6.15.2011

Travel Tip #1: Always carry your passport.


Our full-day in Venice started out with a Vaparetto ride to St. Mark's Square.  On the way, we passed this gondola racing team. It was pretty amusing, but they were definitely quick!
We were trying to get to St. Mark's before all of the massive crowds, and thankfully, our plan was a success. The wait to get in to the Basilica was only 10 minutes!
On the left is St. Mark's Basilica, on the right is the Doge's Palace...
Unfortunately, like many of the other churches, photographs were not allowed inside. This had to have been the most ornately decorated church I have ever seen.  To give you an idea, this is just the outside entrance...
ALL of that detail work is made up of thousands of small tiles.  Yes, it is all mosaic. And it is beyond amazing on the inside!

We decided to splurge (both time and money) a bit and walk through the museum in the upper rafters of the Basilica. I am so glad we did, because it explained how they did all of the restoration work for the mosaics, gave a history of the Republic of Venice, and had a few of the original artifacts from the beginning of the church's history.  Another bonus: the view of the piazza and the harbor from the outside balcony!
After finishing up at the Basilica, we headed across the piazza to the Correr Museum. I wanted to see a specific artifact, 2 foot tall shoes from ancient Venice, but we ended up having to walk through the ENTIRE museum before we found them.  Tricky museum...advertise a certain artifact and then put it at the end.

By the time we finished up there, we were both famished, but not too hungry that we couldn't take a few pictures...
Contrary to other reports, etc...we didn't have a pigeon problem. There were maybe, MAYBE, a hundred birds in the entire piazza.

Now, based on the title of this post, I'm going to give you Travel Tip #2: Don't eat in St. Mark's Piazza/Always Check the Menu Before You Order. It turned out that each item we ordered (4 in total) cost us 9.80 Euros, a piece.  You can do the math.

Our third stop was the Doge's Palace.  Again, there was no line, so we went straight in.  And again, pictures were not allowed. I found that to be pretty annoying. But the history of the building, the Doge, and the Republic of Venice was very, very interesting. I definitely would have taken a guided tour, just to hear more stories.
We finished up in St. Mark's and headed towards the Venice Opera House, Teatro la Fenice, or The Phoenix. It's named that because of it's ability to rise from the ashes, quite literally. It's burned down a total of 3 times!
 In case you're not aware, Venice is an insanely confusing city with tiny, random streets and a compass is necessary! This is just one example and it was a main street to get to the Vaparetto station...

 We were headed to the Vaparetto so that we could cross the Grand Canal and head towards the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute and the Punto della Dogana, a contemporary art museum. They were both closed. But, they did offer a great view of the canal and the harbor.

 After that, we headed back to our hotel so I could change into something warmer. Best idea I've ever had.

Then it was off to the Rialto bridge for the necessary picture and a gondola ride!
We spent a few minutes after the gondola sitting under the bridge before heading to the Carnaggio area for dinner.  The restaurant we wanted to go to was closed by the time we got there (8:00!), but we found another one still churning out food.  Although we only had candlelight to see by, it was still delicious and memorable.  It was such a relaxing, pleasant, and romantic evening!

And then we got back to our hotel...
Do you see the firemen? How about the water hoses?

Now can you see the black smoke?
And THAT is why you should always carry your passport.  :-)

I think the best part of this whole experience was that Tim and I both stayed calm.  When many of the other guests were flipping out and practically attacking the staff for information, we stood on the outside, talked to a few of the other guests for information and made the best of the situation.  The hotel wasn't visibly on fire, the power was still on in ALL of the surrounding buildings, and we knew how separated our room was from the rest of the hotel. 

Eventually, we were let up one-by-one with a firefighter escort to retrieve our stuff. Thankfully we were both mostly packed and the rest of things were easily scooped into our backpacks.  The only casualty of this entire experience was my eyebrow pencil. Which I reminded Tim of every time we passed a Sephora for the rest of our trip... 

Here's the view of all of the guests waiting to get information and their things before we were allowed up...
 And then, of course, several guests took advantage of the drinks being served at the cafe next door to our hotel...
 By the time we got our stuff down from the hotel, it was...
And we didn't get into our new hotel room for another 45 minutes after that! AND it was in mainland Venice! While it didn't bother us that much, other guests had a fit that evening and the next morning. We took it as a sign to move on and head to Milan.

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6.04.2011

Moving on to Venezia...

On our second morning in Florence, we woke up with a plan to check-out, catch the first open-air bus to head over to Santa Croce and the Leather School. And for the first time this trip, our plan WORKED! YES!

We got over to Santa Croce a bit early, so we decided to walk around, take some pictures and look in some of the tourist-trap stores around the square. This is Tim walking down one of many side streets.
 I love the doors! They're all so different, but this one really stood out to me...
 This is Santa Croce, the church this whole area is named after.  It is the final resting place for many famous Italians, including Michelangelo and Galileo.
 Also in Santa Croce is the National Central Library, which is the largest in Italy. This is just one side, the front is HUGE!
 And I had to include some good ol' Italian graffiti...
 Here's a picture of us in front of the Basilica di Santa Croce...
Around the corner from the front is the Scuola del Cuoio, better known as the Leather School of Florence. I first visited this place in 2007, when I took a study abroad trip with my major and it is, hands down, the best place to get leather accessories in Florence.
To get to the actual school and their shop, you have to walk through a courtyard behind the Basilica...this is view: 
So why is this the best place to get leather accessories? Because you can get this embossed or stamped with gold/silver leaf!
 Tim got himself a passport cover...
 And we got our Dads wallets for Father's Day...let's just say this guy had to use a lot of "W" tiles!
 After finishing up there, we went back to the Duomo to see the inside. We caught a glimpse at a Japanese couple taking photographs on the steps...
 The inside is ginormous, but I think Tim and I both agree that the outside is the really fantastic part. This is the bell tower:

 Oh, and that's 100% marble!!

We grabbed some gelato, relaxed on the Duomo steps for a few minutes before heading back to our amazing hotel, collecting our bags and walking to the train station. Our next stop: VENEZIA!

Our next hotel was just awesome. Here we are on our terrace...yep, you read that right! Our room was on the 5th floor, separate from the rest of the hotel, with an outside entrance to a terrace overlooking the Grand Canal. SO.AMAZING.
 The concierge/front desk guy suggested we buy a 48-hour pass for the Vaparetto (water bus) and take that to explore the city. This the entrance to the Vaparetto stop that was about 100 steps from our hotel lobby. The "1" line is the most touristy line and stops at EVERY.SINGLE.STOP along the Grand Canal.
 Our destination for the evening was the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. For those of you who don't know Peggy Guggenheim's story, well, she was a bit nutty. She vowed, at one point, to collect 1 piece of art per day. Her family also has the Guggenheim Museum of Modern Art in NYC. This small museum is her former home in Venice. Only the first floor was ever completed, so that's the entire museum. We arrived 40 minutes before closing and had no problem seeing the entire collection. But I loved it! And we both loved getting a bit of "brain break" from the massive art museums we'd previously been touring.
 After running over to the museum, we decided to stroll back to the Vaparetto through some narrow streets and head to the Rialto Bridge area for dinner. The weather and timing was perfect for some pictures from the center of the bridge, looking down the Canal.

 Unfortunately our camera died right after this picture...in the hands another tourist who had offered to take our picture...FAIL! :-)

Our dinner that evening was so good and it really emphasized the value of freshly-prepared pasta.  I'm not a big pasta fan, but my tagliatelle pasta was beyond amazing.

Stay tuned, our next day proved to be one of the most adventurous of our lives...
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5.31.2011

Firenze in the Rain

Before we left for our trip, of course we checked the weather report, and thankfully we were prepared for the rain. And, oh, did it rain!

It was a Sunday, so a number of places were closed, but we forged ahead despite all of this. Our first stop was the Piazza Republica and the famous boar. His nose is rubbed clean from everyone making wishes on it.
 We were heading towards the Uffizi Gallery, so we stopped for a few minutes under the covered walkway to take photos in front of the Ponte Vecchio.
 Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside of the Uffizi gallery, but we did take a last-minute guided tour that I swear I would have been completely lost without! "The Birth of Venus" by Donatello was probably the most well-known piece of artwork we saw on our tour, but there were a few more recognizable pieces in the collection.
After our gallery tour, we walked over to the Santa Croce church and the Florence Leather School. The school is located in the old monastery of the church, so despite being in such a well-known location, the entrance was hard to find.
 We ended up making plans to come back the next day to buy our gifts, but we  still had a good time trying to find everything in the rain. We were going to head back toward the Ponte Vechhio to look at the famous gold shops, but I had to have Tim take a picture of the rainfall.
 While I was standing there waiting for Tim to take the picture, I looked over and lo-and-behold, there was the Galileo Museum! The sign on the door said it was closed on Sunday, but when I got a little closer, the automatic door opened right up. I peered inside and someone was sitting at the ticket desk, so we went in! It was pretty empty, but was one of our favorite museums of the whole trip.
 AND when we finished up in there, the weather had cleared up!!
 Along the walkways around the Ponte Vecchio, couples have been hanging locks to celebrate their relationship/marriage. I think it is just so cool and was a little sad we didn't have a lock to hang. Maybe one day? (::hint:: Timmy - Return trip??? ::hint::)

 We browsed the gold shops along the bridge for a little bit, and then I asked Tim if we could head back to the hotel and dry off a little. Along the way, we stopped at Piazza Signoria, where the Uffizi Gallery has set up an outside sculpture museum.

 We headed back to the hotel and Tim spotted this sign and had to take a picture...
 As we were passing the Duomo, I heard Tim call out "Arianna WAIT! There's a rainbow!" And he was right, there was a beautiful, full rainbow arching over the Duomo. It was pretty amazing.
And, yes, if it sounds like it took a long time to get back to our hotel, you are correct. We made a lot of stops and when we did get back, it was nap time. That evening we headed to the train station to book tickets for our trip the next day to Venice and then tried to run to the Ferragamo Museum before it closed. We would have made it, but when we walked in the door, a nice sign was waiting to tell us it was currently under renovation. FAIL! We spent the evening shopping and had dinner at an "outdoor" cafe (it had a large tent up to guard eaters from the elements), before heading back to our hotel and relaxing for the first time during the trip.  

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5.28.2011