Photos - Erith looking out the front of our gondola, one of the very common but very cool (in my opinion) wooden taxis, Erith on the bridge over the main canal.
Erith says:
Venice was great! The reason why we went there is so we could ride a gondola. We had a really cool gondola and it had red and gold seats. We had the main seats but there were two other stools and one chair. The man who was driving the gondola said that they have crashes all the time. It was very busy because we went in the morning and everyone was going to work. We went onto little quiet canals to get away from the traffic. It was very peaceful and the man pointed things out to us while we went past them.
While we were walking along the street one night we walked next to a big puddle and a bus came past and splashed us.
I loved Italy but when we went to Austria and Germany I was amazed! We came out of the train station and went to an internet cafe to book our hotel because we hadn't booked yet.
Marcus says:
We boarded the train on Monday morning bound for Venice and arrived early afternoon. I'd booked a hotel through lastminute.com in Mestre, which is about 10 km from Venice. It was a great deal and a very nice room - they were renovating the whole hotel, which was why it was so cheap. Mestre is billed as "a bit drab", but it's not really fair to compare it to Venice. It's nice enough and in fact there were a few palatial houses, presumably occupied with people for a bit more land than Venice has to offer. It rained in the afternoon and as Erith said, we got sprayed by a bus - it was a real drenching and we didn't even see it coming.
The room had some nice touches - for one, the bathroom was lined with big slabs of marble - the biggest on the floor being 1.8 by 0.9 metres and the norm being 1.2 by 0.9 metres. Having spent a couple of years in the marble and granite industry, I could appreciate the amazing tolerances - there were no lips that would have been more than a millimetre and the corners all met beatifully as well. I noticed the same thing at Cel's flat - the marble had all been cut so that the grain progressed nicely. It's not that hard to find quality stonemasons in Italy I suppose.
Venice was fantastic, but I was satisfied with only having one full day there. We did the gondola thing quite early - it was overpriced, but I think it's just one of those things that you have to do in Venice. We had a nice tour by a good guide - his english wasn't great, but he was happy to answer questions and point out the landmarks. He spent a lot more time talking to pretty much every other boat driver within earshot, some of whom responded in kind and some who just ignored him. He was the kind of mouthy but totally inoffensive guy that you might find anywhere in the world - it made me smile even though I had no idea what he was saying.
We had lunch and wandered around afterwards finding a museum that had built machines from da Vinci's codices. I love the things he drew and/or developed and many are still in wide use today. Most you could operate, so I was like a kid in a candy shop. Erith like them too, though no doubt wouldn't have minded a bit less commentary about a few of them.
On the way back I found a barber and got a badly needed haircut. Hoping not to need too many, I went for a numero uno instead of my usual number two, so I look like a cue-ball with tan lines - I'll have to be careful not to burn until it grows in a bit.
We took the train back to Mestre and went to a nice restaurant for dinner, as it was our last Italian meal. We had a cured meat platter for an entre, both had lasagne and I had half a litre of beautiful house red. Really nice food, outside in the warm evening, followed up by gelato (of course) and an early night, as we had a train for Munich the next morning at 7:00 am.
I loved Italy.
Erith says:
Venice was great! The reason why we went there is so we could ride a gondola. We had a really cool gondola and it had red and gold seats. We had the main seats but there were two other stools and one chair. The man who was driving the gondola said that they have crashes all the time. It was very busy because we went in the morning and everyone was going to work. We went onto little quiet canals to get away from the traffic. It was very peaceful and the man pointed things out to us while we went past them.
While we were walking along the street one night we walked next to a big puddle and a bus came past and splashed us.
I loved Italy but when we went to Austria and Germany I was amazed! We came out of the train station and went to an internet cafe to book our hotel because we hadn't booked yet.
Marcus says:
We boarded the train on Monday morning bound for Venice and arrived early afternoon. I'd booked a hotel through lastminute.com in Mestre, which is about 10 km from Venice. It was a great deal and a very nice room - they were renovating the whole hotel, which was why it was so cheap. Mestre is billed as "a bit drab", but it's not really fair to compare it to Venice. It's nice enough and in fact there were a few palatial houses, presumably occupied with people for a bit more land than Venice has to offer. It rained in the afternoon and as Erith said, we got sprayed by a bus - it was a real drenching and we didn't even see it coming.
The room had some nice touches - for one, the bathroom was lined with big slabs of marble - the biggest on the floor being 1.8 by 0.9 metres and the norm being 1.2 by 0.9 metres. Having spent a couple of years in the marble and granite industry, I could appreciate the amazing tolerances - there were no lips that would have been more than a millimetre and the corners all met beatifully as well. I noticed the same thing at Cel's flat - the marble had all been cut so that the grain progressed nicely. It's not that hard to find quality stonemasons in Italy I suppose.
Venice was fantastic, but I was satisfied with only having one full day there. We did the gondola thing quite early - it was overpriced, but I think it's just one of those things that you have to do in Venice. We had a nice tour by a good guide - his english wasn't great, but he was happy to answer questions and point out the landmarks. He spent a lot more time talking to pretty much every other boat driver within earshot, some of whom responded in kind and some who just ignored him. He was the kind of mouthy but totally inoffensive guy that you might find anywhere in the world - it made me smile even though I had no idea what he was saying.
We had lunch and wandered around afterwards finding a museum that had built machines from da Vinci's codices. I love the things he drew and/or developed and many are still in wide use today. Most you could operate, so I was like a kid in a candy shop. Erith like them too, though no doubt wouldn't have minded a bit less commentary about a few of them.
On the way back I found a barber and got a badly needed haircut. Hoping not to need too many, I went for a numero uno instead of my usual number two, so I look like a cue-ball with tan lines - I'll have to be careful not to burn until it grows in a bit.
We took the train back to Mestre and went to a nice restaurant for dinner, as it was our last Italian meal. We had a cured meat platter for an entre, both had lasagne and I had half a litre of beautiful house red. Really nice food, outside in the warm evening, followed up by gelato (of course) and an early night, as we had a train for Munich the next morning at 7:00 am.
I loved Italy.
5 comments:
Oi, achei teu blog pelo google tá bem interessante gostei desse post. Quando der dá uma passada pelo meu blog, é sobre camisetas personalizadas, mostra passo a passo como criar uma camiseta personalizada bem maneira. Até mais.
Hey Guys
Looks like your having fun. Florence and Italy were both on my favorites list. I'd love to go back. I was accepted into University of Calgary to do a masters degree yesturday so thats kinda exciting. Waiting to hear about a cool job as well as an in house counsel at the securities commission (had a second interview last Monday. Should know by Friday. Valaine's son and wife had a baby yesturday so I'm a grandpa. See you soon. Looking forward to meeting you Erith.
Yer bud
Tom
We loved your posting from Venice -great photos too - and Marcus it was funny to see your comments about the marble, no wonder you wanted to go to Italy the great land of marble. If it had been Reg writing it he would have been looking at tractors!
Wow, getting spam on my blog - thanks a bunch, Rodrigo - you know I'll be in touch really soon.
Tom, a grandpa, eh? Don't worry, I won't tease you about it when I get to Canada... :-)
Joanie, you can tell Reggie that the only decent tractors I saw were hookd to the front of concrete mixers - nifty little units...
Venice.. oooh Venice…
While I was reading the passages I was imagining it all… you two on the Gondola, the splash (hehehe…), the museum with Vinci’s inventions with your curious faces trying to work the machines out… the nice restaurant…Was the gelato big? That is what I imagined… :):)…
Big hug
Claudia
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