April 20th in Venice

The next morning, we were still laughing about the mosquito incident from last night, although I must admit that I found it funnier than Joe did. The thing was, the mosquitoes really, really liked Joe and bit the hell out of him. His hands were covered with bites and he had two on his face, not including all the ones on the rest of his body. He looked like he had the measles. I had two bites on me, on my neck. When we left our room and went down the few steps into the kitchen for breakfast, there were already two couples seated at the table. They were from Australia. When we relayed last night’s incident to them, one of them replied, “Right in the nightstand, beside the bed, is a mosquito zapper device. You just plug it in and put it near the window and no mosquitoes will come in the room.” Well, I’ll be damned.

This morning we had a 9:05 ticket for St. Mark’s basilica. One of the women recommended that we go to the Doge Palace after that, since it was next to the basilica. We waited in a short line for the basilica, and went in, prepared to be overawed with beauty and works of genius. We were a tad disappointed. There was a queue defined by ropes, with little room to pause. It was very dark inside, and we were probably in and out in about 15 minutes. Maybe we were just weary. Maybe we were just underwhelmed after experiencing Roman churches. I sure wouldn’t mind giving the basilica another try in a future trip.

Next, we queued up for a ride in the elevator to the top of the bell tower, where we took many panoramic photos of the city below us and the islands beyond. After descending, we went to the Doge Palace next door. We bought the audioguide and went in. I’m not saying that the palace wasn’t beautiful and the artwork resplendent, but we were just museumed out, so to speak. We had been to so many wonderful churches, museums and galleries in Rome for the past five days that we couldn’t appreciate any more of it. For the rest of the day, we decided, we would stay outside and enjoy the beautiful weather and the water all around us.

Next, we took a water taxi for a 45 minute ride on the canal. I had forgotten to grab a bottle of wine and glasses beforehand, so Joe asked the driver if he had anything. He broke out a small bottle of champagne and handed us two plastic flutes. Now, this was living. Riding along the Grand Canal, sipping champagne, with the man I love – this was a highlight of our trip.

After walking through the basilica, riding the elevator up the bell tower and enjoying the view, touring part of the Doge Palace, and riding a water taxi along the Grand Canal, we went over the Rialto bridge, where we browsed for souvenirs. I finally found a long brown necklace for Kelly that I had been searching for since we arrived in Venice. Here also Joe saw a bag he thought Kelly might like and without much hesitation, we bought it. He also stocked up on lots and lots of T shirts for everyone in the family. We bought the boys pirate caps and since Joe has a cap collection, he just had to buy one for himself.

At some point we stopped to eat lunch at Da Roberto in San Zaccaria. This wasn’t on the list but we were hungry, there were seats outside, and heavenly aromas wafted around us. We ordered a chianti, as Joe said it would be shameful if we came all the way to Italy and didn’t. We shared a tomato, mozzarella, proscuitto, sausage, and onion pizza to start. On this trip, I consumed more proscuitto than I ever have in my entire life, because I could and because it was so good. Next I ordered the tagliatelle with prosciutto and peas in a carbonara sauce.

After lunch, we walked back over the Rialto and took a left to Cannaregio, then a right to the Castello region. We walked until we came to Campo Giovanni e Paolo, where we stopped for a break. We sat at the water’s edge, watching children play, and ambulance boats pulling up in front of us to dock. The church of the same name is located here and is known as the Venetian Pantheon because inside are the tombs of 25 doges. The former monastery next to it is now the city hospital; thus, the ambulances. In the middle of the campo is a bronze equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni. It is the only such statue of an emperor to survive, as the rest were melted down, either for their precious metal or in order to destroy pagan idols. I had my daily (sometimes twice) craving for gelati, so we walked to the other side of the campo to find some. When Joe passed on having any, I seriously thought he might be delusional.

We noticed the abundance of families and children in various campos throughout Venice. On Saturday, it is market day, and we saw many Venetians shopping at the fish and produce markets. They were often dressed beautifully, hair perfectly coiffed, carefully applied makeup, dresses and skirts with heels. The children rode their bikes through the campo, or just ran around, gathering in groups to play games. Apparently there are no playgrounds in Venice like we are used to at home, with the elaborate plastic set-up of tunnels and slides. Joe chuckled when two young boys passed us, oblivious to all around them as they chatted away in Italian.

For dinner, we ate at Ostaria Antico Dolo in the Ruga Rialto, the area of fish and produce markets. It was a very small place with an Italian only menu, so the waitress patiently translated every single item on the menu for us. Dinner and wine were good, and as Joe likes to say, “The company was even better.” Again we strolled back to our hotel, consulting our handy dandy map every so often, this time a little wistful as it was our last night in Venice. And so ends another wonderful, magical day in the watery city of Venice.