19 May - All roads lead to Rome and trains do too it seems

We woke up fairly early and went down for breakfast in the dining room. it was very pleasant. we asked at the front desk about getting a water taxi to the train station and they said they would call one for us. Great. upstairs to take care of everything there make sure we were all packed and not forgetting anything. our suitcases were very full, actually over filled with all the different souvenirs we had picked up over the last 14 days.

We brought our things downstairs and payed our bill and waited for the taxi. Being rather anxious about getting to the small boat ramp on time asked them if they could bring our luggage there earlier so that we would be at the stop when the boat got there. The hotel staff were a little short,  I would say, with us and did arrange it, but as we left I heard one of them say "Americans".
Well, I guess we were Americans from North America, but never having travelled in Venice by water taxi to the train station and not knowing how long it would take us to get there, we were a little anxious about not being late. In Canada you were supposed to get the the station early so we just wanted to get there early enough to make sure we knew what was going on.

The taxi boat came and drove us through our last canals and pulled up to a pier and gave us directions through a small laneway. there was a young man who helped us with our luggage and we paid him but it was a short trip and we were in the train station.
In Venice, or actually Italy, it seems one does not get to the train station until 5 minutes before the train is about to leave. especially if you already have your tickets.  There are no benches to sit on and wait and the coffee shops which are only a few are small with only a few tables and chairs. We ended up hanging around for an hour filling the time with looking at the schedule to find out which track we would be on, looking in the few shop windows and trying to get comfortable sitting on the foot rests outside of the shops. Really not that comfortable.  I understood then the slight annoyance of the hotel staff with us rushing off to the train station early. Well now we are world travellers and so we know better.
The train left right on time as all trains do in Italy and Margie and I were seated beside each other to start with . crossing the bay on a long bridge to the mainland where we then had to sit in different spots on the the same car after the first stop as I had initially screwed up our reservation and then when I tried to fix it could not get two seats together to Rome. Another notch on my knowledge of world travellers belt. I read and sorted out photos and my camera while taking pictures of lovely Italy.
We  got to Florence, our second stop, and the family that was sitting with Margie left, so we can sit together again. After a quick stop the train was off to Rome. It only take 2 hours to Florence from Venice and 2 hours from Florence to Rome so we are there pretty quickly. We caught a cab which drove us past many ruins and impressive buildings and when we arrived at our hotel it was only about a 15 dollar ride in total. Amazing.
Our hotel, the Mercure was same hotel chain as the London Mercure,  which we enjoyed very much. What is lacked in character , like the Giorgione , it made up for in Location.


the Hotel was very close to the Coliseum which is why we chose it, that and it had a roof top pool with a view of the coliseum.   We had google mapped Rome prior to the trip and knew what things we wanted to see so once we got settled, we went for a little exploratory walk through a lovely park right beside the hotel. We tried to stay in the shade as it was still quite warm and once through the park up the road to a very large church.

The Santa Maria Maggiore, with a tall column with a statue of Mary on it out front. By this time on our trip we had seen some pretty impressive churches, basilicas and St. Peters which of course is incomparable to any other church.

This church was one of those sights to see in Rome and we were not disappointed. It was very large and very lovely and we enjoyed it very much. We lit a few candles and said a few prayers for our families and friends and enjoyed the interior marbles, paintings, ceiling and the peace and quiet that filled the space.

We decided to try and find a hop on hop off bus to ride around in, so we headed west around the back of the Santa Maria Maggiore and discovered that we were too late to buy tickets for the HOHO bus that day. Well a little walk would not hurt us would it. after all we had been on a train for 4 hours that day just sitting.

We headed up the Via Agostina Depretis  about 4 blocks  to the Quattro Fontane on the Via del Quirinale.   According to Wikipedia The Quattro Fontane (the Four Fountains) is an ensemble of four Late Renaissance fountains located at the intersection of Via delle Quattro Fontane and Via del Quirinale in Rome. They were commissioned by Pope Sixtus V and built at the direction of Muzio Mattei, and were installed between 1588 and 1593.

We did not know about them until we got there and were very surprised to see them. Each one was built into the corner of a building,  All were very cool.   
There were more and more tourists on people as we went along. the went down the Via Del Quirinale past the government palace. they looked like there might be some nice gardens in there but they did not let us in to see. We Continued down the street to the  Via del montecavalo and went down this till we got to a corner with a small coffee shop. 

 At this point we thought well lets take a break and find out where we are.there was a very small car parked right across the street from the coffee shop and I wanted to take a photo of it but some young men were in the way so I waited  until they would move off. one of them saw m standing there waiting and kinda motioned what? so I printed to the car. He gave me a funny look and point dot himself? and I motioned sure I would take his photo at which point his friends all wanted to get their photo taken by the little old lady too so I took their photo. They were very cute young men out having a nice time and you can almost see the time car behind them.

 We went in for a coffee which was very good and then proceeded to the Trevi fountain which was only a block  and a bit away. There are little shrines on buildings all over Italy. some large  some small but all lovely.  the Italians love to decorate their buildings and I for one love it.
The Fountain was very crowded and I could not really get a good shot of it so hoped I could come back another time and try again. We had been warned about pick pockets at crowded sites so kept a real tight hold of both my purse and my camera. 

From the Trevi fountain made famous by the movie "three coins in the fountain",  we wound our way up to the Spagna piazza to the Spanish steps which was about another 4 blocks away. There were lots of tourists so we just went where everyone else was going.and it did not take too long.  The steps were being worked on so only one section was open. I got my photo taken my a picture of Sophia Loren although I really wanted it with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory peck from "Roman Holiday".
We took several photos along the height of the steps all the way to the top and the church that was there. We did not get into the church but proceeded along the road looking for the Villa Medici. Unfortunately it was closed by the time we got there.  We were enjoying the funny little cars for the Police?  and the great views of the city with a the sun just getting ready to set when Margie realized she had forgotten her jacket in the cafe where the great coffee was.  

We headed back down the road which was very steep and  noticed the flowers blooming along the way.  It was not nearly as crowded going this way as the steps had been. back to the Trevi fountain where we could actually now get close too land so got some great photos. Back up the little street to the coffee shop which still had her jacket she and sound.  Oh joy. We decide d to call it a day and try to find our way back to the hotel. A quick stop at a pharmacy so Margie could pick up some tylenol  as her feet and hips were killing her. Cobble stones!

We headed back and we went a little more south and came out of the narrow streets with this very large and impressive building in front of us. A museum we thought...  Wikipedi says "The Vittorio Emanuele II Monument (Italian: "Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II"), also known as the (Mole del) Vittoriano, Il Vittoriano, or Altare della Patria (English: "Altar of the Fatherland"), is a monument built in honor of Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a unified Italy, located inRome, Italy. It occupies a site between the Piazza Venezia and the Capitoline Hill.  It's currently managed by the Polo Museale del Lazio, the Italian Ministry of Defence and the Museo Centrale del Risorgimento Italiano (Museo central del Risorgimento del Vittoriano)  We headed over the road and took some nice shots of the statuary around this museum. They really know how to cover their buildings in statuary in Europe. Canadians do not do this so much so we love to see it when we travel.

Crossing the roads is always a challenge for us in each new place we visit. we usually just wait and go with the rest of the folks . It is better to be part of the herd in this instance, much safer, like in the shoal of fish with the safe ones in the middle.
We decided if we had time we would come back the next day to go to the museum but as there were quite a few things on our list to see we might not get to it. oh well another reason to come back to Rome.

The ruins of the coliseum below us were our companions as we walked along back towards our hotel. There are ruins everywhere in Rome. Well, excavations of old temples and buildings but the most impressive were the ones at the coliseum. We ooooed and awed and talked about our tour of the coliseum in the morning  which we were both looking forward to very much.

As we walked over toward the coliseum a full moon was peeking through the arches . How cool was that! We of course tried to get a great photo of that.  What a wonderful memory of Rome. a beautiful sunny evening and even though there were a lot of people out and about I never felt crowded or threatened.  It was lovely. I did do a quick photo shoot  with the invisible man. my Roman boyfriend.

We were starting to get a little peckish and decided to try a little restaurant right across the street from the Coliseum. this may have been a mistake. there were no seats inside as they had reservations for a large group and so we were sat outside on the patio. at first this seemed alright but as the sun set and it became quite cool and busier on the street we asked if we could move inside. NO. I ordered a veggie burger and got a very green, very soft, could have been spinach, burger thing that did not taste very good but I ate it. The adventures of ordering unknown dishes in far off places in a foreign language.
 Back to our hotel and a warm shower which Margie has now given up trying to figure out first. Falling asleep right away was easy as we were very very tired travellers.

18 May - Venice - St Marks Basilica and wandering

Good bye cruise ship

We woke up and had a quick bite to eat. We said good bye to Joseph, our room Stewart and left our room so he could strip it and make it up for the incoming cruise people. We waited down in the main foyer for our turn to leave the ship. because we were anxious to get to our hotel it seemed to take a long time to get to 930 am. when it was finally our turn we got our luggage and headed off to find a water taxi. the water taxi's were at the end of the pier that our ship was on, the inside end not the end end. We did find where they were and after waiting our turn our driver loaded us gently and carefully and our luggage with a great heave into the boat. We had picked up quite a few souvenirs over the course of the voyage.

We went down a little canal from the port and then into the grand canal which is very impressive. after a few turns down smaller and smaller  canals we came to a small square where the water taxi driver pulled over to a kind of stair case exit spot and started to unload our suitcases. we asked him where the hotel was as we could not see it and he pointed down the street. I said thanks , paid him and went in search of our hotel. It started to rain.

Our Hotel was only across assure and about a small block and a half away from this drop off point so I went back and got Margie and the luggage and we hauled it all back which seemed much longer with the suitcases.

Hello Hotel Giorgione! we asked if we could check in and leave our suitcases with them as we had tickets for St Marks at 12 so needed to find our way there before that time which was our ticket time to get into St Marks. They said no problem so we checked in and headed off to St Marks. the hotel had the largest glass chandelier in the lobby!

The street signs in Venice are on the sides of the buildings up high and there are arrows to the big tourist spots like St marks and the Rialto bridge. We had time so when we were proceeding across a small bridge over a small canal and spotted our first gondola ,we asked the gondolier how much and how long? 70 Euros for both of us for about 35 minutes. how close were we to St Marks? just up the street and around the corner ,so quite close. Ok lets do it.

He was very nice and told us about how the gondola system works. there are only so many gondola licenses in Venice. Your family has a licence which can be passed down in the family or given back to the city and then they sell the license to the next person/family on the waiting list for a gondola. they are all decorated differently with little silver accoutrements to liven them up . while we were being ferried rough lots of little canals we got a history lesson of sorts about the different buildings we were passing. it was lovely I did ask him if he sang and he said no and we would be glad to not have him sing so I did 

" 'O sole mio,Sta 'nfronte a te! Sta 'nfronte a te!

I 'm afraid I was loud but not very melodic . We saw many landmarks and some were under repair but they had covers on them with pictures of the building or bridge so from a distance it still looked like the real thing.  With our ride over we paid and headed off to St Marks which we found with no problem.

An archway and then a large square with lots of people and a statue of a lion on top of a tall column. on the left side of the square is the large Basilica of Saint Mark. Beautiful sculpted marble of all colours into columns, statues, mosaic frescos adorning the outside of the church. we had a bit of time and so wandered around but it had started to rain again so tried to stay under cover most of the time until it was our time to get into the church.

Wikipedia says: "The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark (officially known in Italian as the Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco and commonly known as Saint Mark's Basilica) is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice and northern Italy.   

It is the most famous of the city's churches and one of the best known examples of Italo-Byzantine architecture. It lies at the eastern end of the Piazza San Marco, adjacent and connected to the Doge's Palace. Originally it was the chapel of the Doge, and has only been the city's cathedral since 1807, when it became the seat of the Patriarch of Venice, archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice , formerly at San Pietro di Castello.

For its opulent design, gold ground Mosaics, and its status as a symbol of Venetian wealth and power, from the 11th century on the building has been known by the nickname Chiesa d'Oro (Church of gold) and for good reason. it is all gold inside. the Domes, the walls and the alters, it is truly lovely.  

We walked in and of course the first thing I saw in the large entry way was  the floor, all marble designs  in many patterns and colours . I think I will have to incorporate some of these patterns into a patio at my house. As I was filming those lovely floors when I looked up and was entranced by the most lovely gold ceiling! the entire ceiling of the cathedral is covered in gold mosaic tiles which seem to glow in their goldness. It was stunning! It was also crowded but we shuffled along admiring all the carved wood and the mosaic floors and ceiling. 

Just before we entered the church proper, we were inside a large entry room where there were some steps down to the water. the Water was coming in under the large doors and I thought "oh my, it is going to flood while we are here". but it did not. scary though. I guess lots of times it does flood the right into the cathedral which explained all the folks wearing rubber boots.

We got to the front of the church and there was a small gate that one could pay to go through to go further up onto the alter and behind, so we did that for 2 euros  there were way fewer people and we were again so impressed by the beautiful alter and the view of the cathedral from the alter it was well worth the price.

The church is very large and was pretty full of people. We found a place where we could light candles and did that and then we worked our way out of the cathedral slowly, admiring the detail of the faces in the mosaics in the domes.

Outside the rain was falling more heavily so we stayed under the cover along the side. we found the entrance to the cathedral museum and went up many stone steps only to discover that our ticket did not include that portion of the cathedral. so down we went and over the Doges palace.

After a little pit stop, (we are not as young as we used to be) there was a quick security check , down a long hall out into a courtyard and up a staircase and we were in. it is a large complex of joined buildings, wonderfully full of art, artifacts, carved wood and stone statues all housed in some very large and very beautiful rooms. 

As we were on our own, we did not have to keep up with a tour group and it was actually almost relaxing just walking along listening to our guided tour handsets. a lot of history to take in most of which I do not recall from my school days, well maybe a few bits and pieces but not much really. Venice is a hotspot for history as it was the centre of the financial world for a long time. I loved it.

Wikipedia says " In 810, Doge Agnello Participazio moved the seat of government from the island of Malamocco to the area of the present-day Rialto, when it was decided a palatium duci ( Latin for "ducal palace") should be built. However, no trace remains of that 9th-century building as the palace was partially destroyed in the 10th century by a fire. The following reconstruction works were undertaken at the behest of Doge Sebastiano Ziani (1172–1178). A great reformer, he would drastically change the entire layout of the St. Mark's Square.  

The new palace was built out of fortresses, one façade to the Piazzetta, the other overlooking the St. Mark's Basin. Although only few traces remain of that palace, some Byzantine-Venetian architecture  characteristics can still be seen at the ground floor, with the wall base in Istrian stone and some herring-bone pattern brick paving.

Political changes in the mid-13th century led to the need to re-think the palace's structure due to the considerable increase in the number of the Great Council's members. The new Gothic palace's constructions started around 1340, focusing mostly on the side of the building facing the lagoon. Only in 1424 did DogeFrancesco Foscari decide to extend the rebuilding works to the wing overlooking the Piazzetta, serving as law-courts, and with a ground floor arcade on the outside, open first floor loggias running along the façade, and the internal courtyard side of the wing, completed with the construction of the Porta della Carta (1442).

In 1483, a violent fire broke out in the side of the palace overlooking the canal, where the Doge's Apartments were. Once again, an important reconstruction became necessary and was commissioned from Antonio Rizzo, who would introduce the new Renaissance language to the building's architecture. An entire new structure was raised alongside the canal, stretching from the ponte della Canonica to thePonte della Paglia,  with the official rooms of the government decorated with works commissioned fromVittore Carpaccio, Girogione, Alvise Vivarini and Giovanne Bellini. 

Another huge fire in 1547 destroyed some of the rooms on the second floor, but fortunately without undermining the structure as a whole. Refurbishment works were being held at the palace when on 1577 a third fire destroyed the Scrutinio Room and the Great Council Chamber, together with works by Gentile da Fabriano, Pisanello, Alvise Vivarini, Vittore Carpaccio, Giovanni Bellini, Pordenone, and Titan. In the subsequent rebuilding work it was decided to respect the originalGothic Style, despite the submission of a neo-classical alternative designs by the influential Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. However, there are some classical features — for example, since the 16th century, the palace has been linked to the prison by the Bridge of Sighs. 

As well as being the ducal residence, the palace housed political institutions of the Republic of Venice until the Napoleonic occupation of the city in 1797, when its role inevitably changed. Venice was subjected first to French rule, then to Austrian, and finally in 1866 it became part of Italy. Over this period, the palace was occupied by various administrative offices as well as housing the Biblioteca Marciana  and other important cultural institutions within the city.

As part of the admission price one gets to tour the old prison, so once finished with the palace proper one crosses the famous connecting Bridge of Sighs over to the rather spooky jail. with lots of stories about the different cells, and there were lots of cells with big thick doors. Dark and damp and cool. Creepy. 

By the end of the 19th century, the structure was showing clear signs of decay, and the Italian government set aside significant funds for its restoration and all public offices were moved elsewhere, with the exception of the State Office for the protection of historical Monuments, which is still housed at the palace's loggia floor. In 1923, the Italian State, owner of the building, entrusted the management to the Venetian municipality to be run as a museum. Since 1996, the Doge’s Palace has been part of the Venetian museums network, which has been under the management of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia since 2008.

The tour left us a little fatigued so we had a quick lunch at this lovely little restaurant right off the square., in Italy a quick lunch means at least one hour long. We then took the water bus, which is very cool back to the closest stop to our hotel the Ca D'Oro Stop. We always knew which way to not walk after getting off the bus boat. once we were through the very narrow pathway to the street  away from the Macdonald's which was just up from the exit. We wandered around a little bit but we found our hotel and and checked in properly.  Once they found our luggage we were shown to our room. What a lovely room. What a lovely hotel, really nice. A quick relax and we were off again to explore .

We went north this time and found charming bridges across small canals, large churches on small squares and the water taxi/bus stop ion the north side of the island which would take us to either Murano or Burano or one of the hundred other islands in the bay. the wind was picking up so we decided to go back into the maze of small streets.

 We came back to the church of Maria Assunta vulgo Gesuiti  and went in. it was gorgeous as well but for different reasons it was marble. everywhere. marble floors, wall, ceiling. the curtains were marble the alter was marble how much did this church weigh? how much would this church cost today to make if it even could. the inlay work was stunning.  we lit some candles and said some prayers for the family. 

Wi According to some sources he construction of the church was financed by a certain Pietro or, according to Doge Andrea Dandolo, by Cleto Gussoni in 1148 and was surrounded by grounds, bodies of water and wetlands. In 1154 Cleto turned it into a hospital for the poor who were ill, both men and women. Another Gussoni, by the name of Buonavere, relative and heir of Cleto, ultimately provided vineyards and some of his other estates in the districts of Chioggia and Pellestrina. 

In the monastery of I Gesuiti a member of the same family, Marco Gussoni, took his vows, miraculously cured by the then Blessed, later Saint Luigi Gonzaga. It is said that in 1601 Marco, struck down by a grave illness, was healed instantly on the invocation by the saint. However, on 1 August 1631 he contracted the plague and died in Ferrara whilst working to help the plague victims there; he became known as "uomo di somma pietà" (man of supreme mercy). A portrait of him entitled Marco Gussoni blessing the plague victims at the Lazzaretto of Ferrara is exhibited in Ca'Rezzonico.

 After the peace and quiet of the church we thought we would go souvenir shopping on the main road by the Macdonalds, the rain was intermittent but never actually stopped completeley. We thought we saw an Irish pub so had to try it out if we could find it again.  After a few little roads and lovely bridges on lovely canals and we reached our goal. 

Looking through  the shops at all the lovely souvenirs made in china  we thought is nothing made in Venice. we did in fact find some lovely lace masks made in Venice in Murano and purchased lots of them for friends and family back home.  we also found the local Irish pub and went in to partake of wee brew of harp and fries.

We took our finds back to the hotel and headed off to find a place to have dinner. down to the main canal and along it we came across Harrys, a famous bar and restaurant but it was packed with a waiting time a little too long so we moved along to find a restaurant with a shorter wait time.

We past a park with a lovely gate and went in to sprinkle a bit of Mom and Dad I walked around a corner of the path and saw a bird and then a rat. Ewwwwwww. I do not like rats.
We continued on and found ourselves back at St Mark's Square so went back to the little restaurant that we went to for lunch and it was very good again. A lovely leisurely dinner and off we go once again souvenir shopping. We went into a shop right across the narrow street and found some lovely t shirts. the owner of the shop flirted with me a little bit and I thanked him and told him I was waiting for a handsome Italian man to flirt with me, so he flirted with again. I bought more souvenirs. we left that whop and went to the square.

What with all the rain now coming down St Mark's Square began to fill with water.  I tried to take a photo using my flash but all I got was what looked like snow in the photo. Margie took a photo with no flash and got a great shot of the square in the rain. we thought about sitting at one of the restaurants located on the square under the cover and having a drink but it was so expensive and damp we decided to move on and pick up a few more souvenirs instead.

One of the shops told us that when it rained a lot and the tide was high they closed the shops early. up the door down low so that the water would not get in and just closed the shops. interesting way to do business we thought. While walking around we had noticed that many local venetian were wearing scarves, men and women both. We found a souvenir gift shop and each picked up a scarf of our own and it made such a difference to our comfort level. we were much warmer. I picked up a few other little things and a gondoliers hat for my friends back home.

It rained and rained and was lovely now that we had our scarves and  were snug and warm. We took the water bus back to our stop and in the dark laneways found our way back to our lovely hotel Giorgione with the giant chandelier in the lobby. our beds were warm and dry ad we fell asleep very quickly right after we repacked our suitcases for tomorrows train trip to Rome.