Ooh ooh that smell, that smell that surrounds you

Friday, September 18, 2015
Venice, Veneto, Italy
All I could think of as I woke was that Lynyrd Skynyrd song stuck in my head. The smell was actually giving Connie a headache. Needless to say, we got cleaned up and dressed quick and got our bags packed.

While the concierge got another room ready for us we went to the restaurant for the breakfast that was included with the room . There was a great selection of food to choose from and definitely was not the typical European continental breakfast. We sat in the outside area where we had a nice view of the grand canal and could people watch as the throngs walked by. We lost count of the number of Chinese tour groups that walked by after we hit double digits. Each group of 20+ people was led by a person holding a flag high up in the air. The population of the historical center of Venice is 60,000 and there are 60,000 tourists visiting each day. Without question the best times to enjoy Venice are in the early morning and the evening after 8pm.

By the time we were done eating the concierge had our room ready and was apologetic about the size of it compared to the room we were in, but it was good enough for us and no stinkiness. Actually, although about half the size of the gargantuan room we were in, this second floor room was quite nice with a view to the court area in front of the hotel and easy access to the patio area overlooking the court area . And did I mention the lack of
smell? :-)

Once we settled our stuff in the room we started our trek around Venice, which by the way does not smell, despite all the things you might hear...at least during the period we were there Apparently the stench is reserved for first floor hotel rooms. We decided to do some gift shopping close to the hotel to get that out of the way and drop the goods in the room so we wouldn't have to schlep stuff around all day. Venetian glass and masks were predominant among the shops.

After getting the shopping out of the way, we made a short stop at the bar/cafe just around the corner from the hotel and Connie had a latte and I had a spritz, which is the afternoon drink favorite in Italy. We wandered throughout the walkways making our way towards Rialto bridge, which is one of the four bridges spanning the Grand Canal in Venice. It's the oldest bridge across the canal, and was the dividing line for the districts of San Marco and San Polo . We did most of our walking around the San Marco district as the majority of the squares and sites that we wanted to see were in this area.

By late afternoon we were getting pretty tired from the walking so we decided to take a gondola ride. We found a gondolier on a bridge crossing a canal that seemed a good speaker and would be able to tell us about the sites as we went around. While expensive, taking a gondola ride once is a must as it gives a completely different perspective of the city. It's here that you really see that the buildings were built around the use of the canals as the primary mode of getting around with all the main entrances facing the canal as opposed to the streets. Of course now, all the shops face the alleys rather than the canals, but back in the early years the alleys were used by the workers and peasants, while the people of money and rank used the gondolas to travel. All 500 of the gondoliers in the city are decedents of gondoliers and that's the only way you can become one .

Our guy, who was a Jason Stathan lookalike according to Connie, told us about a few other sites to see while here including a church built of marble that changed color depending on how the sun was hitting it. So we took a stroll and found that before making our way back to the Grand Canal for a vaporetto ride back to the hotel. The day turned to night as we made the boat trip and we hung out in the room for a few hours waiting for the crowds to dissipate so we could go back to the Piazza San Marco for some night shots with a tripod.

It was almost 10pm when we left the room and we hadn't eaten since breakfast, so we made a stop on the way to the Piazzo for something to eat. I had a very nice sandwich and Connie's meal was a big ice cream dish. By the time we got to the Piazzo it was almost 11pm and there were still quite a few people, but significantly less than the crowds earlier in the day. The big annoyance was the East Indian peddlers selling led toys that were everywhere and bothersome. We snapped some pics and made our way to the Grand Canal to get some shots there. By the time we got back to the room it was 1:30am so we quickly packed our stuff for a fast morning exit and hit the sack.
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Comments

wanda mcclure
2015-09-21

All of the pictures are great, I liked San Marco

Karin
2015-09-28

So nice to hear that you are having a wonderful time. The architecture is amazing ...the photos are beautiful!

2025-02-15

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