Days 12, 13 and 14 - Many Rivers to Cross.

We're taking these blogging duties super seriously but struggling to keep up!!!  We are both composing updates as I type.  I am tasked with the most recent, because, let's face it, I struggle to remember something that happened 5 minutes ago!

Day 12 (a travel day):

This photo was taken specifically for the blog to show how we caught trains 

So ... we departed the sensational Cinque Terre a little earlier than scheduled (around 10).  We felt we'd done it well and didn't see the point waiting around until lunch time so jumped on the first train to our first transit point: La Spezia.  It's a short trip down the line and is a coastal town also, but much larger then the Cinque Terre villages.  We hoped to leave our luggage somewhere but the unhelpful man at the station said "closed", so we dragged it out into the street to find breakfast.  It was pretty yuck and we ate it, found an Optician (they are EVERYWHERE) and got the arm of my specs screwed back in before heading back to the station for our train to Venice via Florence.  We had a wait in Florence so ventured out briefly and found lunch in a lovely old hotel before again boarding.  Unfortunately the waiter and the chef didn't realise I could tell the difference between garlic and grit in my mushroom pasta but what can you do?  Damien on the other hand loved his spaghetti carbonara.  Except for the stone.  We think it was a piece of an olive pip but he didn't take it up with the waiter.

We got to our lovely apartment Cà dell'Oleandro around 7:00pm.  It was a pretty easy walk from the station:

and were met by the lovely Pietro who told us all we needed to know before setting us free.  We wandered for the evening and found an average dinner (we didn't mean to but if you don't do your research I believe this is where you end up ... it's google tonight!)

While we have had plenty of positive feedback on the blog, one worrying thing is that most of the feedback asks us if we are only visiting restaurants.  What about the art galleries?  What about the museums?  I refer you back to the Palace at Versailles, where we did all that arty/museumy stuff (before visiting a beautiful restaurant for lunch.  For lovers of art and museums, there will be plenty to keep you sated later on.  But for now, back to the story.

Actually - no - let's pause for a bit.  Damien here, interrupting Annies blog.  We have decided to make this one a bit of a mashup.  Back in the Cinque Terre, we alluded to what silly places they are to build a village.  Hard to get to, steep, etc.  But this place - Venice - is just ridiculous.  It's quite big  but there are no cars or motorbikes at all in Venice.  They are not allowed.  Which is just as well because there are no roads!  None!.  There are laneways and canals.  Many of you will be thinking of the Elwood canal, but no, the Venice ones are not like that.  These ones are seawater and are clean.  They don't even smell.  Venice began as islands and while there's been a lot of terraforming going on over the centuries, it is still basically a ground of islands closely packed together.

Now back to the narrative - thanks for your patience. As we return from our mediocre dinner, the water is overflowing the banks of the canal and washing over parts of the footpath.  I am worried about this.  Not for this week, but given the inexorable rise of the oceans due to the widespread apathy to climate change, I would suggest that the Venetians are in a lot of trouble.  If you want to get a look at this palce while you can still walk around, I'd suggest you get here in the next few years.  After that, as Robert Shaw once said, "we're going to need a bigger boat".  Or a lot more fucking gondolas.

At the end of our street is a canal.  See the puddle at my feet? Fark!

Nice looking food

And some more

Aren't these sandwiches interesting!?  I said to Damien "we will have some of those for our lunch".  He said perhaps.  We went to a cafe later and had a really ordinary toasted focaccia :(

Ordering coffee in the place with the nice sandwiches.  We'll probably never try them now ... 

The street bits, not canal bits

Note for myself to go on their website and buy some shoes.  They are great and the 38 fits me perfectly :)

These were meringue and they were HUGE - both my hands might have managed to wrap around it!

Spot the tourist

Pretty house

Who wouldn't want to eat at this restaurant with a display like that!

In the Piazza San Marco

A few others liked it there too

Just the thing for getting out and about on the paved streets of Venezia!

We named this the Bosch factory

After wandering and drooling for a few hours we purchased a 24 hour ferry ticket for 20 Euros each.  This was a great decision as the route took us all over the place and gave us a fantastic view of Venice from the water.  We headed out into the bay looking at the Piazza and it was vast and choppy and there were many boats.

There were also several super yachts.  I googled this one and saw we could rent it for a week for $400,000 Euros!  Let's do it  in Summer!

A talented Australian man was sketching with his fountain pen

Despite the large sign instructing otherwise, this silly bitch STOOD ALL THE WAY taking photos, including many selfies (should've seen the way she posed for herself).  Luckily for her she was on the other side of the front of the boat to where we were sitting or she would have felt the sting of my tongue.  What was even more annoying was she and her friend with terrible stripey hair got off and the people who replaced her stood up for a moment to take a photo and the boat driver rapped on his window very loudly telling them to sit down!  Obviously they weren't attractive or female.  Pissed me off.  Damien wouldn't let me have a go at him.

I managed to calm down and pose serenely though

The Venice Bienalle starts tomorrow and I'm not sure if that is why every second building seems to be hosting some kind of art event, or if it's always like this in Venice?  I suspect the former, but also that there is always a lot of artistic endeavour going on here.

Sorry Cindy, we walked to the Peggy Gugenheim Collection but there was a long line and I just couldn't wait in it :(

More food, sorry!

We stopped for a beer (well I had no choice, that's all they had) but it was nice and they had sensational little tapas.  I forgot to take a photo but they were just like this I found on the net:

After that Damien told me to walk to the top of this little bridge and he took my photo:

I will leave you with this particularly special photo, dedicated to our friend Paul, who might like to know there are plumbers in Venice!

It's not the end of the day but need to do some research so we don't have a dud dinner experience, so I may or may not check in again tonight ... actually, I won't publish just yet, in case it's stupendous and photo worthy (because not all food gets to be on our blog!)

So we're back from dinner.  I took Trip Advisor's advice and booked into the nearby Trattoria Alle Due Gondelette.  It's a nondescript little place but it lived up to reviews and we had a delicious dinner.  I went for the house speciality Bacala Mousse with White Polenta.  Oh goodness, yum (I should be a food writer).  Damien had the seafood tasting plate, which included mine only smaller, plus squid and salmon.  He said it too was delicious.  I followed this (feeling really full as it was very rich) with seafood pasta.  It came in a nice pesto sauce.  I couldn't finish it though I was also very nice.  Damien ordered the pasta with pigeon sauce but they were out of it and he accepted the replacement of pasta with duck.  Again delish.

There was Grunge, Indie and Punk beer (?!).  He went for Grunge.

Codfish mousse with polenta Biancoperla (divine!)

The above + Roasted Octopus with Fave Beans and Chicory + Marinated Salmon, yoghurt and salads

Pasta with clams, mussels and wild herbs

Duck in place of pigeon, happy with that.

It's 6:00 am in Melbourne and 10:00 pm here in Venezia.  We're ready for bed and another adventure tomorrow as we journey on to Florence.  Have a good day everyone xxx - Annie.

Damien back again. Now it's the next day but we will just be sneaking around for a couple of hours on a walking tour before another train will be taking us off to Florence.  So here are a few snippets to add to that which was posted by Annie above.

Murano glass.  this is everywhere! We didn't go out to the isle of Murano to see the world famous glass objets d'art because the shops in Venice are chock full of it.  This is one of at least a thousand glass shops we walked past.

And if the window isn't full of Murano glass, it will be at least half full of carnivale masks.  I'm not really sure why.  I didn't see anyone wearing one, and it's not Mardi Gras time.

Here's Annie considering to buy one to cover my face.

 Here's a shot (helpfully labelled).  You can forget about the Pink fellow and the white woman and their three kids who kept us waiting for half an hour and forced us to cut the tour short.
Laura gave us a thorough explanation of Venetian history and the significance of various monuments and buildings.  If you are ever doing this sort of trip and you are interested in why things are where they are (rather than just looking at them), do as many of these walking tours as you can.

Come on, keep walking!

 And now we're out of there - Firenze here we come.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGeCeK85sUg