PontifiKate

Day 7: Mon. Sept. 19th -- (FLORENCE) VENICE

Venice photos with titles and some captions

Venice photos in slideshow format

We got up in order to have time to make a quick stop at Santa Maria Novella church before taking the correct train to Venice (now that we knew how the trains worked). We grabbed coffee on the way. (Mine was a *small* café latté that was about three inches tall with a two inch diameter at the top. Tiny!) We were actually only allowed into the church’s chapel when we got there, since we were too early.

We then caught the Florence-Venice train, which was as confusing as all get out. We spent probably the first twenty minutes on the moving train trying to figure out where we were supposed to be -- including walking the length of the train -- and finally landing in a couple of *thankfully* vacant seats (vacant, that is, after two people moved their stuff off the seats).

The directions to this hostel were the best yet. We ditched our bags, got a bite to eat, and pressed on to the two museums we wanted to see in Venice (since both are closed on Tuesdays). First, we went to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, which included some Dali and Picasso, which was cool. Then we went to the Musei Civici Veneziani, which seemed (dare I say!) pretty mediocre. There were lots of paintings of Venice, but also just a lot more chiefly uncovered bodies. *sigh*

We made one final effort at finding an opera, concert, or something to attend, but it didn’t pan out, which was disappointing. How cool would it have been to go to an opera in Italy?! (Maybe later this year…) But regardless, we enjoyed the beauty of Venice!

Having nothing better to do than get dinner (and with me characteristically hungry), we struck out. We went to what looked like a 20-something café and allowed the waiter to bring us the reported Venician specialty: the (alcoholic) Orange Spritz, which we both liked. He also brought us a bowl of peanuts, which we chowed down on. After a while, it became apparent that this wasn’t a dinner place after all. Shoot. We were getting ready to make a move (i.e. - pay and leave) when the waiter brought us refills on our spritzes, courtesy of an Italian dude who was sitting with his friends outside, on the other side of the window from us! He came in, introduced himself to us (or rather to Elissa, whom he‘d been facing), and invited us (Elissa) to meet up with him later, which we in no way promised to do, though we were nice about it. We were then obliged to try to finish our new drinks, even though it was our second and we only had peanuts in our stomachs. We exercised caution. :o) Anyway, we left not long after.

We found a restaurant and I ordered anchovy pizza, as I’ve heard tell of it for years and figured that there’s no better time to be adventurous in cuisine than when in a foreign land. (Or is that the worst time, because it’s less convenient to be ill?) Anyway: DUDE!! A new taste adventure! One bite of anchovy = one day’s allotted salt intake. But you all probably knew that. I think that was the only meal I didn’t finish because of the taste. :o)

posted by Kate @ 5:13 AM