Tim and Jayne's Adventure Germany: April 2012

A Week in Venice

Italy

After researching various destinations, we decided to spend a week in Venice as it would allow us to drive to it within one day. As we all are aware, Venice is an international destination and hotels are priced accordingly. We did find a website that allows vacation renters and vacationers to hook up and rent a little more affordably, plus the additional option of having your own kitchen, which can help moderate the food bill a bit as well.

Our Venice apartment. - link to the apartment we rented

With our accommodation arrangements made, we discovered that driving was a bit problematic as you need to park your car off the island as there are absolutely no cars in Venice proper and therefore daily parking rates are at a premium. We then decided that the train was just as economical and we would have the comfort of moving about and enjoying the scenery. Travel by train in Europe is just such a humane travel experience. The trains are comfortable, fast, and provide a very scenic ride. The food available in the train stations is just amazing and the costs for both the train and the food are very reasonable indeed.

Venice Bound!!!

High Speed Train called 'ICE'

Jayne and ICE in the Munich Hauptbahnhof.

Yes, this is the speed that the train was going!

Food Offerings at Munich Train Station

More food....

....and more!!!

Northern Italy (from train)
- I believe the Valpolicella Region

Northern Italy (Sud Tirol)
- Views from the train

We arrived in Venice in the late afternoon, where we jumped on a Sea Bus (Vaporetto) and after a 20 minute boat ride we arrived at the Arsenault stop, where we were met by the rental agent, who walked us to our apartment, took the cash, gave some great food advice, and left us to discover Venice.

Our first view of Venice - from the train station

Ahhhh, Venice!

Vaporetto
There are around 24 routes and runs just like a bus system - Euro 6.50 one way.
We bought a weekly pass prior to our arrival for Euro 37.50 (reg. price Euro 50.00).
The route down the Grand Canal, is 3.5 km and takes around 40 minutes from start to finish.
(In case you are wondering, right now Euro 1 = $1.31Cdn
- when we first arrived in Germany the exchange rate was around $1.41 - but that is another story)

Our apartment for the week, in the Castello Sestieri (district)!

Look at the key. To get in you have to turn the key four times
as there are four locks. I don't know why, as there is very little crime
in Venice. You felt very comfortable and safe walking around
day and night. Although, in the crowds, we kept an eye on our
knapsacks, etc. there are always pick pockets around.

Our apartment from the back (and our laundry!!)

Our first evening was a quick shop for some morning staples then out for dinner. One’s first dinner in Italy must be pizza, and I must say that it was the best I have ever eaten. The cost of my pizza was about Euro 8,00 so not too bad in a restaurant just off of the Piazza San Marco in Venice.

Tim's first real Italian pizza (pronounced 'pittsa')!

Pizza capricciosa: mozzarella, tomato, mushrooms, artichokes, cooked ham, olives, oil

Yes, that is wine on our table :)

Our second day Jayne decided that she would wear a pedometer to see how much walking we would do. Having kept this up for the week, we clocked in at just under 130kms. Not bad for old folks, but we must admit that there was a lot of sore feet and stiff joints each morning. Venice stretches across 117 small islands and has 150 channels and 409 bridges. The surprise to us was the fact that the bridges appear in pictures as if they are nice rolling walking paths, when in fact “every” bridge is a set of stairs up and down. My guess is that makes for about 12 thousand steps, and our bodies felt we walked up and down every one of them.

Bridges,

and more Bridges.

Every bridge and every step was worthwhile.

There is something to see of interest at every twist and turn as you “get lost in Venice”. Which we did a number of times. They say that GPS's don't even work in Venice. Every now again, when you are lost, if you look up you will see signs like....

this, that can help guide your way back to a landmark and then you can
set out again (and get lost).

The sites of Venice are everything from towering cathedrals to humble dwellings, each with their own character that keeps you snapping photos all week long.

We took nearly 600 photos.

Don’t worry we won’t make you sit thru the presentation of each and every one. Here are some of the sights we saw......

Campanile - St. Mark's Basilica's 99 m tall bell tower.
Built in the year 888, but in 1902 it suddenly collapsed
and was completely rebuilt, brick by brick

Piazza San Marco

Details of Basilica Di San Marco

Basilica Di San Marco - the line ups to get in are hours. We can't
imagine how long it would take to get in during the summer months.

In front of Basilica Di San Marco - only a few people there - OMG
We thought that we were going in off season, the week before Easter.
What do we know - it is Easter Break for all the schools.

Do you see, in the foreground, of this picture and one above, the items
that look like benchs? Between autumn and spring, when the acque alte (high tides)
come, it causes partial flooding. When this happens these benchs become temporary
boardwalks (called passarelle) in which the locals and visitors must use.
"Very intense" events warrant alerting the whole population,
which is accomplished by sounding a dedicated system of sirens
located throughout the city.

Entrance to Basilica Di San Marco

Promenade south of Piazza San Marco

We can't imagine how busy it is in the summer months.
Not a place to be!

There was a cruise ship in port nearly every day.
Venice's canals must be regularly dredged to accomodate, tankers
and cruise ships by pumping
water out of canals and removing pungent sludge
(they say that is very smelly in the summer time
and the humidity makes it feel like 40 C).
But by doing this it allows more seawater into the lagoon
changing the aquaculture and elevating the
acque alte (high tide).

The Arsenale - founded in 1104, it was the greatest medieval shipyard
in Europe, home to 300 shipping companies employing up to 16,000 people.
It is now used by the Italian Military.

The Arsenale was right behind our apartment.

Giardini Pubblici - large leafy public gardens at the east (south?) end of Venice,
established under Napoleon. What is nice about it is that it is a
great place to escape the hords of tourists.

Our favourite local bakery.
The strudel looking item with the E 1.00 price tag on it, is to die for.
It is a solid 'christmas' fruit cake like (with liquor in it) strudel - OMG.
The other favourites were the rum balls (also E 1,00) and the
'krafts' (light cream filled donuts). See photo below!

Yup - that is Tim eating one of those gorgeous krafts!

Laundry Day!

Venice Architecture!

Narrow Alleyways!

Pescaria - Venice's 600 year old fish market, located at the
base of the Ponte Rialto (Rialto Bridge).

Right next to the fish market is the Rialto Market offering superb
local produce to the locals, tourists and shop owners.

Rialto Market

Tim enjoying an orange.

Easter Window!

The nearby backstreets (behind the markets) are lined with
bakeries, bacari (bars) and gourmet shops.

We visited the market early in the morning and by 1030am we were hungry.
We past this one bar and had to back peddle as we noticed this
absolutely gorgeous looking pizza type thing in the window.
Well, we had to try it!

Yes, that is Jayne, the gorgeous thing from the window and a glass of Prosecco
(and yes, it is only 10:30 in the morning - shh, don't tell Jayne's Mum).

When we went to pay, we asked what the name was - 'special toast',
that is only made at his bar.
It certainly was special - the taste and the cost. It cost E 15,00
plus the prosecco (E 7,00 - I think he saw us coming).
What do you expect, two back streets back from the Rialto Bridge.
It was good though and we would have it again.

View from the Rialto Bridge

Narrow canals that are navigated by the gondaliers and
small motorized boats.

A wonderful site seen in various canals around Venice.

Wow!

Always need a sunset view!

Piazza San Marco at night (and in the rain)!

Piazza San Marco....

An orchestra playing at a restaurant in Piazza San Marco!

A Dancing Couple!

They're still dancing!

Finding a public toilet in Venice is a challenge and an expensive venture. It costs E 1,50 and there only a handful. Prior to arriving in Venice you can buy a 'toilet card' that provides a discount on the 'entrance' fee. We thought it would be better use of our money to go into a bar buy an aperitv (or two) for E 3,00 each and then use their facilities. Worked for us. Except once, when we were near the train station we popped into a cafe and ordered two coffees and paid E 6,00 ($9.00 Cdn). An expensive washroom break and obviously not the place to get a coffee.

The gondolas add to the charm although they can look a little overdone when there are 20 in a row with camera laden tourists riding along as if they were the first ones to ever take the ride. With a city that dates back to the 1100s, I highly suspect that this is just a very expensive boat ride (ranging from E 80,00 during the day to E 100,00 at night - for 40 minutes), but having said that, each to his own!

Not looking very special or romantic.
After these two gondolas, there were five more behind them.

THE GRAND CANAL - see all the gondolas!

Gondalier in authentic shirt and scarf - he is just missing his hat!

Gondolas and the Rialto Bridge

Gondolas just waiting for all the tourists to come this summer!
Did you know that Venice gets 22 million tourists a year!
The population is only 61,500 - can you imagine.

We bought matching outfits! NOT!

We did pass on the gondolas but we were glad to have our week long Vaporetto pass which allowed us to go anywhere we wanted.

One way of getting a ride in a gondola is by taking a traghetto, a gondola service locals use to cross the Grand Canal (between its widely spaced bridges). It only cost around E 0,80 and it isn't very romantic, but you can say you were in a gondola.

Traghetto - if you don't have good balance you might not want
to do this as you may end up standing!

Traghetto crossing the Grand Canal.

We did take the opportunity to Visit Murano, Lido, and Burano. Murano is known for the Glass factories, Lido for the long beach with its wealthy European inhabiting the palatial like homes for vacationing, and Burano for its lace making industry. Every island has its own flavor and there it would take several weeks to discover them all.

MURANO

Murano - gorgeous glass art in one of the piazza's

Murano - glass blowing demonstration

Jayne's Mum told us that she would like to buy us a Murano glass plate.
So we had a great time wandering the streets of Murano and Venice,
thinking of her and looking for just the right one
Here it is!

LIDO

Lido Beach

A little bit of action on Lido Beach.

Every Tuesday there is a wonderful market on Lido.
It has everything from fruit and veggies to clothing to
kitchenware. You name it, it was there. And so was Jayne.

Lido Market - an amazing cheese trailer

Lido Market - Fresh bread and dried fruit.

BURANO

Burano - beautifully coloured houses.

Burano

Burano - Beautiful and Quaint!

Most houses on Burano had these lovely curtains hanging
in front of their doors, floating in the breeze.
Likely to keep the house cool and
to keep the curious tourist from peaking in.

The food and wine was, let’s just say, divine. We discovered a new meal. Spaghetti with garlic and hot pepper oil, topped with black olives. We had to make this in our apartment as it is so easy and good. The spaghetti is interesting as it takes nearly 30 minutes to cook. So good we brought some back to Germany to be able to indulge in a few more meals.

Tim - cooking with wine

Ahhh! Pure Italian

The best thing about the wine is the price. Extremely good wine runs around $5.00 Cdn a bottle. At that price, I must admit to imbibing just a bit. How can you eat pasta without wine?

I made sure I brought a cork screw as you never know when you will want to break into a bottle of wine. One day at the supermarket there was a group of young ladies who bought wine only to discover that they had no way of opening it. ‘McGyver’ to the rescue! I opened all of the wine for the price of a big smile, hugs and a photo. They were all Americans teaching English as a Second Language in Spain, visiting Venice on their Easter Break. Had I known that all I ever needed to pick up chicks was a cork screw, I would have been certain to never be without one. I carry one every where I go now, (don’t tell Jayne).

Tim and 'the Girls'

One afternoon I was hungry, so we stopped to get a slice of pizza. We tried ordering in half Italian and half English and the young man behind the counter, kept saying 'What the f--k! Pick one f--king language. Do you want a f--king pizza'. He was so funny. Jayne decided that we should have a picture of him, but he insisted that Jayne get in the picture too!

We call him our f--king pizza guy.

One other custom is to have a pre dinner drink called a “Spritz”. The Aperol Spritz is made with Prosecco (Italian sparkling wine), Aperol and a splash of soda water, a slice of orange and a olive. As an aperitivo, it's a great way to start a meal because the Aperol is low in alcohol (11%) and tastes light and refreshing. It doesn't ruin your appetite, it stimulates it. Like you need to stimulate your appetite in Italy, but as they say “When in Rome”.

Most cafes serve the Spritz with chips, peanuts or other types of snacks.
Tim bought this lovely little prosciutto and chesse bun to hold him over until dinner.

In Venice, of course, everything has to come and go via boats. Just think about what has to come and go. Here are a few photos to remind you....

DHL - Packages and mail.

The sick.

Construction materials.

People - this is a typical Venice taxi.

ALL stock for all the stores!

Refrigerated and frozen goods.

Fresh fruit and veggies.

City and Regional Services

And then, of course, there is furniture, garbage, equipment. The list goes on.

Talking about garbage, it is picked up daily (recycling every other day). You just put it in a plastic bag and place it outside your door.

So after seven days of eating, drinking, walking off the eating and drinking, it was time to depart back to Germany. We loaded a bottle of wine into our knap sacks, okay it was two, and hopped on the train all the way back to Erlangen, sipping on wine, eating cheese and olives watching the Italian countryside, and then the Austrian Alps pass by us.

We are off to Tuscany for a couple of weeks in June, for some cycling, eating, and drinking. I wonder how much I will weigh when I get back to

Canada

? Oh well, we will enjoy our Italian Spring, and worry about the weight this summer!