Home Sweet Seattle - October 15, Kirkland

It's hard to believe it's been almost three weeks since we returned from Italy, and a full month since our travels began. 

Rome, you were busy but beautiful with awe-inspiring artifacts. 
Florence, your meals were fantastic against a backdrop of an understated Renaissance. 
Vernazza, you were simply charming and perfect. I will be back. 
Venice, you were a juxtaposition of tourist wonderland and intriguing decay. I hope future generations can still find quiet local alleys and canals like we did. 


The trip showed me again how well Brendan and I travel together. I'm looking forward to sharing many more adventures with him, but something tells me none will be as magical as Italia. 

This is one of my favorite photos from the trip. For more photos, visit our Picasa site.

Well, blog followers, this concludes our Italy postings! But I'm hoping to turn this into a "travel blog", and may post more entries when we travel in the future. 

I hope I inspired you to add Italy to your travel list. 

Thanks for reading.

Arrivederci!

Best Cab to the Airport Since Ever - September 25, Venice

Waking up on September 25 was bittersweet. It would be our last morning in Italy, but after 10 days of Italian culture and new experiences, we were getting ready to return to the familiar. 

Having breakfast changed those feeling a little. If we stayed a thousand days, I don't think I would have tired of the food.

We walked around our hotel's block after breakfast in a final attempt to savor the city. She was quiet and free of day trippers, and the narrow streets and merchants were awaking and readying themselves for another busy day.

After some debate, we decided to hire a private water taxi to save time on what would be a very long day of travel. Bonus: We were also able to view Venice one last time from the water, and felt a little like movie stars!

Our hotel, like most other Venetian businesses and accommodations, had direct access to a canal. The motorboat simply pulled up to our hotel's back door, and we were instantly on our way to the airport.

Seeing Venice from the water in the early morning was a sight I'll never forget.

Riding in style, back to the States.

Real Venetian blinds!

Goodbye, Venice.

Video: There's no taxi like a water taxi in Venice. 

Once we were free of Venice's narrow canals, our captain put the pedal to the metal and we were flying across the waters. Venice became smaller and smaller in the distance. 

In about 30 minutes, we arrived at the Marco Polo Airport. Our water taxi captain expertly maneuvered the very long boat into one of the airport's piers, and we began following the signs to the airport's main entrance. We arrived with plenty of time to catch our flight. I made a mental note to put wine-openers in checked luggage after security confiscated a corkscrew from my carry-on. (D'oh!)

Before long, we were on the plane. We settled into our seats, joking with the younger guy next to us that the airline must have sat the three youngest people in the same row. 

Seriously. There wasn't a single kid on the plane, and almost all of the adults were retirees. Brendan thought I was the youngest person on the flight. 

Another 9-hour flight passed, and we were in Philadelphia, clearing customs and immigration and switching our money back like expert travelers. 

As soon as our phones had service in the Philly airport, I listened to a voicemail from my Dad saying my sister had gone into labor earlier that day. I told my mom I would call as soon as we were in Seattle. 

She had the baby while Brendan and I might have actually been flying over the Midwest.

We left Italy as Brendan and Heather. We touched down in Seattle as Uncle Brendan and Auntie Heather, with lots of new experiences to share with our nephew in the future. 

Not a bad way to end the trip. 

"Welcome back, Uncle Brendan and Auntie Heather!"  - Carl John Landau, born 9/25/2011.

The Last Day - September 24, Venice

It was hard to believe that we were already on the last full day of our Italian adventure.

We began the day with the hotel’s breakfast, which was probably the best continental breakfast of the trip. The restaurant also had fake owls to keep away the pesky pigeons—which was fine by me as I was still scarred by my almost-bird-bomb experience outside Rome’s Santa Maggiore.

We walked to Doge’s Palace, which has been Venice’s home to offices of state for almost a thousand years. Located in St. Mark’s Square, it was thankfully an easy walk from the hotel. We arrived a while before our scheduled tour, so we killed time in the Palace’s café that also had a front seat view to a canal. 

In front of St. Mark's, or "Europe's Drawing Room", dubbed by Napoleon. Doge's Palace is to the right of the basilica.

I had to try a “real” Italian coffee before we left the country, also known as a shot of espresso. Never mind that I watered that puppy down with caramel and whipped cream to balance the bitterness. 

View from the cafe and my "real" Italian coffee.

The tour was more of a story telling session about the middle class’ role in medevial Venetian politics. Our guide was very animated and the highlight was seeing the dungeons (on the top floor- not basement!) that Casanova famously escaped from. We also saw the world’s largest oil painting and followed the slow moving line of tourists to pass over the Bridge of Sighs. 

View from inside the Bridge of Sighs. The blue paper on either side is covering the construction/restorative work happening, but you still got the idea. :)

Sigh.

View from the Bridge of Sighs.

Legend has it that prisoners passed over this bridge on their way to the Doge's Palace prison and sighed as they took one last look at the beauty of Venice. Visitors can follow their footprints through the Doge’s Palace. 

The blue paper is covering the restoration work underway. Future generations, you're welcome.

For lunch, we learned our lesson from last night’s hotel recommended drinking game, and opted to follow a co-worker’s suggestion for a Venetian ristorante. Ae Sconte was located in a quiet square with a Venetian well, and we both took advantage of the complimentary champagne to begin and lemoncello to end. It was a wonderful last Italian lunch.

We were nothing less than lucky with the sunny weather throughout our time in Italy. Brendan completely jinxed future vacations by saying he was disappointed that he wouldn’t get to see the “real” rainy and gloomy Venice. So we’re probably due a natural disaster next time we travel.

After resting off lunch at the hotel, we attempted to find more unbeaten paths. We started walking toward the train station, stopping at a gelateria on the way and finishing our snack in a piazza near a 9th century church. As we wandered shops and squares further and further away from St. Mark’s Square, we felt like we were finally starting to see more of the “real” residential Venice. It was fun watching Italian children chase after each other in squares near canals full of parked motorboats. 

Nothing special, just a 1,000+ year old church.

Not a bad place to enjoy gelato.

We bought one-way tickets on the local vaporetto and let Rick Steves explain the Grand Canal sights to us as we rode all the way to the last San Marco stop. 

View from the vaporetto.

For a final attraction, we took the elevator to the top of San Marco’s cathedral—probably one of the newest structures we explored in Italy! The original burned and was replaced by the current tower in the early 20th century. 

St. Mark's Square from the air.

Looking over Venice from her campanile.

We hurried out of the campanile a few minutes before 6 p.m., worried that we would get stuck at the top when the bells rang and return to the states with hearing loss.

We relaxed at the hotel a bit more and then returned to St Mark’s to see the square at twilight one last time. We browsed the area’s restaurants and decided to end the trip the way we started it:

With pizza. 

We sat in a pizzeria’s back room and chatted about the trip. There was a random basketball in a glass case at the host’s station, and we couldn’t resist asking our server about it: apparently Kobe Bryant had signed it when he dined at the same restaurant last year! Random but fun way to end the trip.

From my trip’s journal:
“It hurts to leave, but still looking forward to getting back in the normal groove, blogging and pulling together the trip album.”

It was time to pack. 

At least we still had one small adventure left... (more in the next post!)

A Water Wonderland - September 23, Venice

We left Florence early the next day, officially en-route to our final Italian destination: Venice. 

We sat next to a nice younger couple from Chicago on the train, and we tired to pump each other up as we were all a little nervous about finding our hotels in the waterlogged maze of Venice.

As the train began crossing larger and larger lakes and lagoons, I still didn't know what to expect. I remembered that my grandmother said "Venice is like nowhere else" but also that my coworker said people's reactions to Venice rival the opera, as in you either hate or love it. 

As we exited the train and expertly made our way to the vaperetto (water taxi) stand, we gained our first glances of the city. I knew I'd be the latter.

We crowded onto a large flat ferry boat, or one of the vaparettos that serve as a Venetian "bus." 

But does the view from your bus look like this? 

The Grand Canal.

After exiting at the Rialto stop (yes, THAT Rialto Bridge), we walked about five minutes to find our hotel. We were happy that this hotel was modernly designed. After more than a week of "elegant Italian"-style accommodations, it was nice to have a place that felt a little more contemporary.

The bathtub had a sign that said it would fill in 90 seconds. We couldn't resist testing this...

About half full in 90 seconds, but not overflowing. Myth: BUSTED! 

We dropped the bags at the Palace Bonvecchiati and started to explore. I was amazed at how quiet Venice was, despite the mounds of tourists. No automobiles, just the gentle hum of the city's main form of transportation: boats. 

And more boats. 

I was instantly in love with Venice's charm. Brendan was starting to equate it to Disneyland, with its hoards of tourists and crowded streets, but I was able to find magic in its narrow alleys, canals and bridges that seemed to whisper "Step off the main path. I'm still here. Look at my centuries-old buildings and ancient waterways. There is no one else like me. Come discover me." 

It was true: if you step a few blocks from the main paths or just turn in the opposite direction of the helpful points-of-interest signs, you can easily still stumble into empty squares boasting colorful laundry hung from locals' windows. 

Or, more likely, the laundry belonged to some rich ex-patriot's vacation home. But let's not ruin the fantasy. 

Our first stop was the Gallerie dell'Accademia. We explored the large museum with its huge works, even though Brendan's highly sought after "Vetruvian Man" by da Vinci was too fragile to be displayed. After a light lunch at a quiet cafe (yes! we found one!), we returned to the hotel to freshen up. 

 

Gondola rides are expensive. 

They're overrated. 

People will try to rip you off. 

We've all heard the warnings, but I convinced Brendan that we needed to experience this once-in-a-lifetime tradition. So we shelled out the 80E after a non-successful negotiation attempt, and hopped into a boat near the city's famed Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal. 

Expensive, yes. A little ridiculous, yes. 

Regrets? Not in the least. 

Come sail away, my little Gondolier.

The famed Rialto Bridge from the gondola.

It felt like we were in a movie! This is us UNDER the Rialto Bridge.

Gondola crossing!

 Venice is sinking, her buildings crumbling, and her decay is tragic and beautiful. Sorry. Venice brings out the romantic in me.

After exploring the shops along and near the Rialto Bridge, we walked the short distance to the Piazza San Marco, described by Napoleon as "Europe's Drawing Room." We were looking forward to winding down our trip in a city with more exploring potential than sightseeing attractions.

In St. Mark's Square, the Campanile is behind us in the top photo. 

Saying hi to a Venetian dog! Several of the shop owners' brought their pets to work. We purchased Murano glass from a kind young woman who showed us how to make sure the glass was authentic.

Venice is connected by many small bridges like this. Oh, to live in a city of canals.

Shops decorate the main tourist walkways-- and really, most any walkway-- in Venice. Famous for their masks and glass.

Lookit! I found a quiet street!

Venice's beauty is almost painful. Look at those old, decaying buildings rising up from the lagoon.

I'm glad we decided to stay on the lagoon as dinnertime arrived and more and more day-trippers headed home. Venice's shops and restaurants stay open quite late, and we explored on our way to dinner.

Which ended up being our most expensive and most disappointing meal of the trip. Avoid Do Forni at all costs! The tables were squeezed like sardines, the waiters rushed and borderline rude, and not even the complimentary champagne and liver patte could make up for the  forced atmosphere. And this for something billed as "Venice's Restaurant". We ended up having fun only because we turned the experience into a drinking game. 

Like: 

1. Every time a waiter takes a fish from the fish freezer (yup, cause we could see that) take a drink. 

2. Every time a waiter bumps our table, take a drink. 

Tourist. Trap.  The waiter even grabbed the bill while Brendan was still sitting at the table!

So after becoming slightly drunk on Venetian wine, we stumbled a few meters back into San Marco Square and found a much more enjoyable atmosphere. 

The square really comes alive at night, with "battling" musicians playing music at San Marco's outdoor ristorantes. Listening to a string quartet with the square and basilica alit in the nighttime lights more than made up for the obnoxious Do Forni.

String quartet in Piazza San Marco.

We may have been ripped off by dinner, but seeing Venice at night helped ease the pain.