Sep 8 - walking, walking

Whew. We set out for Venice in the a.m. expecting to be there for the day. Our day ended about 4pm as we got back to our hotel. In between we walked a million miles through narrow streets, browsed through and at hundreds of mask stores w/o buying anything and marveled at the city. I'd been there before -- in 1975 -- but hey, that's a lifetime ago.

We declined to visit museums, not wanting to queue up with the masses, and there were masses. We saw two cruise ships in the area and expect that they disgorged their passengers to roam with us, tour groups of every nationality were moving about.

Our hotel is very close to the train station; we'd bought our tickets last night. At just over a Euro each way, we figured that it would be much cheaper than driving into Venice and paying for parking. Public transportation is also an experience all on its own. After a relatively crummy breakfast in the hotel (well, the coffee was crummy anyway) I had another in the station before boarding a train. All of the trains to Venice stop in Mestre, where we are, so there was quite a choice. Ten minutes later we were in Venice itself.

We spent the 6.50E each to take the ferry to St. Marco's square and from there wandered aimlessly, or so it seemed, until we were both tired. We found a place to sit and had a drink ... wandered some more ... found a place for lunch ... and then were pooped. Our swan song was to walk back to the train station, which must have taken an hour, navigating through the narrow streets. Calling these streets is quite an overstatement, since many are barely wide enough for two people to pass. Along the way we found the farmers market, had some gelato, and in general used this as part of our city tour. Sandy was fascinated by the city; I tire more quickly.

Even though getting to Venice was mostly for Sandy, I'm quite happy that I came back. My memories of the city were quite dim. Back then Italy had its own currency; we could get a room in Venice quite cheaply. Back then there were not the huge cruise ships with thousands of people. I suppose the shopping was always high end, but I don't remember any of that. Would you like to buy a pair of designer ladies boots for 2,700 Euros ? We saw prices like that.

I know that this is out of order but we ate quite well last night -- surprise, surprise ? Our hotel guy recommended a place quite close that was tiny; we got there a little after 8pm (opening time). We found that most tables were already either occupied or reserved but there was one for us -- the last one. Sandy had a salad and a pasta; I had soup (wonderful) and a vegetable plate that was over-the-top great. I did make one mistake though -- in choosing the wine I was finding quite good bottles in the 12E range but ordered the house for 9E. My mistake was that I should have ordered the house 6E ... the 9E was a full liter and that was toooo much. It was goo though. We may find ourselves back at the same restaurant for dinner ... with the half liter house carafe !

The highlight of the dinner was watching the chef prepare steak tartare repeatedly. It seems that the restaurant is well known for its steak tartare and he does it at the table. With there being fewer than a dozen tables, we saw the performance four times.

I can see a few things in our future after this trip -- steak tartare a-la Thompson and home made pasta. Yes, we'll have to get a pasta maker. One more thing that will come shortly -- olive bread. That's easy; I even have a recipe !

Now we wait. Restaurants don't open for dinner until 8pm. Cafes, bars etc. that stay open would serve before then but not proper restaurants.

Tomorrow a.m. we skip town, headed for Zurich. That will likely take us 6-7 hours, depending on stops and use of the autostrade / autobahn.

Oh yes, one more thing, I must confess a terrible sin .... in an earlier blog I referred to the Italian city of Balogna. Of course balogna is mystery meat; Bologna is the city. Woe is me. At least I don't have any locals reading my blog ... I might be flogged !

Onward !