An entry in the TFS Travel Journal.
Breakfast here in the hotel pretty much sucked; some canned fruit, bland pastries. Set off to soak up the city of Venice, Italy, in the now cool fall weather. We walked all about, stopping at I Friari - a large brick church from the 1500s with some remarkable Titian alterpieces. Just walking around this city is an experience - every gaze, every building, every bridge is a marvel; plus, it’s so wonderfully quiet - sometimes eerily so - with no cars or crazy motorscooters!
We set off to find Fred’s lunch recommendation del giorno. The trattoria is located in an out of the way little piazza and doesn’t bother with a menu, just preparing whatever’s fresh at the fish market that day. We started with the spaghetti (funny how prevelent spaghetti is here, while in the US you rarely see it on menus since I guess it’s considered not exotic enough) vongole, but with larger, more flavorful local clams. Really good, with a buttery, somewhat spicy sauce. Milton then enjoyed fried calamari, but lightly and tastily fried, not the taste-the-breading American style, and we shared a grilled fish that was so fresh we think we saw it in one of the canals on our way over here. We skipped dessert, having eyed several gelato places earlier.
We walked toward the Piazza San Marco, making sure to wander as much as possible. Finally arrived at the renown square, with its carpet of pigeons. The basilica was amazing — completed in 1094, with artful mosaics of tiny gold and multi-colored tiles covering its huge, vaulted ceilings and dazzling inlaid marble mosaics in myriad patterns forming the floors.
Then Wendy sat in the piazza enjoying the most wonderful hot chocolate in the world (a rich chocolate broth to which one adds warm milk) while Milton ascended the bell tower to take in the panoramic view of city and water (oddly, though, the one thing that can’t be seen from high up is any canals!)
Then a walk through the Piazza Ducale (Doge’s palace), which was mildly interesting. Some classic Venetian paintings, an impressive collection of armaments, and carved marble staircases with gilded gold ceilings. While Milton rested, Wendy went to seek out even more postcards and ended up running into the honeymoon couple just returning from the nearby islands. We compared notes, exchanged email addresses, then set off to cruise the shopping district.
As it got dark and the shops in Venice closed, we hopped aboard the vaporetto and got off at Ca’ d’Or, the stop before ours, since it’s the area Fred suggests for early evening food shopping. We found some fruit for breakfast and, for our mid-trip spice fix, a Chinese restaurant! Not exactly New York’s finest, but we gladly consumed their soup, shrimp, and chicken; the tsing-tao with the spicy food was like welcoming an old friend. Then a yummy gelato double scoop for the way home, and a quiet night in our room under the full moon.