Was a fabloulous day today. Saw so much. First a couple messages for Jenny...Mom says she loves Unis. She is loving carrying her everywhere and says she is perfect for a trip like this. Also, Jenny, I have your bracelet with the knot. It was in your jewelry case that you leant to mom.
So. We slept so great last night. Our room is awesome and overlooks a calle (street) that is mostly quiet. We have two windows that (of course) open all the way and even have shutters. I have a tiny bed and mom has the larger one but both are comfortable and our room is perfect.
When we first got here yesterday, we had very little trouble finding our hotel. We have never managed to repeat that performance. If you've been here, you know what I'm talking about. This morning was no different. We started out with a great breakfast (free) at the Hotel Tivoli. Truly, our hotel has been wonderful. We then decided to vap over to St. Marco's square where we were planning on visitng the sights in that area. Only...we had a real hard time finding the vap stop (story of our lives lately). At one point we thought we were doing great but then we rounded a corner and there was our hotel.
Eventually we did pick up the vap and made it without any drama over to St. Marco's square. Did I mention it was raining? A nice gray sprinkle. Nothing too horrible. The Doge's Palace was a pink and white dream. We learned quite a bit about historic Venitian government and saw room after amazing room all full of paintings and gold filligree and paneling. We especially loved all the enormous clocks embedded into the walls. One was a 24 hour clock and the one hand did not move...only the face. Crazy. We also saw a month clock and one clock that was split into 6 sections...1/2 hour?
Another great site was the attached jail. It was fascinating to see the improved conditions that inmates got to suffer in this jail, which is an example of one of the (if not THE) earliest jails with single jail cells. We saw the Bridge of Sighs and portraits of lots of Doge's including one who was invovled in a coup who is so hated that his picture is represented only by a black cloth.
We were happy they had a toilette we could use, but there was a woman there attending to the restroom who would tell us if it was free and she would check after each person used it to see if they had flushed. Men's too. She did them all. That seemed funny to us.
When we emerged from our meanderings in the palace, we were shocked to find St. Marco's square under at least a foot of water. Venice is prepared for flooding (and we are pretty sure that high tide had a lot to do with the water) and walkways were set up to lift people up and out of the water. Enterprising youth were selling plasctic bag boots so people could walk in the water with abandon. We opted not to buy boots and decided instead on lunch and hoped that maybe the water would subside.
Lunch was amazing. We ate in an awesome traditional baccari (wine bar) that serves sandwiches, coffee, pastries, and wine. We had all of the above except for the coffee and had a great time watching a bird fly in and out of the restaurant at least twice. Our table was about a foot square and we really had to squeeze in, but we didn't care. Everything was great.
We had skip the line tickets to the Basilica of San Marco which was great since the lines were astronomical largely because of the rain and everyone having to be on two foot high walkways...we skipped a large portion of the line and hopped right into the amazing Byzantine basilica. Covered with gold mosaics, the basilica is clearly one of the gems in the crown of Venice. I am so tired and so I will just share a few thoughts about the Basilica. I'm choosing five thoughts carefully:
1. Getting in is free. Once in, you have to spend 10 Euros along the way to see various things. One of the things you could do was go out on the roof. Of course we did that.
2. Lit a candle for the children. Rachel, you can tell the kids that nanny prayed for them in Venice with a real candle.
3. They had lots of saint relics including someone's old dried hand.
4. They had pictures of chant notation in old music notation. That was pretty cool.
5. There was a glass Jesus spread out on a table, I loved the floors in the place, and the four horses!!! Loved them!
On a whim we decided to try to take the elevator up to the top of the Camponile. We had read this could be tricky. It wasn't tricky at all and it afforded us amazing views of Venice. Sigh. So beautiful.
Being as I'm ready to fall asleep as I type this I will sum up the rest of the day:
Gelato / vap to our home stop / got lost and tried to buy a map but the lady was so sorry for us that she gave it to us for free / bought a few gifts including my new Venice mask that I'm planning on wearing during the Pleasant Run Run this year / made it home with new map / counted money (I'm a little Scroogy on vacation) / went back out for lovely dinner / home again home again jiggety jig.
Tomorrow we do the San Michele Cemetery Island, San Rocco and the Frari also a few other things if we have time, but tomorrow is a moving day! We will take the train to Florence!
We are thinking about Justin and hope his survery goes well!
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