Leaving Venice and on to Rome

Neil took this photo of me stretching on our balcony after our run and it's a shame you can't see how enormous my smile was. I was so perfectly happy! 




On our second morning in Venice, Neil and I got up early again while Jules slept in (we had to wake her up every time we got back, which helped me not feel guilty about sneaking out for runs!). It was pretty tricky running through most of the city (it's just the most mazelike hodgepodge of canals and tiny bridges and almost tunnels with palazzos towering above you almost touching over the walkways), so we made our way to the edge of the lagoon (if you're replicating this, head towards the Viale Giardini Publicci) where there's a pretty long unbroken stretch of pathways. We had it almost to ourselves (just other runners out!) and I loved listening to the waves crash against the causeway. 

Then back to Julesie through a million windy twisting paths (we actually got pretty good at navigating by our second day). 

I became obsessed with this peach/lime/ginger concoction and bought it wherever I could (Jules had a similar obsession with grapefruit juice so I don't even know how many bottles we went through). 

Then we checked out of our Airbnb, which was truly lovely and enchanting in all the best ways--and I really loved this little chandelier. 

A mid-morning snack (I think we had also stopped at two bakeries earlier in the morning). 

Then we grabbed some fuel for the train ride to Rome. 

Goodbye, Lion of Venice! 

Time for one more quick gelato stop...

Then we boarded the train to Rome. (Sidenote, I LOVE traveling by train vs. plane; so much more roomy and you can get there like 5 minutes before it leaves vs. 3 hours. Of course I don't do that because I'm anxious about it, but you COULD.) 

Rolling through the gorgeous Italian countryside--I worked most of the way but tried to look up every so often to appreciate the scenery! 

When we got to our Airbnb, our host was VERY VERY VERY friendly. He seriously talked to us for a good 90 minutes and told us all about his childhood growing up in that apartment and what it was like during the war (cue weird realization that when he talked about going to the country to avoid the bombers, I remembered that Italy and the US were not allies in that war...). He talked so much, in fact, that Juliet finally gave up (she might have fallen asleep) when he literally started going through a guidebook telling us all his favorite spots and we totally missed our dinner reservation. So we went to a corner grocer and got some cheese and prosciutto and bread and candy and yogurt and Diet Coke and more juice. You know, the essentials. 

And Neil got milk, haha. He loves it *almost* as much as Luke does. 

Then Juliet was exhausted and decided to go to bed, but Neil and I decided to go on a walk to the Colosseum, which we could SEE FROM OUR BEDROOM WINDOW. 

Not going to lie, seeing a moonlit Colosseum for my first glimpse of it was pretty darn incredible (also I kept thinking of Henry James' Daisy Miller, who was doomed to die for committing the crime of jaunting about Rome at night). 

We peeked at the Forum and the Arch of Septimius Severus. 

Also every joke you've ever seen about being bewildered by European trash separation--it's me. 

THE COLORS ON THE PAPER ARE NOT THE SAME AS THE BINS. 

And to take us out, a photo I apparently took of jams and probably texted to Ruth with a "wish you were here" because she is my buddy who is content to read the label of every single jam with me while other people are (understandably) not as interested as I am. 

 

Venice, Queen of the Sea

As a child, I loved listening to (a record!!) a kids' musical production called Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery, which is set on Venice during the time that Vivaldi was a music teacher at an orphanage there. When my kids were little, I bought it again (on CD this time) and we listened to it, along with the other Classical Kids productions, almost every day during lunch. Suffice to say we all have every inflection memorized!



At some point I remember telling someone that I wanted to go to Venice someday, and they told me it was super disappointing because the water was gross and everything smelled terrible. So for a long time I just sort of told myself not to have it on my list, but I have always REALLY wanted to go, and I was so incredibly incredibly excited to visit it on this trip! 

When we woke up on our first morning in Venice, I opened the shutters on the windows and stepped out on the balcony to this view over one of the canals in Cannaregio and I was so perfectly exquisitely happy. We got ready for the day, stopped at a bakery to buy some delicious breakfast pastries (I was robbed by a seagull just as I took the first bite of my raspberry croissant), and headed over to the Doge's Palace for the Secret Itinerary tour. (You can just go wander around on the main self-guided tours, but I think it is SO worth it to book one of the small tours and see some really cool stuff off the main tour route). One perk of being there for the first day: hardly anyone else was out! 

This tour was so fascinating and our guide was amazing; the focus was on the politics of Venice so we got to see a lot of the state rooms and the dungeons! Which was very exciting.

They offer the tour in lots of language and our guide spoke excellent English. 

This was one of the torture rooms; basically the prisoner's arms would be tied behind them and then they would be hoisted up during the interrogation. 

And we learned a ton about Casanova and got to see his cell! Apparently he was very tall and the cell's ceiling was short enough that Neil couldn't stand up straight, so our guide used Neil as his Casanova for that section of the tour, which was pretty entertaining for the rest of us. 

Weapons and armaments display up under the roof--I wish I had written this post earlier when I could still remember all the details. 

Then we rejoined the crowds in the state rooms. One thing I hadn't really realized before our time in Venice was how incredibly wealthy and powerful the city was for about 1100 years and that it was a central trading hub. The wealth and splendour were very much on display in the Doge's palace, and it was seriously SO beautiful and so impressive. The city itself is so beautiful and I could very much see why it's called the Jewel of the Adriatic. 

One other cool thing I learned--many floors are made of terrazzo (marble chips and cement) so that they are more flexible and can adjust to the tides and sway of the city. This was very much in evident in St. Mark's where you can literally see ripples in the floor (not this picture). 

This room was INCREDIBLE--it's the Chamber of the Great Council and is the largest unsupported room in Europe (53 by 25 meters). It was seriously so so so huge and so impressive, especially since every inch of it was elaborately decorated. 

"That's the Lion of Venice! You'll see his statue all over the city." 

One of the things I was most excited to see was the Bridge of Sighs, where prisoners had their last view of Venice before they were taken away for execution. This is what it looks like from the inside as you're crossing over the bridge. 

Heck yes I needed a selfie here; my six-year-old self was in absolute heaven. 

Cute Jules in the hallway by the bridge. 

I thought this cell door was really impressive. 

Then eventually we came back out into the sunlight and headed towards St. Mark's Square--the drawing room of all Europe!! (Thanks, Giovanni. This is probably going to be riddled with quotes.) 

And here's St. Mark's!

And the bell tower!

We had an afternoon tour of the clock tower (so so so good, totally worth the stress of booking it!) so we wandered around in search of some lunch. I did SO much research on places to eat for this trip and we mostly ignored all the places I'd bookmarked (unless we actually had reservations there!) BUT Neil's French colleagues were very impressed last week when they were discussing Parisian restaurants and he showed them my insane list, haha. 

Anyway--lots of wandering around canals and we ducked into a few beautiful little jewel box churches. 

I think I had the biggest smile on my face all day (so glad I was feeling better than the previous day!). 

And here's the Bridge of Sighs from the outside. 

"I stood beside her and looked out over the water at the towers and domes of the city, silhouetted against the starry sky. Venice seemed to rock gently, like a mother cradling her child. For a moment, all was serene and peaceful." 

We ate lunch in St. Mark's Square and watched the pigeons (and I think Juliet took one of her two photos of the trip) and then went back to meet our tour guide for the clocktower. 

More terrazzo! 

I absolutely LOVED this tour; it was so fascinating and I loved that we got to see the machinery in movement and watching all of the levers and gears shift around (this clock tower dates from the 15th century) and listening to the clock strike--the two statues who actually strike the bell on the hour strike it at different times. The "old Moor" strikes two minutes before the hour to remind the listener of time past and the fleeting nature of time, while the "young Moor" strikes two minutes after the hour to herald the future and opportunities to come. (They're referred to as Moors because of the oxidized color of the bronze statues.) We watched them pivot and strike the bell--very cool. 

We also got to see the special figures that rotate out on the clocktower during times like Epiphany (they're kept indoors most of the year to protect them from weather). 

The view was also amazing--here we are looking down on St. Mark's basilica and then across the square towards the belltower.  

Then it was time for our reservations at St. Mark's, which is an incredible church with a very Byzantine feel. 

One thing that is definitely worth adding on to your ticket is the Pala d'Oro, which dates from 976 and is 3 meters wide and 2 meters tall, and studded with 526 pearls, 330 garnets, 320 emeralds, 255 sapphires, 183 amethysts, 175 agates, 75 rubies, 34 topazes, 16 carnelians, and 13 jaspers, along with almost 200 enamel plaques. It's an incredible altarpiece and absolutely breathtaking in person. 

Here's a closer photo of some of the detail: 

The basilica is really well known for its golden mosaics, which absolutely glow when the light hits them. 

More terrazzo; I tried to photograph the ripples but I'm not sure that it actually shows up in the photo. 

More mosaics--each tiny chip was about the size of my pinkie nail. 

And the originals of the horses on the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, back where they belong after Napoleon took them from Venice to Paris. It was really cool to see the Parisian replicas the day prior and the originals the next day. 

This is the view of the floor of the basilica from the upper balconies. 

We went out onto the exterior balconies to watch the Moors strike the hour again--notice the Lion of Venice just below them. 

Someday I would love to do one of the evening tours when all of the mosaics are fully illuminated. 

After leaving the basilica, it was back out for some more wandering; we were planning to take the vaporetto to ride down the Grand Canal, so we walked towards our intended boarding spot very leisurely just soaking it all in. 

We crossed over the Rialto Bridge, and it was just as busy as we had expected, so we didn't linger. 

I'm listening to Vivaldi as I type this post and it really adds a lot to the atmosphere...

Then we boarded the vaporetto for a ride down the Grand Canal, which is incredible and magical and everything I'd hoped. 

Eventually we disembarked back at St. Mark's and the Doge's Palace, and started walking towards our dinner reservation. 

Have to get seafood when you're in Venice! (For some reason I was expecting less eyeballs and feelers in the "fried seafood variety platter" and more...breading? I think this was after we had already removed and de-boned and de-eyeballed the whole fish that was laid across the top.) This was our first encounter with ordering a full Italian meal and it is so so so many courses and I just cannot eat that much in one sitting! We even did the American thing of just ordering to share and it was still impossible (little did I know what was in store in Rome). 

Then we walked back along the canals towards our Airbnb in the twilight. 

An absolutely perfect day. 

And a perfect twilight and goodnight to La Serenissima.