Thursday, April 26th.
We awake to the sounds of a city itself that is itself greeting the day. The Hotel Bellini is a subdued grand hotel, if you can grasp that concept. The lobby is an expanse of marble and old wood. The furnishings are the type that you might find in an old stately home. Our room is comfortable with old wall paper that is actually slightly padded cloth decorated in an old style theme. The shower, unlike what we found in our last trip to Europe, is actually enclosed! No flooding the floor while we shower!
We left the hotel and stopped at a little cafe downstairs for our morning cup of cappuccino accompanied by a nice croissant. We've noticed that there is different price at snack bars and cafes depending on if you want to stand inside, or be seated at a table outside. So our mood determines which we will do when we order our ritual serving of, what is to us, the nectar of life.
Then off to Piazza San Marco we go. Walking down the streets of Venice you are acutely aware of there being no motor vehicles at all! People go about their business walking and stopping to greet their occasional friend. Deliveries to stores are different in that everything is delivered by hand. The delivery people have specially built hand trucks to haul their huge loads. Loads that you just don't see in the states.
My particular interest as we walk along and cross the many bridges that bind this city together, is how people have adapted to life surrounded by water. Most every facet of daily life has a water borne element to it. From deliveries to the larger supermarkets, construction at waterside sites, to the ambulance that speeds to emergency calls.
We reach the Piazza in due time and are taken back by this massive square filled with people from around the world. Walking along you hear the cacophony of languages as they relate events to each other. We hopped into one line, not really knowing where it was going, it appeared to be going to some type of bell tower, but quickly abandon it in favor of another line that appeared to be moving faster.
The line we chose happened to be going into St Mark's Basilica. We entered this huge, ancient cathedral and are immediately awed, as is usual in Europe, by the antiquity of this building and its treasures. We eventually enter the Treasure Room and see real treasures of ancient history. Gold chalices and scepters from the sixth century and treasures with roots in ancient Constantinople. We climbed a steep, narrow staircase to the roof top access and paid our 5 Euros to go out onto the basilica balcony and look upon the piazza. I couldn't help but be impressed by Gerri's total lack of acrophobia! She actually looked out over the railings! Go Gerri!
After awhile we left the basilica and walked around the square with its shops and outdoor restaurants. Several of the restaurants had small bands playing, I was kind of wondering if there might be a battle of the bands as one band finished its playing of the theme from The Godfather and another nearby band got ready to add its music to the mix.
The weather was getting warm so we of course had to cool down and what better way to cool down than with a scoop of gelato! Of course we had to locate a vendor who had a sizable serving for its price of 3 Euro. But victory was ours as we purchased our gelato and sat down to enjoy this Italian favorite.
As we sat we made plans for our next stop. We had decided on heading to the area of the Accademia and started to plot our walking course. But being as how we were next to a water bus stop, what better way would there be than to take the bus and leave the driving to them? I know, bad play on words, oh well. I bought the tickets, which were 6.50 Euros each and got what I thought were good directions to the correct line to take. But after watching 3 different water buses leave from different mooring stops we finally reached the correct one and were soon on our way.
We reached our stop and decided to keep walking since the day was beautiful and we still had a lot of energy left. We continued on, leaving behind the Giudecca Canal that we were just on and heading out by the many smaller canals that comprise Venice. In the average city the streets of names, but here each canal has a unique name to distinguish an address for the nearby residents. Most buildings that we pass have some kind of access to the canal whether for deliveries or visitors. Small canals open onto larger canals the same as when streets lead to a main thoroughfare.
Gerri has been impressed with my sense of direction which I haven't seemed to have lost since our last European trip. I don't even have a GPS either! We find our way back to our hotel and after resting up we have our dinner, at a decent price, at a local cafeteria. We take an evening stroll and then plan for our next days activities.
Bonoserra!
