August 20, 2010 from Venice

Day Three August 20, 2010


I wake up a little late today..its close to 9:00. Should I go for a jog or make it down to breakfast. I decide to go to breakfast ( I did walk for many hours yesterday and no dinner after all). The breakfast is the same today...basically poor. The music playing in the breakfast room today is the greastest hits of Abba (see Geoffrey you can't get away from Mama Mia even half way across the world). After "Fernando" comes on for the third time, I decide I have lingered long enough and I will get my day started.
I work on getting my emails and blog sent. I am still having troubles logging onto the server here and the staff is not too much help. I also struggle to get my blog sent out but I think I will get the hang of it soon. I decide to wander around and then I went head to Palazzo Grassi (the the sister museum to the modern art museum I saw yesterday).

The city is crowded and it is very hot and humid! I wander down by the train station and then I realize I can't take a bridge over to the San Marco so I head back (I made this same navigation error when I was here with the Houstons a few years ago when I was acting as their guide..at least I did not keep walking this time and knew when to turn around). It is nice to get the museum and step into an air conditioned space. I liked the art a little better in the other museum but there is still some intriguing works here. You are greeted by a large lighted disco floor with techno music upon arrival here and above the flashing lights there are 200 pictures of actors portraying Nazis...the work is called "Dancing Nazi's"...showing us how our pop culture has minimalized the holocaust or something like that. There are "googly" eyes on different objects around the museum, one artist's reprensentation of how you can humanize any object (like the Geico money) and how you can make anything look silly( like aristocratic statue figure).
After awhile, the art headache starts to approach trying to interpret all these displays so time to get some lunch before I go to my walking/bar tour. I finally decide to go to a little place I have seen by my hotel. I walk back across the city and take a seat. The waiter gives me a menu and he goes back inside. A fellow traveler and his family are leaving as I sit down and he whispers is his limited english,"It bad". Okay, thanks for the tip. I decide not to stay, the beer will have to wait. I go down the street and buy a slice of pizza and lemon soda. I find a little stoop on a bridge near the hotel and enjoy my little meal, the people watching and the songs of the gondoliers passing by.

I go to the hotel and freshen up. I think I am out of toilet paper so I go down to ask. With a little trouble with communication, I figure out I am mistaken, there is an extra roll sitting on a shelf that I have missed. Mi dispace (excuse me in Italian). I head for the Rialto bridge, the meeting spot for the walk. I meet up with Alessandro and one other couple (Myndall and Bill from Vancouver WA) for the walking tour. We are due to meet another couple at the bar tour in a couple of hours. Myndall and Bill met this couple last night at a music show...they sat next to each other and they both found out that they were taking this tour today...Wierd! The other couple is from Vancouver BC. Trying to explains Alessandro the difference between the two Vancouvers proves difficult but it does seem funny to be with the two Vancouver couples.

Alessandro gives a fine little tour by the Rialto regarding the history of Venice and the city's status today. Venice was a city-state and was not truly a part of Italy until about 150 years ago. Venice was never conquered but did belong to the French and Austria for awhile, the Venetians just let them in so there was no bombing here. Today, it is too expensive to live on the main island of Venice so few families live here anymore. And in all of Italy, times are a changing. Most Italian Catholic families (90-95% of the population) are only having one child but the Muslim families are having five or six, so in twenty years they predict that there will be more Muslim children in the schools than the Catholic children!

We are now hot, thirsty and full on knowledge, let's get the bar tour started! We go back to the Rialto bridge and meet the BC couple, Sharon and Ken. Alessandro takes a to a little bar and there is an outside table there waiting for our party. We are served wine (my first Venetian wine this trip..hoorah), cheeses, bread, deep fried mozarella squares and deep fried anchovy squares. All are delicious! Alessandro says that this wine is made by the resteraunt, it must be drunk in a few days once uncorked because it has no perservatives....no headaches with this wine the next day because no sulfites (give me more of that wine!) The next bar, there is more wine(this out of a bottle..better slow down) plus calamari (yummy). The final bar is the oldest bar in Venice according to our guide. We are served more wine and bunch of tapas. Sergio, the bar man takes good care of us. It is 8:00 and the bar closing. Why is this we ask? It is because they open at 8 am to serve the workers of the nearby fish market. Drinking at a bar at 8 am! ( I guess having wine with my breakfast on the plane would have got me ready for Venice).

Meeting these other couples was fun. We exchange emails and become Facebook friends. Myndall needs bunion surgery and she nees a surgeon in the Kaiser system in Vancouver WA( Dave, I drumming you up business here in Italia!). Sharon teaches sign language and she teaches a few signs including bull shit ( hey, I know about this literally from Montana). Sharon and Ken need to get up early so they are off. Myndall and Bill are still up for adventure. They have not seen the Grand Canal, which is must. We were going to take the Vaparetto but then Myndall asks if I will join them on a gondola ride and we will split the cost. Sure, it is expensive but fun experience and I have never done it in the evening. Our gondilier is not too chatty (nor is he a singer) but is just fun to be here on the water! Oh yeah, Alessandro told us that there is a female gondolier in training (the first one ever) and they are now making gondolas out of plastic so times they are a changing...and not for the better in the Venetian mind.

We have a nice ride but we did not go down the Grand Canal so we take the Vaparetto (the water bus) down the canal. We stop at St Mark's square. Myndall and Bill want to take me for a drink at Harry's bar for being their guide (Harry's is an old Hemmingway haunt where he invited the drink the Bellini-champagne and peach juice). We get seated upstairs at a fine little table. The drinks here are expensive! (same as three years ago) Basically 20 bucks for a small drink..even Bill who got a martini..looks like they in double shot glass size but fun to say we have been here. There are two guys we meet sitting in the table next to us. They are from Seattle and Oregon. Ron works at the UW! Small world once again. We chat and become Facebook friends.

Myndall is a music teacher so she wants to see the church wear Vivaldi was a priest ( I did not know that but I am not classical music coinossure but I do enjoy the listening part), which is along the walkway here. We find the church and take some pictures and then they offer to walk me to my hotel. I treat them to gelati on the way home. I get my classics..limone and coco, very refreshing! After hugs and vows to keep in touch, I climb the stairs to my little room and crawl into bed with a smile on my lips.