Ventilated Vaporettos in Venice

Day 8
We drove for hours through the dramatic Alps and Dolomite mountains before getting to the outskirts of Venice. Ferdie arranged a private vaporetto to take us to a pier near our hotel down a quiet street near the Accademia bridge.

Nancy's and my spacious room overlooked a lovely courtyard with a garden. It was a lovely, sunny day, and not as hot and humid as my previous trip to Venice. After unpacking, we took a walking orientation tour of the area between our hotel and San Marco square, and Ferdie encouraged us to explore and gave us some tips to find our way when we got lost.

Ferdie arranged a wonderful supper of Frutti di Mare (seafood) pasta, salad and wine. Ferdie bought roses from a vendor for all of the women. It was Mario’s and Sonia’s wedding anniversary, which made it even more romantic. We had some wonderful gelato, walked around San Marco square, and then we boarded 5 gondolas for a sunset twilight gondola ride on a canal, lit up by the twinkling lights of Venice at night. There was an accordianist and singer, serenading us all. It was like a dream. We headed back to the hotel, through the maze of narrow, winding streets and shops, with Ferdie reminding us of which way to go. I knew that if I got lost the next day, which I did, I could find my way back by vaporetto by getting off at the Accademia bridge stop.

Day 9
This was a totally “free day” to explore as we pleased. We had breakfast arranged at the Belle Arti hotel across the street, and then we were on our own. My roommate and I walked to San Marco’s cathedral. I was speechless at the extensive intricate mosaics within the church. There were complicated geometric patterned mosaics covering the floors like patchwork quilts, jasper and marble on the lower walls, and then beautiful biblical scenes elaborately depicted in colorful mosaics with a gold background covering the entire domed ceiling, and the upper 1/3 of all of the walls. They did not allow photos, but the picture postcards were reasonable. My camera would not have done it justice anyway.

My roommate went in another direction, and the Doge’s Palace next door to St Mark’s was my next stop. There were incredibly opulent carved ceilings, huge paintings by Titian, Tintoretto and many other famous painters, and reportedly the largest painting in the world. There was an extensive armory with crossbows, arrows, spear-like axe weapons, early guns, cannons, armor and so forth. The prison, on the other side of the Bridge of Sighs, was also part of the museum.

“Museumed out” I then hopped on a vaporetto headed for Murano, the glass blowing island, to have some lunch on my own, exploration of the glass shops and a bit of time away from the crowds of San Marco Square. I had some fried calamari, pasta and a cuarto of wine in a quiet little café, and took it easy.

Eventually I headed back to San Marco Square and meandered the streets. I came across a street with several mask stores in a row. I got booted out of one place for taking photographs of their masks. The proprietor was afraid I would copy their designs!

I took a public vaporetto back to the Accademia after getting lost, went back to the hotel to change clothes, stretched out for a half hour before checking my email down the street and then meeting up with some tourmates. We walked around San Marco square, which is a magical place at night when several orchestras around the plaza play enchanting music throughout the night. We stood around listening, which was free. Several of us went back to the hotel. I fell asleep the minute my head hit the pillow. We left Venice by private vaporetto, many of us sitting on deck as we waved goodbye to Venice.

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