We missed breakfast (if there was one) and started out on a walk to the train station to store our bags because our hostel wouldn’t. We got lost for a good amount of time and when we finally saw signs we decided to stop for gelato since our bags were heavy in the heat. I had five flavors, including some different ones like strawberry, chocolate chip, and a special Venice flavor (wasn’t that good).
The train station caused a lot of problems, particularly with the phantom 3 am train to Florence Heidi told me about. After asking about three times, we figured out that we had to go to Mestre and catch it from there. Turns out it’s 10 minutes away by regional train and costs a Euro to get there, saving us 30 Euros for not taking it from Venice, plus the next train after that was around 6:40, so it made it much nicer.
We walked to San Marco’s and made it in this time since Mary was dress appropriately. I’ve been to tons of churches in Europe and this was one of my favorites. The ceiling was filled with gold-tiled portraits of the apostles and other figures all around and the floor had incredible tiling as well, many of it giving off one of those 3-D effects. We sat for a while in front of a 12th century painting I learned about in art history too.
From there we went and bought three paintings for 50 Euros, down from the listed 60, I like the one I got a lot.
We then went to the water and tried to get a good price for gondolier rides. The starting price was 80 Euros, with the full tour up to 150 Euros. We wanted to spend 50 Euros. After asking about three people, one came running after us offering us 60 for the tour. We said we didn’t want anything over 50 and we compromised on 55.
Riding a gondola is something I’ve always dreamed of doing but never actually thought I’d do. When I thought of Venice, I always had this picture of me riding in a gondola through the narrow streets. I think this probably started when I went to the Venetian in Las Vegas and been fascinated ever since.
The gondola is longer than I imagined, 33 feet long. We sat in two rather plus seats with the rower behind. The guy’s name was Humberto and he started rowing at 14. It takes a year to learn how to do it.
And we found out why.
We went from San Marco under the Bridge of Sighs into the city center along the old buildings and narrow passages. We got talking to him about how I was terrible at rowing a row boat in London and he offered to let us try to row this. It’s not easy at all. There is one paddle and you have to use your wrists, not muscles to do it, while keeping balanced on your left foot. I nearly ran us into some things, but I thought I was alright. Mary was worse. But this is something I feel most people don’t get to do. We were incredibly pumped.
We ended up back out by the Palladio church in the rather wavy water, a little frightening but great. Humberto was a really nice guy, taking our picture a couple times and giving us commentary along the way. It was something I’ll never forget and something completely unique to Venice.
We were getting hungry so we went to a pizza stand and I got a super thick slice with blue cheese, spinach, and tomato on it. Really awesome, unlike anything I’d had before. We went to the water by Rialto Bridge and sat for a while.
We went to try to eat at the oldest restaurant in Venice, from 1500. It wasn’t open for three hours so we went on a walk, ending up in the area by the university and the more residential areas. The streets were quiet and no tourists around. This is the Venice we wanted to see. We sat with our feet over the water by the edge for an hour or two as the sun went down.
We ended up walking toward the train station and stopped in a cute restaurant for dinner, with our seats along the canal. I had a pasta dish with pesto and a cappuccino. Mary had gnocchi. I liked mine more.
We walked over to the train station and got our bags and went to get more gelato. This was some of the best we had. I got a cream, banana, white chocolate, and cinnamon one. The white chocolate was up there with the coconut as the best flavor I had.
We took our stuff over to the canal and sat. I typed this up while Mary worked on MCATS.
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