On the Move - Italy (15 of 23) - Venice
Sep. 15th, 2001 05:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillibetWe left the villa at 9:00am, dropped off the trash--they hit a middle ground between the two systems common in the US: no curbside pickup, but you don't have to take it to the dump, only as far as roadside bins scattered around--and got Trish & Steve to Montevarchi in time to catch the 9:45am train to Rome.
Jason and I drove on up to Florence. We'd decided to park under the train station until close to our departure time, so that we could use the car to store our luggage, since the lines for baggage check in the train station tended to be monstrous. But the parking lot there was full. Unsure of what to do, we circled around into the Piazza Santa Maria Novella, where there were several open spots of legal, unlimited, onstreet parking. Talk about your magic parking spots! It was even on the route to the rental car garage.
We walked from there down to the church of Santa Trinita, the last one on the list of things from the guidebook that sounded particularly interesting. Along the way we found a place to stop for pannini that also had a toilet, both of which were very welcome and gave us a chance to look through the International Herald Tribune we'd bought.
The highlights in the church are a fresco cycle on the life of St. Francis and a lustrous altarpiece depicting the Adoration of the Magi, both by Domenico Ghirlandaio, who has become one of my favorites on this trip. There's also a crucifix that is said to have bowed to the founder of the Vallombrosan Order in honor of his forgiveness of his brother's murderer.
Having seen these, we headed back to the car, got our luggage and went to the train station. Jason left me in the passenger's lounge with our bags while he went to return the car. Despite the roundabout route one has to drive to reach it, the rental office is only a couple of blocks from the station and he was back very quickly. All this efficiency was thwarted by the delays that seemed to be affecting all the trains. Ours was over an hour late leaving Florence.
The journey was uneventful. I wrote until the train's soporific forces took effect and then slept for most of the trip. We arrived in Venice around six. We bought 3-day passes for the vaporetto, the boats that ply the canals of Venice much like a subway navigates other cities. We found one that would take us to St. Mark's Square via the Grand Canal and had a triumphal entry into the city just at sunset, admiring the palazzi along the banks on our way.
We hauled our bags through St. Mark's Square to our hotel. The San Gallo is in a little square about a block from the Piazza San Marco, on the second floor of a four story apartment building. Our room was reasonably large and comfortable, with the best shower of our entire trip. No view, but there was a lovely picture of the Grand Canal on the wall between glazed windows that tilted outward slightly for a little air and allowed just a peek of the service area in the center of the apartment block.
We split up for a bit to shake off the train trip and get a little perspective on the new city. Jason investigated dinner options, while I walked over to the Rialto bridge.
Venice is like no other city I have ever visited. The "streets" are all narrow alleys, winding between buildings and never running straight for more than two blocks at a time. There is a small canal every block, crossed by a bridge made of a set of steps up, a platform and a set of steps down. So there are no cars, no scooters, no bikes, just pedestrians. A bad place to be wheelchair-bound, I'd say, although I did see one bridge equipped with a powered lift. The piazzas are startling, huge spaces opening up from the narrow crevices between buildings into large squares, each with its own church. There are shops everywhere selling all manner of souvenirs and gifts, but mainly masks and glass. There is a slight sense of being lost every time you leave a piazza for the maze of streets, but really the islands are not big enough for anyone to stay lost for long and there are constantly signs for the most popular destinations: San Marco, Rialto, Accademia, and the train station.
We met back at the hotel and ended up getting dinner at a Chinese restaurant not far from there. We had reasonable hot & sour soup, followed by the best dumplings I've had since leaving the US. Jason chose something that turned out to be the kung pao chicken he was hoping to get and I got the ever-safe chicken with cashew nuts that was quite tasty. A Bay Area couple came in about halfway through our meal and sat next to us and the four of us chatted until we finished and headed back to the hotel, window-shopping for the perfect mask along the way.
Next, our first anniversary...
Jason and I drove on up to Florence. We'd decided to park under the train station until close to our departure time, so that we could use the car to store our luggage, since the lines for baggage check in the train station tended to be monstrous. But the parking lot there was full. Unsure of what to do, we circled around into the Piazza Santa Maria Novella, where there were several open spots of legal, unlimited, onstreet parking. Talk about your magic parking spots! It was even on the route to the rental car garage.
We walked from there down to the church of Santa Trinita, the last one on the list of things from the guidebook that sounded particularly interesting. Along the way we found a place to stop for pannini that also had a toilet, both of which were very welcome and gave us a chance to look through the International Herald Tribune we'd bought.
The highlights in the church are a fresco cycle on the life of St. Francis and a lustrous altarpiece depicting the Adoration of the Magi, both by Domenico Ghirlandaio, who has become one of my favorites on this trip. There's also a crucifix that is said to have bowed to the founder of the Vallombrosan Order in honor of his forgiveness of his brother's murderer.
Having seen these, we headed back to the car, got our luggage and went to the train station. Jason left me in the passenger's lounge with our bags while he went to return the car. Despite the roundabout route one has to drive to reach it, the rental office is only a couple of blocks from the station and he was back very quickly. All this efficiency was thwarted by the delays that seemed to be affecting all the trains. Ours was over an hour late leaving Florence.
The journey was uneventful. I wrote until the train's soporific forces took effect and then slept for most of the trip. We arrived in Venice around six. We bought 3-day passes for the vaporetto, the boats that ply the canals of Venice much like a subway navigates other cities. We found one that would take us to St. Mark's Square via the Grand Canal and had a triumphal entry into the city just at sunset, admiring the palazzi along the banks on our way.
We hauled our bags through St. Mark's Square to our hotel. The San Gallo is in a little square about a block from the Piazza San Marco, on the second floor of a four story apartment building. Our room was reasonably large and comfortable, with the best shower of our entire trip. No view, but there was a lovely picture of the Grand Canal on the wall between glazed windows that tilted outward slightly for a little air and allowed just a peek of the service area in the center of the apartment block.
We split up for a bit to shake off the train trip and get a little perspective on the new city. Jason investigated dinner options, while I walked over to the Rialto bridge.
Venice is like no other city I have ever visited. The "streets" are all narrow alleys, winding between buildings and never running straight for more than two blocks at a time. There is a small canal every block, crossed by a bridge made of a set of steps up, a platform and a set of steps down. So there are no cars, no scooters, no bikes, just pedestrians. A bad place to be wheelchair-bound, I'd say, although I did see one bridge equipped with a powered lift. The piazzas are startling, huge spaces opening up from the narrow crevices between buildings into large squares, each with its own church. There are shops everywhere selling all manner of souvenirs and gifts, but mainly masks and glass. There is a slight sense of being lost every time you leave a piazza for the maze of streets, but really the islands are not big enough for anyone to stay lost for long and there are constantly signs for the most popular destinations: San Marco, Rialto, Accademia, and the train station.
We met back at the hotel and ended up getting dinner at a Chinese restaurant not far from there. We had reasonable hot & sour soup, followed by the best dumplings I've had since leaving the US. Jason chose something that turned out to be the kung pao chicken he was hoping to get and I got the ever-safe chicken with cashew nuts that was quite tasty. A Bay Area couple came in about halfway through our meal and sat next to us and the four of us chatted until we finished and headed back to the hotel, window-shopping for the perfect mask along the way.
Next, our first anniversary...
