Venice - March 6th and 7th, 2011
Venice – 2011 0306 & 07: Left St. Louis about on time around 10:30 and got into JFK near 1:00. All nine of us for the trip were on the same flights. JFK terminals are like a giant shopping mall with tons of stores and restaurants. We ate at a place we could sit down and talked for a while. The trek to the gate for the Venice flight was a long one. And we had hours to wait. The plane was supposed to leave around 6:40, but didn’t pull away from the gate until after 7:00.
The flight is about 8 hours. Even though the seats were roomy enough and the food fine and the fact that I took a sleeping pill, I didn’t sleep much at all. Fifteen minutes here and there. Coming across Europe, we crossed over the Alps and it was totally clear. Gorgious.
Stewart met us at the airport and took us to a water taxi. The airport is on the mainland. We were taken over the water, around Murano, around Venice, and over to Lido, where are our hotel is. We all went into Hotel Panorama for some coffee and to check in. Stewart had told Jeff and me and another person that we were going to spend one night at another hotel until our rooms opened up. So, we walked over to the Ausonia Palance Hotel, a recently renovated lovely place with lovely rooms.
Lido is one of the barrier islands around the lagoon that protects Venice and the other islands there. So, Jeff and I walked over to the side of Lido that is the beach and the Adriatic. Then back to a restaurant on Lido to meet the rest of the group. After lunch, we took the vaporetto over the Venice and got off around St. Marks Square.
It’s hard to relay the scene. Today and tomorrow are the last two days of Carnivale. There are over 150,000 people a day that come to Venice during Carinivale! And most of them are around the biggest public places like St. Marks Square. There are not only lots of people in costumes and there are a series of professional actors and others who are wearing gorgeous costumes and full face masks. I have never seen so many expensive digital cameras. People gather in huge clumps around the people in costumes to take pictures. The actors pose nicely for you. We were there around an hour and a half.
Then we met our guide, Louisella, and spent several hours with her getting the history of Venice and wandering far and wide through alleys, across bridges, through squares. Unless you get your bearings from where the Sun is, you’d be entirely lost. The alleys are so narrow, you have to walk single file through them.
We took the vaporetto back to Lido, downloaded pictures (I took over 500 today) and tried to stay awake. Met all for dinner at Gran Viale where I had carpaccio, spaghetti with clam sauce, and almond cake. Local wine. All good.
Sensory overload today. Really beautiful. Tomorrow we plan to dive into the crowd again, but also wander off and get good and lost. It’s THE way to see Venice.
The flight is about 8 hours. Even though the seats were roomy enough and the food fine and the fact that I took a sleeping pill, I didn’t sleep much at all. Fifteen minutes here and there. Coming across Europe, we crossed over the Alps and it was totally clear. Gorgious.
Stewart met us at the airport and took us to a water taxi. The airport is on the mainland. We were taken over the water, around Murano, around Venice, and over to Lido, where are our hotel is. We all went into Hotel Panorama for some coffee and to check in. Stewart had told Jeff and me and another person that we were going to spend one night at another hotel until our rooms opened up. So, we walked over to the Ausonia Palance Hotel, a recently renovated lovely place with lovely rooms.
Lido is one of the barrier islands around the lagoon that protects Venice and the other islands there. So, Jeff and I walked over to the side of Lido that is the beach and the Adriatic. Then back to a restaurant on Lido to meet the rest of the group. After lunch, we took the vaporetto over the Venice and got off around St. Marks Square.
It’s hard to relay the scene. Today and tomorrow are the last two days of Carnivale. There are over 150,000 people a day that come to Venice during Carinivale! And most of them are around the biggest public places like St. Marks Square. There are not only lots of people in costumes and there are a series of professional actors and others who are wearing gorgeous costumes and full face masks. I have never seen so many expensive digital cameras. People gather in huge clumps around the people in costumes to take pictures. The actors pose nicely for you. We were there around an hour and a half.
Then we met our guide, Louisella, and spent several hours with her getting the history of Venice and wandering far and wide through alleys, across bridges, through squares. Unless you get your bearings from where the Sun is, you’d be entirely lost. The alleys are so narrow, you have to walk single file through them.
We took the vaporetto back to Lido, downloaded pictures (I took over 500 today) and tried to stay awake. Met all for dinner at Gran Viale where I had carpaccio, spaghetti with clam sauce, and almond cake. Local wine. All good.
Sensory overload today. Really beautiful. Tomorrow we plan to dive into the crowd again, but also wander off and get good and lost. It’s THE way to see Venice.
posted by Bud Hirsch at 4:15 PM
2 Comments:
Nice sweetie. What a wonderful day and exciting time to be there.
glad that you described the food- but where are the pictures of it????
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