We got into Venice at 940 on Saturday morning local time and walked about a mile to a dock where we waited for our boat to take us to Venice. The boat took many stops and we saw some of the islands near Venice, but did not get off the bus to see any of them. About 40 minutes later we arrived at our stop and made the confusing walk to our hotel by way of Saint Mark’s Square. We saw the Basilica from the outside and there was huge line of people waiting to get in. Most of the people there were tourists and the majority of them were people making their tours with their cruise ship. We had two maps however, and were able to find the Hotel Riva and get checked in. Our room was on the top floor and there was no elevator so it was a pretty long and heavy haul getting our bags up there, but it was well worth it as our room had a great view at the head of a three-way intersection of canals. Mom took a shower while I slept for a few minutes and then I got up when she was finished and jumped in the shower. When I got out I took another little nap while she got ready and then I finished getting ready. It was around 3 by the time we got out and about. We stopped at the front desk of the hotel and a guy named Sandro gave us the names of several places to try for dinner. We made the walk back to St. Mark’s Square and walked around a bit and then we made our way to the Rialto Bridge and just kind of got lost around the streets of Venice. We were able to find our way back though. We then went back to St. Mark’s Basilica and went inside to look at all the sights. We weren’t there very long before we decided that we should go back to the hotel for a bathroom break. It is definitely hard to find a public bathroom in Venice.
When we came down there was another lady working at the desk that Mom had corresponded with frequently over email. So they chatted a bit and she gave us the name of another place to try for dinner. We decided that place was close so we would try that. We had some time before they opened up for dinner so we decided that we would try the Gondola. Though they are pretty expensive, if it definitely one of those things that you have to do when you go to Venice. It was about a 40 minute trip and I took a lot of pictures and our gondolier was very helpful in telling us all the things we were passing. It was very relaxing and I enjoyed it a lot. He even did a little bit of singing for us. By the time we were done, we had a little time to go to a Travel place to see if we could get our tickets for our train to Florence the following day. By the time we got there though they told us that they had closed the train sales for today. We had missed it by about 5 minutes. We decided just to go ahead and try and walk to our dinner.
We were one of the first parties seated for dinner. They had a specific dinner laid out for tourists that don’t really know what to get, but we decided just to design our own dinner. If I horribly misspell some of the names of wines and foods, just know I don’t drink and I’m not Italian. We started out with a house white wine which was a Pinot Grigio and was very good, not that I am a great judge of wines. But I could tolerate it well and thought it tasted good. For our appetizer we had clams and mussels that were soaked in a soupy tomato broth with bread. Our first main dish was a risotto made with mushrooms and shrimp and our second main dish was grilled sea bass. They served the salad between those two main dishes. We then finished the meal off with a Tiramisu and they gave us two shots of Limoncello at the end of the meal. The meal lasted for almost two hours which was a great experience. Mom made an excellent point that even in decent restaurants in America, they bring your main dish out before you have even finished your salad and sometimes you haven’t finished your appetizer before they bring your main dish. I never realized how annoying this is until I realized how nice it was just to sit back and eat your food and for the waiter to bring your next dish when you were finished with the first. I am sure if you go to a Ruth Chris Steakhouse it would be like this, but we have all been to Outbacks and Longhorns and this is usually not the case.
We were both feeling a little tired due to the wine and only getting a few hours of sleep on the plane so we added two shots of espresso to the tab. This was my first experience of having just a straight espresso shot with a sugar in it and it was actually pretty good. Not as bad as I expected. But that shot of espresso still did not stop Mom from falling asleep halfway through a story I was telling. I didn’t think it was that boring. Once we got back outside though, the cold air woke us up quickly and we decided to go back out to St. Mark’s Square because by now all the tourists would have been cleared out and so it was. It was peaceful and the lights in the square were all lit up. Mom also mentioned wanting to go see the Rialto Bridge lit up at night, so despite my strong want to pass out in my bed, we made the walk to the Bridge. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and spent some time just looking out the window at the canals. It’s pretty funny because even if you aren’t looking out the window you can hear an “Oi!” every once in awhile that means that a Gondola is coming around the corner and is checking to see if another one is coming the other way. Mom would get excited and jump up and go look, so when we were both in bed I would softly say “Oi” thinking that she might jump up and check it out. Good times…
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