March 22nd, Venice: How My Beloved, Rick Steves, Failed Me (Once) and Locanda Ca’ Zose, Dorsoduro

(Or how to get a stranger to come to your hotel room unexpectedly in the middle of the night). I am secretly in love (a little bit) with Rick Steves, but he failed me in Venice (just once). Rick Steves has a fantastic set of guide books and a free app, Rick Steves' Europe, which has audio tours for many major attractions in Europe. We used several in Venice: The Grand Canal Tour, San Marco's Square, San Marco's Basilica. These were excellent, even if we did look a little dorky constantly wearing our headphones:



And Ricky's guide books provided us with excellent practical information in navigating a foreign country, customs, and currency. With his advice, we tried to book Alessandro's Wine and Cicchetti tour. Unfortunately, Alessandro did not have 8 people signed up and it was cancelled. But because of our advance sleuthing (on youtube) we were able to identify some of the bars, and went on our own. Cicchetti are little appetizers that are a specialty of Venice wine bars, and it's hard to go wrong with wine in Italy:







Here are a few shots of our delightful little hotel, Locanda Ca' Zose, in the slightly less touristy area of Venice (excellent Rick Steves' advice):







Because I was also following Rick Steves' important advice about the light-weight suitcase, it was important to wash a few items of clothing out in the evenings. There was a very helpful heated towel rack and a laundry line in the shower. Unfortunately, the little doohicky that you slide the button into was missing. Not a problem; I just wrapped the end of the laundry line around the hook just outside the shower.

But because of Rick Steves' failure, we got a phone call our second night/early morning from the hotel desk. Dianna answered it and told the desk clerk to come on up to our room. He said he had to check the alarm in our room!!!!?????!!!! So I let him in and hopped back in bed (I wasn't awake!) Then he came out of the bathroom and said we needed to take our clothes off the alarm line. THE ALARM LINE! (It's important to note two things here: 1. Richard Steves never warned us about this alarm lines all over Venice, Florence and Rome and 2. This was close to 48 hours after we'd (I'd) been putting things on the clothes line, so how long were we suppose to remain dead in our shower before they checked on our bodies?)

Just think of this as PSA so you don't have to be mortified by the unexpected appearance of the very sweet man who also made us excellent cappuccini every morning.

March 21st, Venice: San Marco Square, Chocolate Fountains, and The Bridge of Sighs

Rick Steve has a wonderful app, Rick Steve's Europe, which includes Audio Tours that can be downloaded and used as guides through many of the major attractions throughout Europe. It's like having your own personal tour guide in your head, and I also had the good fortune of having my own personal art historian at my side in the person of Alicia!

Our next stop in Venice was St. Mark's Basilica and San Marco's Square, and we had Audio Tours for both.

Here's another picture from inside the Doge's Palace:


A shot of St. Mark's Square:



The Bridge of Sighs, said to be the passage way through which prisoners, tried and sentenced in the Doge's Palace, were marched across this canal to the attached prison, getting their last look through the little windows at freedom and the outside world:


Walking through the little streets of Venice:



And shop windows with chocolate fountains!

March 21st, Venice: Doge's Palace and the Secret Itineraries

With the wonderful help of Rick Steve, Dianna, Alicia and I had worked out a detailed itinerary for our 3 days in Venice. First up on our first full day was our scheduled visit to the Doge's Palace with our ticket to the "Secret Itinerary", a tour showing us, among other things, the cell of Casanova. The Doge's Place was originally built in 810, but then with significant reconstruction in the 1300s and 1400s. Who knew Casanova was actually real? Apparently, most everyone but me. Casanova was quite the character, sentenced for 5 years because of his "affront to religion and common decency". He managed to chisel an escape route through his cell floor with a piece of black marble. He used the black marble to sharpen a spike out of a bar from his cell. However, 3 days before his plan to escape during a festival, he was moved to a better cell, but with the help of a renegade priest, Father Balbi, was eventually able to concoct a complicated plan that led to their escape.

Casanova was challenged in getting OUT of the Doge's Palace; we were challenged getting TO the Doge's Palace (seat of the city government but also a prison in the 1700s), and it was not Rick Steve's fault. Somehow, the three of us managed to get to the vaporetto stop, but without our vaporetto tickets. We returned to our hotel, several times, collecting more tickets, head phones for our Rick Steve's app with audio tours, and tour tickets. . . so many times, in fact, that a homeless woman sitting on a bridge watching us over and over (5x), finally asked us in English, "What's the matter, girls?" But we finally made it onto the vaporetto. However, with our initial uncertainty, we got on and off the same vaporetto, several times, before finally deciding that we were, in fact, going in the right direction. And as much as we were trying to get the logistics "right", it really didn't matter, because we were never actually asked for our tickets. Ever. On any of the vaporetto rides!

The vaporettos are not really complicated; it's just that it's like anything the first time you do it, especially in a foreign country with a language you don't speak: until you do it once, you're just not certain of it, and then it seems so incredibly easy and fun!

March 20, 2018 On our Way to Venice & the Joys of Priority Pass

It's quite the trek, getting to Venice. I prepped for the trip, jet lag, by getting up earlier and earlier each day, plunging the ever tolerant Doug into cave-like darkness as early as 4 pm, and altering when I ate protein or carbohydrates. I found that it worked quite well! Preparations also involved diligent watching and reading Rick Steve's Italy materials and weighing every item that went into my itty bitty suitcase.

Dianna brought Luna to us in North Carolina, and Doug was now officially on "dog-duty" with 3 rambunctious pups who wanted his attention and walks while we cavorted in Europe. Our trip to the airport was not uneventful in that I became convinced that I did not pack my debit card to get euros, and tearing apart my purse and meticulously packed suitcase. Just as we made our final turn to the airport, I found the card, and had to reconstruct my suitcase.

We were so lucky, Dianna and I! Our AA flight was very under booked! I don't sleep well on planes but did doze off in the wee hours of the morning. I looked up, and Dianna was gone! Gone, gone! She had been in the window seat, with no one between us, and me on the aisle, and she was gone. I got up and looked around, and somehow she had walked right over me, took the row behind me, had ALL the pillows, and was stretched out across three seats! I promptly copied her, and took over my aisle's three seats. Almost bliss!

Unfortunately, I mess up the flights and had gotten us to Heathrow in London, requiring a bus trip from Heathrow to Gatwick. It was mildly complicated, but we arrived in Gatwick quite early. I've been discovering some travel-hacking tips, and got to put to use one of my new favorites: the Priority Pass. You get this through Chase Sapphire Reserve for free and it allows you access to 1100 worldwide airport lounges. This meant that Dianna and I had got to enter this lounge, order a meal, use the buffet, wifi, very comfortable seating, and have unlimited drinks. We felt indulged!

Next, we landed in the Marco Polo airport in Venice and had to navigate through the process of getting euros from ATM machines and purchasing our Alilaguna Blue water bus ticket, and our vaporetto passes, including Dianna's discounted pass. We needed euros for the hotel taxes at each of the hotels. The Alialaguna is the water bus that got us from the airport to the area of the lagoon (Venice) near our hotel. And the vaporetto passes would give us 3 days of access to Venice's public transportation system (water buses) riding up and down the Grand Canal!

So, off we went on the Alilaguna to our stop at Zattere, then up and down bridges to find our hotel:

Italy, 2018 Most Awesome Trip Ever!

It's been so long, that I think I will just plunge in and start posting. If this works, it works. So much has happened in my life in the last 5 years, that there's no reasonable way to provide an "update and summary" other than to just start writing from now.

That said, I miss blogging and have time to do so, now that I've retired (2015) and recovered from my broken ankle (goodbye, 2016; you were a rotten year, all in all). And what better topic to start with than this most awesome ever trip: a Mother-Daughter trip with my favorite daughter, Dianna, and my soon-to-be daughter-in-law, Alicia.

Dianna and I went to Venice (Italy! did I mention Italy?) We spent the first 3 days in Venice, then 3 days in Florence, and a final 4 days in Rome. Alicia was only able to participate in the cicchetti (savory snacks or small side dishes, typically served in a bar or informal restaurant, primarily in Venice) and wine days of our trip.

Here are two preview pictures (and test of whether my posting will work) of our joyful time: