors. English is still a language most
Venetians are fluent in and there are no language barriers to getting around. Great food and good wine rounded out
the experience and after two sleeps it was time to move on.
We decided to visit Bologna for our one unscheduled day
before we joined the rest of the group in Riccione for the start of the
ride. It was a short one-hour
train ride from Venice to Bologna and then a 2.5-hour hop the next day to
Riccione.
… speaking of the bike riding…. We were sitting in a garden
in Venice, waiting for our canal boat tour, when I heard an Aussie accent
asking a group if they were from Canada.
They said yes and she replied that she was too, an Aussie currently
living in Whistler. I interjected
and said she should have just said she had a Whistler accent. After a bit of chitchat it turned out
that she and her 10 friends from Whistler were headed to Riccione to cycle as
well. They warmed up by hiking the
Dolomites in northern Italy the week before. Eventually I saw her other friends, all tall walking sticks
with weathered fit faces… I think we are in a world of trouble if we are
expected to keep up with these folks.
Bologna
We only had one night and an afternoon in Bologna. It is a university town with all
kinds of young people populating the many squares drinking coffee and eating gelato. We joined them for some leisurely time
in the afternoon. When it came to
dinner I thought we would be eating Bologna’s specialty, baloney but it turns
out it is Bolognese sauce. We had
a great dinner of Tagliatelle Bolognese in a sidewalk café.
Caught an 11:30 am train (I am now a Trenitalia account
holder) to Ricionne and joined our biking friends at the Belvedere Bike
Hotel. We were personally greeted
upon our arrival, ushered to the pool for lunch and drinks, and given the
details of the biking week. Our
room is on the top floor with a balcony overlooking the Adriatic. I think I can see Croatia.
Off to dinner and drinks, more to come…
