Our Grand Tour of Europe

This week we’re renting an apartment in the Dorsoduro area of Venice in a 16th century building called the Palazzetto da Schio, owned by Contessa Anna DaSchio. I was worried about the logistics of getting to our apartment with all our luggage. The instructions from the Contessa had given two options—to take a vaporetto (water bus) and then walk about ten minutes or take an expensive water taxi that could take us down a small canal and let us off just a few steps from the Palazzetto. Kelly and I stayed with the luggage while Charley set off across the plaza to investigate our options. He found out that the vaparetto would cost about 15 euro for the three of us, but as we watched some of the boats pass by, they seemed absolutely jammed with people. I couldn’t imagine the three of us dealing with all our luggage on these boats, at least not at this time of day. The Contessa’s information said a water taxi would cost about 50 euro ($65), but we decided to begin our week in Venice in this less stressful way. When we arrived at the water taxi dock, they quoted us a price of 55 euro.

I was a little nervous handing the man the computer bag as I looked down at the water between the dock and the water taxi. I had a horrible vision of the bag slipping from his grasp and falling into the canal—and of losing the computer and everything on it.

“Be careful please,” I said. “It’s a computer.”

The man laughed. “You are supposed to be on vacation,” he said. “You are not supposed to have a computer!!” He even made a joke of holding the computer bag over the water… not at all funny!

The water taxi was a spacious motorboat with an internal compartment and an open space in the back. We settled our bags in cabin and our driver headed off down a small canal. We were in Venice—probably the most unique city in the world. Venice (Venezia in Italian) was founded over 1000 years ago and is a city built around 117 islands in the midst of a swampy lagoon.

Kelly and I both climbed into the open back seat and got our cameras out as the water taxi moved slowly down the canal. We took pictures of gorgeous old buildings and our first gondolas, propelled by drivers in striped shirts and little straw hats. Finally our taxi turned onto the famous Grand Canal, a wonderful moment. It reminded me of my first taxi ride in Paris or the first time I saw Manhattan… just the amazement of finally being in such a famous, dazzling place. The Canal was very busy on this Saturday evening—crowded with gondolas, vaporetti, water taxis, and private boats. Kelly and I were delighted at all the elaborate and colorful buildings fronting the Grand Canal; many of the buildings had big candy-striped striped poles in the water. It was a truly a magical trip. Finally we crossed under a large wooden bridge—which I later learned was the Accademia Bridge—and soon after made a right turn onto our canal.

Our directions said that the Palazzetto da Schio was at the middle bridge on this narrow canal. But before we reached the middle bridge, it was obvious that there was construction work down the canal and that we couldn’t go any further. I didn’t have the house number, so our taxi driver used his cell phone to call the Contessa, helped us off the boat, and pointed us to number 316. The canal was so narrow that he was going to have to back out to the Grand Canal.

We were greeted by the Contessa, a very efficient woman of about 60 with a cultured English accent. She had a friendly little dog named Webby (like the World Wide Web, she said), still a bit of a puppy with a little corkscrew tail. Kelly was immediately on the floor with the dog—we hadn’t known there’d be the bonus of a dog here. She told Kelly that she’d had another dog—named Floppy (floppy disk)—who had died not long ago.

The Contessa gave us an extremely detailed tour of the house and our apartment… we must have been together at least 40 minutes. Other than our 24-hour orientation to La Bastide Vieille, this was the most detailed orientation to a rental that we’ve had in our ten months of travel. One of the Contessa’s ancestors built this little palace over 400 years ago. In fact, our apartment includes her childhood bedroom (Kelly’s room this week), which she says still has the same furniture she grew up with. Her parents’ rooms were on the main level of the house above and she said her young brother slept on another floor with his nursemaid, but she and her two sisters lived in what’s now our apartment with their English nanny. The Contessa’s mother was English—her grandmother was American—which explains her perfect English. We found ourselves speaking back to her very politely, trying also to use perfect English.

“Please excuse our curiosity,” Charley said. “We’re Americans and we don’t often encounter people with titles. You’re a contessa?”

“Yes,” the Contessa said, seeming very official all of a sudden. “I am a countess.” She told us something about the history of her family, whose real palace was somewhere in the countryside. Apparently hundreds of years ago it was important to nobility to at least have a presence in Venice. Now she has turned part of her home into rental apartments, and we saw a little folder in the apartment where she’s trying to sell an old tapestry to raise money to help with the renovation of the house.

The palazzetto has four floors—the main floor is the third floor, which is where the Contessa lives. There are four apartments: two on the second floor and two on the fourth floor. The first (ground) floor is kind of a utility floor, and there’s a small garden out back that we can use. I read that in Venice many first floors aren’t occupied due to problems with flooding. Our apartment comes with three pairs of tall boots for use in the flood season. The Contessa said we probably wouldn’t’ need to use them during our stay.

I had my only potential mess-up (at least so far) related to the reservation for this apartment. When I contacted the Contessa about a rental over a year ago, I reserved a smaller apartment—a one-bedroom apartment that had a little sleeping nook where Kelly would sleep. The Contessa and I corresponded several times, and she said she had a problem communicating with AOL e-mail accounts. I gave her my Comcast address instead. Because our rental time was so far away, she didn’t require a deposit at that time. When we left Knoxville, I dropped my e-mail account with Comcast, not thinking at all about the Contessa. After the first of the year—while we were in Provence—I e-mailed her from Charley’s Yahoo account to confirm our arrangements and ask if I needed to send a deposit. This was about nine months after our earlier correspondence. The Contessa wrote me back that she had tried to contact me several times (at my old Comcast e-mail address) and even forwarded me the messages she had sent. When she hadn’t heard from me, she rented the apartment with the sleeping nook to someone else. When I read this in the message, my heart just sank. But then she offered a solution—she had a larger apartment overlooking the canal that she wasn’t renting out right now because there was supposed to be construction work on the canal that might be disruptive. However, if we understood there might be construction noise, she would be happy to rent us this larger apartment at the same price. I breathed a sigh of relief that there was a solution, and sent my deposit check off immediately.

So now once again—as also happened at Lake Como—we have ended up with a larger apartment for the same price. In this apartment we have two bathrooms and Kelly has a proper bedroom. The apartment is furnished mostly with antiques but does have a very comfortable feel. There are elegant fabrics hanging on the walls and beautiful old etchings. As she took us through the apartment, the Contessa pointed to several special things: “This is a 16th century table” or “Right here is a 17th century chest.” I think even the bedspreads are antique—there are quilted pads on the beds for us to lay our suitcases on while unpacking so we don’t damage the bedspreads. We’ll need to be extra careful here.

We have quite a lot of space too. The entrance hall opens to the living room and also leads on the right to the main bedroom, one of the bathrooms, and the kitchen. The living room looks out over the canal and is decorated in bright golds—a couch, three easy chairs, and a narrow antique table where we’ll eat our meals. There are two corner cabinets—one with an assortment of table linens and the other with some books. (We immediately pounced on the books to find new reading material.) The two bedrooms open off either side of the living room, both also facing the canal. Kelly has her own bathroom off her bedroom. The kitchen is in the rear. It’s just a narrow galley-style kitchen, but seems enormous after our small kitchen at the Villa AnnaMaria last week. We have a washing machine and a dishwasher. The Contessa has a computer we can use for internet access at no charge. And although we really have no one to call, the apartment also has a cell phone for our use.

The Contessa gave us detailed instructions on how to manage our trash-- apparently in Venice all trash must be sorted. We have two different bins in our apartment and then there are five sorting bins down on the ground floor. There were also strict recycling requirements in Oberammergau. I don't mind this at all... She also showed us three little gadgets for mosquito control. We have to buy little pads to put in these each night. Apparently the mosquitoes here are really terrible.

Charley carried our luggage upstairs while I filled out a registration form and settled our bill. We did a little unpacking and then went out for dinner.

The Contessa gave us a little map of the neighborhood and recommended a pizzeria not too far away. By time we got there, it was after 8 pm. The man told us there would be an hour’s wait, but he said they had another restaurant not too far away. We followed his niece (one of the waitresses) who was leading another family through a maze of tiny streets to the other restaurant.

The restaurant—Ristorante San Trovaso—was in an old building but had a spacious modern feel. I ordered the tourist menu (standard choices, but economically a good deal)—lasagna as a first course, then fried calamari with spinach. Kelly had spaghetti with butter (she almost licked her plate clean), then great piece of roasted chicken with potatoes and salad. Charley had a salad and then spaghetti with pesto sauce. My meal came with a dessert—I shared this with Kelly and she picked gelato. The price was reasonable, and we all enjoyed our meal.

We somehow found our way our apartment, winding our way through little tiny pedestrian passageways and crossing several little bridges. We are anxious to explore more of Venice in the daylight.

Sunday, May 1

I love Venice!!! We had a great first day and wonderful weather. To give me a break from all the travel responsibility, we had decided that Charley would take charge of Venice and Kelly would be responsible for Rome. They would each read the guidebooks, research possible activities, develop a daily plan, and be the leader. Kelly has jumped on her assignment with gusto and is spending a lot of time with the Rome guidebook. She is already making notes in a little book. Charley doesn’t seem as interested, and I’m not sure he wants to be the leader… at least not here in Venice. Charley’s style is different than mine and Kelly’s—he is more laid-back and go-with-the-flow. Fortunately, he is usually very agreeable to go with what Kelly and I want to do. Kelly and I are more alike—organized and planful… bordering on compulsive. It would probably be difficult if all three of us were that way—it’s sometimes hard with two.

When I woke up this morning, Charley was already gone from the apartment in search of breakfast food. He had a good early morning walking tour of Venice, though he never found the supermarket the Contessa had marked on the map or any kind of bakery. He finally returned with two small cups of expresso and a couple of still-warm croissants that he bought at a little shop. We got ourselves organized and all headed out to locate the supermarket.

Our apartment is just five minutes from an area called Zattere, a stretch of waterfront in the Dorsuduro area facing the Canal della Giudecca, a wide stretch of water that seems more like a big river. There’s a broad promenade with wonderful views, filled this Sunday morning with people out walking and enjoying the morning sunshine. The Contessa had warned us that the cafes and restaurants in this area are very expensive because of the views. The supermarket—called Billa—was about 15 minutes from the apartment, and I think Charley had walked right by it when he was out earlier. There wasn’t any kind of sign—just red and yellow streamers hanging down across the door. Maybe it was even closed when Charley passed by.

Billa is a good-sized supermarket with a large produce department, fresh breads, and a good cheese and meat section. We got food for two dinners, today’s lunch, and some important staples like coffee, butter and toilet paper. Somehow we managed to spend 58 euro and fill four big bags. The line at the checkout counter was long, and a woman with just a few items cut in front of Kelly. She began talking loudly to Kelly and then to the world in general. I think she had some serious mental problems. Kelly wisely ignored her, but I know she was uncomfortable, and then Charley got pretty stressed out. The woman got into a heated discussion with the cashier—I don’t think she had money to pay for all her groceries. Then we held up the line because Charley forgot to weigh some green beans—our cashier had to go all the way back to the produce area to weigh them. Charley was unusually flustered.

We struggled back to the apartment with our heavy grocery bags. (The apartment comes with a rolling cart, which Kelly begged us not to use… she thinks these carts are only used by old ladies.) Charley was still very agitated about the situation at the grocery store.

We had lunch at the apartment—Charley made wonderful sandwiches with the breads, meats and cheeses from the supermarket. Fortified with a good meal, we set out a little after noon to explore Venice. We first went up to the Accademia Bridge, the wooden bridge over the Grand Canal—one of only three bridges that cross the Grand Canal. The bridge is arched steeply over the canal, allowing larger boats to pass underneath. We stopped at a kiosk by the canal to buy a detailed Venice map. There are 150 canals (called rio), 400 bridges (ponte), countless squares (campo or campello) and many tiny streets (calle or salizzada) and passageways (sortoportego). This is a whole new way of living… I’m absolutely captivated. But—we can already tell that it’s very easy to get lost—we definitely need our map!

Once we had our map, we crossed the bridge (fabulous views looking down the canal in either direction) into the San Marco area. Venice seems absolutely packed with tourists…. all ages and from all countries—students with big backpacks, well-dressed beautiful people, groups of Japanese following a guide, families with children…. everyone eager to explore this wonderful city. Outside the San Vidal church (chiesa) we saw a sign advertising a concert of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons performed at the church several evenings over the next week. Vivaldi was born in Venice and lived here for many years, and The Four Seasons is one of our favorite pieces of classical music—we’ve heard it performed in Prague and Salzburg on other European trips. We decided we would really like to go to this concert, though the church wasn’t open for ticket-selling. A few squares down, we found another church (Chiesa de San Maurizio) with a special exhibition about Vivaldi and violin-making. Charley had still been a bit in the dumps from the supermarket episode, but he perked up due to his interest in violin-making (he actually made a couple of violins a few years ago). They were selling tickets for the Vivaldi concert inside this church, so we went ahead and bought our tickets for Tuesday night. Charley and I have our 13th anniversary tomorrow, so this will be our special anniversary treat.

We continued on our way to the famous St. Mark’s Square, passing by a variety of intriguing shops. Kelly and I especially liked the shops selling the beautiful handmade papers and paper items, though we wished the prices were much lower. We also liked the many shops and stands selling beautiful glassware, jewelry and Venetian masks. We stopped in one shop so Kelly could buy a Venice key chain for her collection and a few gifts. Charley usually patiently waits outside while Kelly and I browse in the stores.

The streets and squares of Venice are incredibly busy, thronged with tourists. There are lots of street sellers, many of them African men selling fake designer purses. They all seem to be selling the same purses, right next to each other. Artists peddle their work. We watched several clever street performers, some gathering large crowds. And here and there were beggars, some pathetically prostrate on the ground.

We stopped for gelato at a little shop on a narrow passageway. We really like the rich creamy ice cream… and the prospect that gelato will be a regular experience during our 11-week stay in Italy. Just after the gelato shop, we crossed a bridge that was also a gondola station. Several gondoliers in their striped shirts lounged nearby their long black boats, waiting for customers. The boats have luxurious velvet seats, each one a bit different. Charley stopped to ask about a ride. The man quoted him a price of 100 euro for the three of us. Of course, Charley walked away. Another gondolier followed after us. He quoted a price of 70 euro for thirty minutes. We kept on walking—it doesn’t look like we’ll be crusing the canals on a gondola.

We passed many famous shops—Cartier, Versace, Chanel, Gucci. A man selling fake Gucci bags was brazenly set up right outside the Gucci shop.

Finally we reached St. Mark’s Square, a gigantic open square (piazza) that is—in many ways—the central destination in Venice. It’s an incredible sight. Beautiful white buildings line three sides of the square, each with a long covered promenade. But the far end of the piazza drew our attention: the huge and ornate Basilica of San Marco (St. Mark’s Cathedral), the equally impressive Doges Palace, and the tall bell tower or campanile. Today there was also a tall picture of the Eiffel Tower—strangely out of place—hiding a beautiful clock tower. The piazza was filled with people, café tables, various sellers, and thousands of pigeons. There were two little orchestras—their members dressed in white dinner jackets—on covered stages, playing for café guests. I read that it can cost 15 euro to have a coffee or drink at one of those cafes!

We are meeting a couple from Slow Travel this evening at 5 pm at their hotel near St. Mark’s Square. The woman—Janet—has been reading my blog and postings and e-mailed me about getting together for a drink. It was only 3 pm, but since we were right in the area, we decided to go ahead and find it now so we would know right where to go later in the afternoon. I had gotten directions off the hotel’s website, and we followed them carefully. We reached an iron gate off a little square—just as the directions said, went through the gate… and no hotel. We looked all around, but there was definitely no hotel there and it was a dead end I hadn’t written down the specific address because I assumed it would be clear when we got there. We went back to St. Mark’s Square to follow the directions again and ended up back at the same little iron gate. Kelly saw a couple go through the gate and decided to follow them—maybe they were going to the hotel. She followed them into what appeared to be a hotel… but with no sign outside. Then she heard the woman ask the man at the desk if she could use their computer to check her e-mail and see if she had a message from the people they were supposed to meet this evening. It was Janet and her husband Steve! We introduced ourselves quickly and said we would be back at 5 pm. Apparently their hotel (called a “locanda”) was a B&B and for whatever reason didn’t have any kind of sign out front. They said they had a hard time finding it when they arrived too.

We wanted to go back and freshen up and change before our get-together with Janet and Steve. It took about 30 minutes to walk back to our apartment, partly impacted by the crowds of people jamming the narrow little streets. We had about 30 minutes to relax and freshen up at the apartment and then we headed off on another 30-minute walk across the Grand Canal back to St. Mark’s. We’re definitely getting a lot of exercise here.

This time we had no problem finding Janet and Steve’s hotel. They were waiting for us in the little square, and we took photos of each other by a pretty fountain. We walked a little ways together and finally sat at a sidewalk table on a side street off St. Mark’s. We drank wine and talked mainly about travel. We really enjoyed meeting them—they’re from San Antonio on a 30-day trip to Italy. They were in Bellagio for a few days last week, so who knows—we might have walked by each other there. From Venice they go to Florence and then Tuscany and Rome each for a week. They’re celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary, and have several other family members joining them at a villa in Tuscany. Somehow we found out that Steve’s father had been with same government agency as my father—he had also lived abroad as a child. Strange coincidence! We spent about 1-1/2 hours together until we finally had to give up our table so the restaurant could make room for dinner guests. Steve very kindly picked up the tab. It was good to spend time with some other people after two and a half weeks on our own.

We wandered back to our apartment a bit of a different way, actually getting ourselves lost at one point. We needed to use our map to find our way back to the Accademia Bridge. At least we got to see another part of Venice.

I fixed dinner at home tonight-- pasta (orecchiette shapes requested by Kelly), meat sauce, mushrooms, and bread. It was a good meal.

We relaxed after dinner, tired from all our walking today!

Monday, May 2

Today is Charley and my 13th wedding anniversary. Who would have imagined 13 years ago that today we’d be in Venice as part of a 14-month adventure in Europe? We did talk about wanting to travel… but we never expected this!

Charley went to the grocery store to get breakfast foods and a few other things, and we moved slowly this morning. I went upstairs to use the internet for the first time —the Contessa’s son Carlo showed me their set-up. It’s so great that they provide a terminal for their guests—and at no charge either. It’s much better than trying to find an internet café.

We didn’t end up getting out of the apartment until noon. We decided to get a 24 hour vaporetto pass (10.50 euro each for Charley and I and 9 euro for Kelly) and spend today and then tomorrow morning doing things that are too far to walk. The vaporetti run just like buses on the main canals and waterways of Venice. Since we had the boat passes, we decided to hunt down the potential English-language bookstores in Venice. We had a list of possibilities that Kelly marked on the map. We all need books, especially Kelly who is not totally out of reading material. She’s almost frantic about this. She’s already read the only two books that are suitable for her in the apartment bookcase.

We got our tickets at the Accademia bridge and took the vaporetto up to the beautiful Rialto bridge across the Grand Canal. The whole area around the Rialto bridge was extremely crowded. The first bookstore we wanted to visit (in the Cannaregio area of Venice) was a shop that had been recommended on Slow Travel… it was possible that they had some used English books. We found the bookshop on a pretty square by the big Santa Maria dei Miracoli church, and the friendly man did have a box of used English books. I found a book for me and there were two that potentially worked for Kelly. We wandered from this square in search of lunch, finally ending up on another square near another elaborate church. Charley and I admired a beautiful building on this square… lots of people coming and going… and then saw a sign “Ospedale.” It was a hospital!

Our lunch place was not very good today—very average food and less-than-average service. Kelly just about had to saw through her pizza. The only good news was that it was relatively inexpensive (at least for a sit-down lunch in Venice, as we are finding)—just 9 euro each for one course, a drink and the coperto (cover charge). Still, for 27 euro (over $35) we could have gotten a really good lunch at home at some place like Ruby Tuesdays at home.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in different parts of Venice trying to find English books. We visited two bookstores and finally gave up on finding a third. We took the vaporetto up to the train station and went to the Campo St. Geremia square. There was a big bookstore there, but all the books in English were “literature” like Shakespearean plays and Jane Austen books we’ve already read. The vaporetti were very crowded, and the canal near the Rialto bridge was a giant traffic jam. I actually felt nervous about all the boat traffic there. We had hoped to rent the Contessa’s boat for half a day and motor around the canals ourselves, but after seeing the mass of boats on the Grand Canal (which we would have to travel), Charley doesn’t really want to drive a boat here. He’s an experienced boat driver on the lakes of Tennessee—but he’s definitely not prepared to drive a boat in a situation like this. We’re amazed at how Venice has to operate—everything must come in and out by boat and then be hauled by hand on the tiny cobblestone streets and passageways: building materials, trash, restaurant supplies, furniture. No wonder it is quite expensive here—the logistics are extremely complicated. There are so many different kinds of boats on the canals—vaporetti, gondolas, water taxis, private boats, police boats, trash boats, truck boats, ambulance boats. I read that over 50% of Venetian families own a boat.

We ended up back at St. Mark’s Square where there were supposed to be two bookshops. One bookshop simply wasn’t there (or we couldn’t find it) and the other shop (a tourist center) had some very good English books (fiction) set in Venice, but they were extremely expensive. So our search for English books wasn’t very successful today. Maybe we will have better luck in the much larger city of Rome.

While we were at St. Mark’s Square today, I bought Kelly a euro’s worth of food to feed the pigeons. There are thousands and thousands of pigeons on the square and several little stands of people selling food. The instant Kelly started putting out food, the pigeons began to swarm her. She got spooked and threw down all of the food and ran away. There were pigeons everywhere and in 30 seconds all the food was gone. Kelly didn’t like this experience at all. I did see other people who were more patient (and less fearful) with the pigeons. One little girl had two pigeons perched on her arm.

Today wasn’t really the greatest day, which is too bad since it was our anniversary. It wasn’t just because of the mediocre lunch and our lack of success with the bookstores—the three of us kind of sniped at each other all day. We’ve now been together 24/7 since we left Provence two-and-a-half weeks ago, and we’re not used to this much togetherness in a “vacation” situation. We haven’t done this since last September. We each have our own opinions about what to do, where to eat, when to get gelato etc., and it seems like Kelly is now struggling to be an equal with Charley and I. She doesn’t want to be a junior member of the family. Today she and I even argued over who would hold the map and find our way around the city. We all recognize we have a problem and are trying to do better, but it is difficult—especially here in a city where it’s somewhat stressful anyway.

I also realized today that Charley was having a less-than-enthusiastic reaction to Venice. (Perhaps that is why he hasn’t really taken hold of researching and planning our time here.) I was in my own zone of just loving Venice and suddenly I sensed that Charley wasn’t having a similar experience. I asked him about this and I was right—he doesn’t like it all that much, though he says he’s trying to like it. First I thought his reaction was due to the idea of the city sitting on top of the water, somehow built on top of logs that were put there hundreds of years ago. I remembered that he was uncomfortable at Gants Mill in England because he didn’t like the idea of a river running underneath our house. How would he feel now about a city built over top of a lagoon? But now I think he’s turned off by the obvious decay of the city. One of our guidebooks said that our children’s children may not even see Venice—that it’s crumpling around us, actually sinking into the water a bit every year. Venice can definitely be seen in two ways. There are absolutely beautiful buildings, but many of them are very shabby with their paint flaking off. Graffiti artists have defaced much of the city. Many buildings and canals are being repaired—a good thing—but this makes many areas seem like a construction zone. The canals are beautiful, but they produce mosquitoes and sometimes a musty smell. The boat transportation is interesting and fun, but also frustrating, crowded and sort of dirty. The shops have lots of beautiful things (lovely glassware, high fashion, the unique masks), but then there are so many of the shops—all selling the same things—that it seems in a way like a giant tourist trap. There are beggars and endless African men selling the same fake designer purses. And then it really is very crowded… so many people drawn here to see this unique city—all clambering to visit St. Mark’s Square, ride the gondolas, walk over the Rialto Bridge, and feed the pigeons. We’ve heard more American voices in Venice in the past three days than we’ve heard since we left home in June. All this is such a very big contrast to the quiet little life we led outside in the countryside in Provence.

I choose to see the Venice that is beautiful, unique and full of history. And I accept that it’s crowded because other people are drawn to have the same experience. But I can also understand how Charley can see another Venice that’s not so appealing. We need to plan our next few days to do less dashing around to the most popular spots using the vaporetti. Perhaps one day we should even do a day trip out of the city.

We came back to the apartment for a couple of hours. I went upstairs to work on the computer and finally was able to post my blog about Oberammergau. I never found a way to post it from Lake Como last week.

We went out to dinner about 7 pm, returning to the same restaurant where we ate on Saturday night after we arrived. We had another good meal, each of us having a primo and a secondo. Tonight Charley had lasagna and chicken, Kelly had buttered spaghetti and chicken, and I had spaghetti with clams and veal marsala. The chicken wasn’t as good as Kelly’s had been on Saturday, since both Charley and Kelly ended up with legs and thighs today instead of the juicy white meat Kelly had the other day. We all passed on dessert.

Our main anniversary present will be the Vivaldi concert tomorrow night. Charley did give me a pretty pair of glass earrings (matching my turquoise sweater) that Kelly helped him pick out. I gave him a pretty card of Venice that I bought at one of the upscale paper shops.

Tuesday, May 3

We were up early this morning, so we could use the vaporetti system for the rest of our 24-hour pass. Charley got breakfast bread at the little shop down the street where he bought breakfast pastries on Sunday. The nice owner speaks English and was extremely friendly to us when we stopped in on Sunday afternoon. He said he works all day every day but Monday… gets to his shop at 5 am in the morning to bake his fresh croissants.

We managed to leave our apartment by 9:30 and were out before most of the crowds. Our first destination was the Rialto Market, supposedly one of the top produce and fish markets in the world. We decided to go today so we could buy a few things we could eat during the rest of our week here. We took the vaporetto from the Accademia Bridge to the Rialto Bridge and then walked up over the bridge. The Rialto Bridge is actually quite wide with pedestrian walks along both sides and two rows of tiny shops in the center with another narrow pedestrian walk between the shops. We stopped at two shops to look at leather purses—mine is getting pretty sad. I finally decided that if I bought a new purse, it would likely be ruined before we get home. I might as well save my money and just keep on ruining this purse I’ve been using since we started our trip. One young man got very angry with me when I didn’t end up buying one of his purses. I think perhaps we weren’t supposed to walk inside his shop or maybe we weren’t supposed to touch the purses… I’m not sure, but he shifted very quickly from pleasant salesperson to hateful salesperson.

We walked down through the market area on the other side of the bridge. There are an incredible number of souvenir shops in this area—just as there seem to be all over Venice—selling t-shirts, masks, jewelry and glassware. I read that there are over 1000 glass shops in the San Marco area alone. The masks are quite interesting… a major feature of the annual Venice Carnival. There are tiny souvenir masks and then large (expensive) decorative masks. The finest masks are handmade and very unique. I’ve been taking pictures of some of the masks. Despite all the masks for sale, we’ve yet to see anyone purchasing a mask. Kelly and I really like the shopping here in Venice—it reminds me of Prague.

The Rialto market had quite a few big fruit and vegetable stands and a big fish market. Kelly—as usual—didn’t like being near the fish. We didn’t think this market was near as good as the big covered food market in Barcelona and certainly didn’t come close to the wonderful markets of Provence, but it was still a good market. We carried a small straw shopping basket from the apartment and ended up buying strawberries, raspberries, asparagus and a few tomatoes. Charley found a bakery and bought some bread for lunch and dinner. There was a pizza stand across from the bakery, and we decided to share a piece of pizza. Somehow we ended up buying three pieces, one of each of us.

We still had about an hour and a half left on our boat pass, so we decided just to ride the vaporetto to Lido and see more of Venice by water. We rode all the way down the Grand Canal to St. Marco where we changed boats. It was maybe another 15 minutes across the Canale di San Marco to Lido, a long narrow island that is a famous beach resort. I enjoyed being out on the “big” water and seeing more of Venice.

We got off the vaporetto at the “Salute” stop, right by the big domed church at the tip of Dorsoduro and only five minutes from our apartment. We still had sandwich meat left, and so Charley made sandwiches and we had lunch in the apartment. We decided to spend a couple of hours in the apartment since we would be going out this evening. Charley and I both used the internet and Kelly read the Sherlock Holmes book we found at the bookstore earlier in the week.

Mid-afternoon we went out along the Zaterre to the Geleteria Nico, the best gelato in Venice according to the Contessa and one of our guidebooks. We each got a cone and sat on one of the wooden walkways to eat our gelato. It was good, but it didn’t seem much different from others we’ve had. We had first seen these wide wooden objects—almost like low tables on metal legs—when we were on the Zaterre on Sunday. They were stacked up along the street, and people were sitting on them. I thought they seemed like strange benches—too wide and rough, and then why were they stacked? Later we found out that these are temporary walkways that are put out on the low-lying streets when Venice floods, which apparently it often does at certain times of the year. Everyone here puts on tall boots and navigates along these raised wooden paths.

We walked from Zaterre to the Accademia Bridge. Kelly wanted to buy a Venice calendar, and I wanted to visit a glass shop to buy a few gifts. We also bought a USA Today so we could catch up on news from home. I don’t feel bad at all about missing some of what’s happening at home… like the Michael Jackson trial.

I fixed dinner at home tonight and we’ll go out tomorrow. Tonight I made breaded chicken scaloppini, barley (which Kelly now prefers to rice… I don’t), roasted asparagus, and sautéed mushrooms.

We left at 8:10 to walk to Chiesa San Vidal for our Vivaldi concert. The doors opened at 8:30 and there weren’t (supposedly) any reserved seats, so we wanted to be there early to get choice seats. There was already a fairly long line when we arrived, mostly Americans and Brits. When we got inside the beautiful church, we saw that the prime seats (about mid-way back in the center) all had little cards saying “reservato,” and were being held for a large tour group. We ended up sitting in the second row in the middle. The church was a wonderful venue for the concert, especially since this is the city where Vivaldi was born (in 1678) and lived for many years.

We really enjoyed the concert. There were eight musicians—four violins, a viola, a cello, an old type of bass, and a pianoforte. The concert began at 9 pm with Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. We all know this piece very well and really enjoy it. There are four movements, one for each of the seasons. Each of the four violinists took the lead on a movement. Two of them were just outstanding and got special applause… actually at inappropriate times. I was glad we had seats near the front so we could watch the violinists closely. After The Four Seasons there was an intermission, and then the little orchestra played two Handel pieces. They also did an encore piece by Vivaldi. The concert was over at about 10:15 and we walked back across the Accademia Bridge through the much-more quiet city.

Other than the Military Tattoo in Edinburgh in August, this is the first concert we’ve been to on our trip. We have season tickets to our symphony orchestra concert series at home, and tonight made me realize how much I’ve missed music. The language of music is the same, regardless of the country. We’ll try to go to a concert in Salzburg when we are in Austria in July.

Wednesday, May 4

We had breakfast at the apartment and were out around 9:30 am. We figured out yesterday that there are several places along the Grand Canal where you can take a gondola ferry to cross from one side of the canal to the other side. Charley had asked at one of the docks yesterday and it only costs 50 cents a person. This little ferry system is known as the “traghetto” and there are eight places where you can cross, one of which is very close to our house. We were the only people on our traghetto this morning. These gondolas are larger than the regular gondola boats and there are two gondoliers. I had read that the tradition is to stand up for the short ride, but the gondolier told us to sit down. It was a bit scary to cut across the Grand Canal with so much boat traffic this morning, but we saved 20 minutes of walking time. I wish we had known about this earlier in the week when we were trudging back and forth to St. Mark’s Square.

Just down the street from where we got off the traghetto was a big beautiful church we hadn’t noticed before—Santa Maria del Giglio. Kelly was especially interested in the maps chiseled into the base of the church on the outside. This church charged an admission, but it was early and their ticket office wasn’t open yet, so we were able to walk in and look around. There was a painting by Rubens in the Treasury.

We planned to see some of the sights at St. Mark’s Square today—the beautiful Basilica of St. Mark and the adjacent Doge’s Palace. The Basilica was first built in the 9th century and then restored in the late 10th century. It’s almost eastern in its external appearance—several huge domes, arches, statuary, four huge horses, and lots of mosaics. The church was built to house the body of St. Mark, which was brought to Venice from Egypt and many of the elements decorating the church were also brought from faraway lands. There was a very long line at the Basilica when we arrived at the square, so we decided to hold our visit to the Basilica until later.

We went to the Doge’s Palace (Palazzo Ducale) next door to see about tickets for a special tour of the palace called the Secret Itinerary. We found out that we should have booked this tour in advance… the earliest we could go is Saturday, the day we leave. So much for that! Instead we paid regular admission and toured ourselves through the palace. We probably spent close to two hours in the palace. Venice was ruled by the doges from 697 until 1797—kind of an honorary head of state elected from a group of nobles. The current palace was built in the 12th century, with restorations in later years. The palace is almost overwhelming… an amazing number of paintings and sculpture, many by famous artists like Titian, Tintoretto and Bellini. We didn’t pay for the audioguide, but fortunately there were very good information boards in English. We were able to see the doge’s private apartments, the state rooms, and the prison. We walked through the Bridge of Sighs—an enclosed bridge over the canal that prisoners took from the courtroom to the prison. Supposedly they often had their last view of Venice through the window of the bridge—thus the “sigh.” The bridge was not nearly as impressive from the inside. It’s absolutely beautiful from the outside. We realize now that we saw the Bridge of Sighs on Sunday afternoon—in a place where we were able to photograph five bridges from one spot.

We needed a break from all this culture and decided to have an early lunch before touring the Basilica. The area around St. Mark’s is very touristy and we thought it would make sense to get a few blocks away from the square to find a good, reasonably priced restaurant. We ended up at the place where we’d had the drink with Janet and Steve on Sunday evening, which we thought had looked interesting at the time. In hindsight, we should have gotten farther off St. Mark’s Square—or ordered the much more economical Tourist Menu at this place. We spent 76 euro ($100!!!!!) on LUNCH and didn’t even get all that much. Kelly and Charley had pizza, Kelly had an order of artichokes, and I had a pasta dish. The coperto (cover charge, which includes bread) was 3.40 euro each and Kelly’s Fanta was an amazing 5 euro. We had planned to eat dinner out tonight, but after this expensive lunch, we will eat at home. I can’t believe we paid $100 for a pizza lunch for three people. I could have had a gondola ride instead!

As we stumbled out of the restaurant in shock, we spotted a big glass store we had seen the other day—it advertised Murano glass and supposedly there was a glassblowing demonstration inside. We ended up going inside… it was a very upper end tourist shop with several different galleries. The glassware was beautiful, unique and very expensive. There were absolutely beautiful custom Carnival masks, some over 1000 euro. The salesmen were well-dressed and quite pushy. We were the only customers.

The inside of the basilica was even more impressive and awe-inspiring than the outside. We have visited many famous churches on our trip—such as Notre Dame and Westminster Abbey—but this was by far the most elaborate—filled with mosaics on the walls and the floors. We got there near the end of the lunch hour and had had really no wait at all. There wasn’t a charge to get in, but then there was a charge to see several special areas. We did pay to see the Treasury—partly because we wanted to see the famous relics. This church relics include milk of the Virgin Mary, blood of Christ, a thorn from Christ’s crown, John the Baptist’s skull and one of St. George’s legs. One of the famous features of the basilica is a huge gold screen called the Pala d’Oro—set with all kinds of precious stones. There was an extra charge to see the screen, which we foolishly didn’t pay. I’ll have to go back to Venice so I can look at this screen up close. Kelly and I did pay to go upstairs to he see the museum about the mosaics and the original four horses that were brought to Venice from Constantinople in 1204. (The horses used to be on the top of the basilica, but were moved inside to protect them from damage and now replicas are outside.) As part of our museum entry, Kelly and I also got to go outside on the loggia looking down over the square. We saw Charley waiting down below and did manage to get his attention.

On our way back to the apartment, we bought gelato at sidewalk stand where we’d gotten gelato on Sunday and also bought juice and bread at a little shop. We took the traghetto ferry back across the Grand Canal. This time there were 16 people on our boat—several of them were teenage girls who were very giggly. The person next to me was a businessman in a suit with a briefcase. The girls were so silly, I was really worried we might tip over. Fortunately no one stood up for the ride, though I have seen several traghettos with people standing. Once I saw a man in a suit standing up and talking on a cell phone during the entire traghetto crossing. I suspect they only let locals stand up… not the tourists.

We stopped by to see the Santa Maria della Salute church, the familiar landmark with the big dome at the end of the Grand Canal. There was no charge to go inside, but we would have had to pay to go see the sacristy. The big dome is beautiful from the outside and the inside. We can hear the bells of this church from our apartment.

We called it a day around 4:00 pm—we were worn out from being tourists and Kelly had a cold. I even took a short nap. Later I took Kelly upstairs to show her how to use the computer system, and we met one of the two couples in the upstairs apartments: Monty and Cathryn from Portland, Oregon. They invited us in to see their apartment and we talked for about fifteen minutes. They come to Italy every year for most of the summer and have stayed at the Palazetto da Schio before. Cathryn is a serious student of Italian. She’s a dentist (retired?) and was interested in how we are handling Kelly’s braces on our trip. They are here with the British couple who have the other upstairs apartment... a couple who owned an agriturismo where they used to stay.

I fixed pasta with tomato sauce for dinner. We planned to take a walk and explore more of the Dorsoduro, but it started to rain just as we were getting ready to leave. It even thundered. We hope the weather clears tomorrow as we want to go to Torcello, an island in the Northern Lagoon. Kelly worked on her Rome planning, and she and Charley made brownies using the mix that Becky brought us in Provence. One less thing to carry on in our suitcases! Charley seems more positive about Venice now, though he hasn’t really ended up being our trip leader this week. He says Venice is growing on him.

Thursday, May 5

It was still drizzling and very dreary when I woke up this morning—definitely not a day to take the ferry to the Northern Lagoon island. I let Charley and Kelly sleep in, and then Kelly woke up not feeling too well. Charley went out several times on various errands, but Kelly and I stayed in most of the day. Charley went to the grocery store and then all the way to San Marco to the post office. Later he went out to buy a paper and check on the ferry routes for tomorrow… weather permitting, we will try Torcello again tomorrow.

We had sandwiches at home for lunch, and Kelly had the last box of Kraft macaroni and cheese. We read and I worked on my writing.

Around 3:30 pm, I went to the Peggy Guggenheim museum, just a few canals over from our apartment. We’ve passed by the entrance many times during our stay here. Peggy Guggenheim was an American expatriate from a well-to-do family who came to Europe in the 1920’s. She developed an extensive private art collection and was a lifelong patron of contemporary painters and sculptors. This museum—housed in her former home on the Grand Canal—is considered one of the top collections of modern art in the world. Charley had no interest in seeing modern art and Kelly still didn’t feel great and wasn’t interested in modern art either. I wasn’t all that interested in the modern art myself, but I did want to see the collection and also the beautiful building.

I only stayed about an hour at the museum. It was expensive—10 euro to get in and 5 euro for the little booklet with a map and background information on a few of the paintings and sculptures. The booklet was difficult to follow, but I didn’t want to spend another 5 euro (or maybe it was more) on the audioguide. I had to check my purse in a locker (no charge for that) and didn’t remember to take my camera out—I would have liked to take a few pictures outside, but it seemed too complicated to go back. There was a big courtyard with sculpture at the entrance. Peggy Guggenheim’s grave (she died in 1979) was in a corner of this courtyard, right next to where she buried her dogs. There was a plaque dedicated to “my beloved babies” with the names and dates of all the dogs.

Most of the museum was in her former home, an unfinished pallazzo right on the Grand Canal…a very beautiful setting. The house wasn’t designed as a museum and it was very crowded, especially in the hallways. There were several groups of schoolchildren and when they all came into a room with their teacher, there wasn’t room for anyone else. Lots of famous modern artists were represented in the collection—Picasso, Salvador Dali, Man Ray, Mark Chagall, Jackson Pollock and her former husband Max Ernst. There were really just a few paintings that interested me. Another courtyard overlooked the Grand Canal with stunning views looking across the canal and down to the Accademia Bridge. This was where I really wished I’d had my camera. At the top of the courtyard was an iron sculpture of a cartoonish man with a huge erection riding a horse. There was an interesting shop—I would have liked to buy a book about Peggy Guggenheim, but my purse was still in the locker. It was a nice hour, but it definitely would have been more fun to go with someone. Charley and Kelly would not have liked this museum at all.

When I got back, I went upstairs to use the computer again. It’s so nice to have the convenient access here. Monty and Cathryn and their friends across the hall were going out to the opera this evening. Kelly and I also saw the Contessa and she showed us the other apartment next to ours... the one we originally intended to rent. We liked this apartment too and the little sleeping nook for Kelly was neat. But even with the construction work on the canal, we liked our bigger apartment better.

Kelly was feeling a little better, so we decided to go out to dinner to a little trattoria we’ve passed most every day—Trattoria ai Cugnai. They usually have seafood displayed in their window and it seemed reasonably priced with an appealing menu. Kelly doesn’t like fish or seafood at all (I’m not sure she’s ever tried it, other than fish sticks) and Charley doesn’t care for it much, so we don’t eat fish or seafood at home very often—although I really like it. This was a treat for me to get to go to a place that specialized in seafood.

We arrived a bit after seven and fortunately early enough to get a table. We were seated at a table for six in the back of one of the two small dining rooms. An American couple was eventually seated with us and we chatted with them for most of the meal. The place only took cash, and Charley and the man walked down the street to the cash machine together while we waited for dinner. This was definitely a family-run place, and our waiter was a nice young man with a happy smile who spoke good English. His Italian mama was really running things. An accordionist we’ve seen performing out on the streets came inside and played for a while… it seemed just perfect to hear Arrivederci Roma on the accordion while we were eating our Italian meal in the little family trattoria.

The couple at our table was from Portland, Oregon… on a trip for their 25th anniversary. They are spending almost a month traveling around Italy. I noticed that the husband didn’t attempt to say one thing in Italian while ordering his meal and interacting with the waiter—not one single Italian word. They were going to the Vivaldi concert tonight and had already done a gondola ride and thought it was a wonderful experience. We were interested to hear about their gondola ride… although it’s terribly expensive, we’ve seen so many people out for a ride. I really wish we could have gone for a ride… it would have been a better investment than our 76 euro pizza lunch.

I got carried away on the seafood and ordered a crab appetizer and then grilled scampi for the second course. I had gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce for my primi—it was really really good. Kelly wasn’t hungry and just had some buttered pasta. Charley had ravioli for his first course and roast chicken for a second course. We both had dessert, but Kelly even skipped dessert. When Mama came to our table to figure out our bill, it all was a bit confusing and our bill came in at 88 euro, which shocked Charley and me, even though we had really enjoyed our meal. I think Charley offended Mama because he questioned the bill. It turned out that my two seafood courses combined were 30 euro—I should never have ordered the crab appetizer. Stupid me—I saw the pile of crabmeat in the big shell and didn’t even ask how much it was. It never occurred to me that it might be that expensive. Throughout our meal, Kelly had been talking about coming back tomorrow, but now of course we need to save our money and eat at home. We’ve been eating out way too much the last three weeks and really need to cut back and eat more at home or order less food or eat at much cheaper places. We hardly ate out at all in England and were very cautious at the beginning of our trip—we need to adjust our approach so that we have money to live on when we get home.

Friday, May 6

We had a really great day today – we spent the day out on the Northern Lagoon outside of Venice—an absolutely beautiful day in an absolutely beautiful part of the world. I think even Charley really enjoyed Venice today. And the three of us got along together really well all day… no snapping or tension at all.

This morning Charley talked about our plans for the day with the nice man at the shop where he buys bread. The man told him several ways we could get out to the islands. Our plan was to go to Torcello, which was highly recommended in one of our guidebooks. The man told Charley there was nothing much at Torcello—just a church and a restaurant or two. He recommended Burano instead, where he said there were lots of shops and brightly painted houses. From what I had read, part the charm of Torcello is that there really isn’t very much there—kind of unspoiled. We thought we would try to visit both islands. Our friend Wendy from Slow Travel had also suggested both Torcello and Burano.

We left the house about 9:30 am and walked over to the promenade at Zaterre… we mailed our box at the post office and then bought all-day ferry passes. The other day we got a reduced rate for Kelly but today they were all the same price—10.40 euro each for unlimited travel for 24 hours. It seemed too complicated to try to explain to the ticket man that she is only 11 years old… people usually think she’s 14 or 15.

The journey out to Burano and Torcello was fairly complicated. We took one ferry (the number 42) down the Canale della Guidecca, then cut down a smaller canal to the Grand Canal at Piazzale Roma, past the train station, and then finally out to the north side of Venice at Fondamento Nuove. This was at least a 30 minute ride, some of which was through pretty ugly parts of Venice. Charley and Kelly said inside the ferry cabin so Kelly could read, but I stood outside and watched the scenery and took photos.

At Fondamento Nuove we changed to another ferry (the LN ferry) that went out to the Northern Lagoon islands, another 30 minute trip. This ferry stopped at Murano (the island known for its glassblowing industry) and Mazzorbo. We passed by the island of San Michele, which is where the dead of Venice are buried. Unless a person is very famous, his bones are dug up after 10 years and put in an urn to make room for more coffins. We passed a couple of other small islands that seemed to be deserted.

We finally made it to Burano about 11:30. This island is a very active place and is the center for Venice’s lace-making industry. It almost seems a fairy tale island—filled with brightly colored painted houses on tiny canals—red, yellow, blue, purple, green… bright crayola-crayon colored houses. There are lots of tourist shops and cafes.—and lots of tourists. The guidebook says the population is over 5,000. We walked around, took photos, and visited a couple of shops. I bought Kelly a bracelet of the Murano glass and finally went ahead and got her a watch circled with Murano glass mosiacs. There really are beautiful things to buy in Venice—Kelly and I both like the glass jewelry. I would have liked to buy some lace and suggested that I buy Kelly a handkerchief, but she planned to blow her nose on it and I intended it as a special keepsake. We had lunch at a sidewalk pizzeria with bright orange umbrellas. Kelly and Charley had pizza and I had gnocchi with quatro fromaggi. We had our daily gelato a bit later in the afternoon.

After lunch we took another ferry (about a ten minute ride) to the neighboring island of Torcello. You can actually see Torcello from the dock of Burano. Torcello is a beautiful semi-deserted island that reminded both Charley and I of the remote areas of the Outer Banks. A thousand years ago this was a very important place with thousands of residents. The information board said there had been as many as 50,000 people, but the guidebook said 20,000 people. Still, the contrast with today (population less than 50) is dramatic. The highlight of the island is an ancient basilica with extensive mosaics from the 12th and 13th century. (The basilica was founded in 639 but the building was rebuilt in 1008.) There’s also another church just next door and a big stone throne in the town square that supposedly once belonged to Attila the Hun. We paid to go in the church and spent a good 30 minutes studying the mosaics. There was a glass coffin under the altar with a man in red and gold clothes and shoes and a gold face, supposedly a long-dead saint. Charley said it was just a statue, but I’m not sure—was there the skeleton of the saint inside there? Kelly and I paid extra to climb up the 11th century belltower. The tower had very few steps—mostly just a steep ramp that curled up around to the top. When we finally reached the top, we were up among the bells and were rewarded with beautiful views across the lagoon. We could see the colored houses of Burano and even Venice in the distance.

We took one ferry back to Burano and then took another very crowded ferry back to Fundamento Nueve. From there we took another ferry to the train station where we made some preparations for our trip to Rome tomorrow. Kelly and I went to the self-service kiosk and printed our ticket for the train tomorrow, and Charley checked on luggage storage. We’ve decided to use our 24-hour vaporetto passes to get ourselves to the train station in the morning and avoid another 55 euros for a water taxi. Charley will go to the station early in the morning and take two of our bags and put them in the storage. Then he’ll come back to the apartment and we’ll go as a family with the rest of our luggage a bit after 9 am. We’re hoping the boats won’t be that busy early in the morning.

I rode by myself on several of the ferries today, because I preferred to stand outside and Kelly and Charley wanted to sit inside. I watched scenery and I also watched people. There are an amazing number of tourists in Venice from all over the world, especially many Americans. Italy—and the big three cities of Venice, Florence and Rome—is a popular destination for Americans. But I also like watching the residents of Venice who use the vaporetti to go about their daily business: young mothers with babies in strollers, shop workers carrying boxes, businessmen with briefcases, and elegantly-dressed women. I see a lot of older Italian women on the boats. They’re usually stout, wearing glasses, a skirt, stockings and sensible shoes with their hair in some sort of bun. Most of these grandmother-types have a shopping cart on wheels, the type that Kelly didn’t want us to take to the store. Sometimes these women can barely walk, but they must make their way on the little streets of Venice, use the steps to cross up over the bridges, and take the vaporetto to do their shopping. The boat conductors and other passengers help these ladies on and off the boat, but some have serious mobility problems, often even a walking stick. I try to imagine Charley’s mother, when she was in her late 80’s, making her way around Venice. It seems a difficult place to live at any time, but especially for the elderly.

Charley made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner tonight while I worked on the internet. I had a message from the French teacher at Webb that she’s graded Kelly’s assessment and thinks Kelly might be placed in 9th grade French this fall… even though she would only be in 7th grade. She would go up to the high school for French. We were all excited about that news.

Kelly played with the little dog Webby who is a favorite of all the guests at the Palazetto da Schio. Webby runs in our apartment and jumps on the furniture. She’s so cute. I worked on the laptop and Kelly continued her research and preparations for Rome while Charley worked on his packing. A bit after nine Charley said he didn’t think we would be able to get our luggage ready in time. The logistics of the morning are complicated and I think he’s a bit stressed about his solo trip to the station with the two big bags. Kelly and I started getting busy packing. We’re leaving a few more things behind this time. Goodbye peanut butter! Kelly seems to have a growing amount of room in her bag.

I don’t think Charley really cares about visiting Venice again, but I would really like to come back sometime. I think Venice is a place that would unfold more secrets every visit. Maybe Kelly and I will come sometime on a mother-daughter trip. And for sure, next time I’ll ride in a gondola.