Venice

First of all an update on our accommodation.  We sent an email to Nae our Travel Agent.  She in turn contacted the wholesaler of the accommodation in order to sort out the breakfast part of bed and breakfast.  We were assured that everything would be sorted, so we waited until a confirmation email was received and that everything had been sorted.  The wholesaler had apparently made the necessary calls.  Seems like the reception area were not having a bar of it.  So I called Nae personally since by this time it was close to close time in Australia and let her know if it could not be sorted in 30 minutes (9am) we were simply leaving and wanted a refund since the breakfast part of the bed and breakfast was not being honored.  I went next door to the supermarket to buy some Foccacia possibly knowing already this was never going to end in our favour, I waited 20 mins.  Well then 9am arrived, I went upstairs and in 5 minutes organised new accommodation, including buffet breakfast, secure parking (though there is a handicap spot right outside the hotel door), 5 minutes away for roughly the same money.  We rang Nae back and let her know so that she could commence seeking reparations (Nae see my previous blog post for pictures and a list of issues).  You will see by the pictures, the outside of Hotel Cris is quaint, it is small and privately owned.  We turned up, they were happy to see us, gave us maps, told us the in and outs of the public transport system, where we could get meals in the evening and then when we eventually went to check in after a day out in Venice I offered my card for payment, they said just pay when you are leaving.  The room is nice, the shower a little small, but I can overlook that since we only spend 10 minutes a day there.  The room is clean and homely, no bar fridge but then the one at the other place didn't work anyway.  Best of all the WiFi just works, no silly hourly logins, no lockouts, it just works.

So after sorting out the accommodation and leaving our luggage behind, we headed over to Venice.  Got a parking space straight away, 6.00Eur for around 9 hours of pre-paid parking, not that we stayed that long, I think we eventually left at around 5pm (after 7 hours of trekking).  With that we set off to unlock the beauty of Venice.

We had done some research overnight and knew of some stores we wished to visit in order to get items for specific people.  This meant taking a more direct line through the heart of Venice, deep into the centre.  What a revelation, the deeper you got the less graffiti and the less touristy and junky the shops became.  We bought up a storm until lunchtime, whereupon on making a location error we stumbled upon a nice restaurant.  Lorraine had Spaghetti Ragout, I had Spaghetti Genovese, Lorriane unable to finish hers which was such a shame for me. :-)

After lunch we continued with the shopping picking up some nice Murano Glass items, some other items for a friend who placed an order weeks and weeks ago, I managed to score some very nice Italian leather driving gloves and finally managed to get the souvenir Giro d'Italia pink jersey the Maglia Rosa I had been trying to get since getting here.  Soon after we found the high end stores of Venice, right in the heart.

It was shortly thereafter that Lorraine realised why I kept asking her to turn off the DSLR camera in between shots.  Leaving it on for hours at a time in between shots drains the battery rapidly, very very rapidly.  She was shattered.  No more photos for her as we would be relying on the phone for all the pics thereon in.

We then thought it was about time to take that Gondola ride, we passed on the first two locations due to the lines, settling on a quiet starting point for a nice 40 minute ride around the canals.  We were lucky to score the paid singing of another ride just ahead of us for a little while and then our oarsman would occasionally chime up with song or whistling.  Our oarsman was very chatty telling bout the history of some of the places including where George Clooney was married, where Napoleon Bonaparte lived and other interesting information about the buildings.  He told us the Gondolas are a state run business with the oarsmen being salaried workers, there are around 433 operating Gondolas in the canals.

After the Gondola ride it was time to head back, but not before Lorraine had to stop at one of the Murano Glass shops we saw yesterday that had a wide and reasonably priced range of items.  Since I was not allowed inside with a back pack on, I decided to head back to the car to unload.  I was just about to head back for her when I saw her coming so we headed back to the Hotel Cris.  All up 7 hours trekking around Venice, 6 of those walking 1 seated for lunch.  To say I am tired is an understatement.  And while I may look like a pack horse with back pack on and shopping bags hanging from caribinas on the front, its a nicely balanced system that keeps my back static.  It was only towards the end that I could feel I had reached a new limit.

It was at this time the staff at Hotel Cris said not to bother paying until we left.  Very nice of them.  I also forgot to mention that we snagged the last room in the hotel.  They are so friendly and accommodating.

Dinner had us eating takeaway pizza, another funny story in that for another time.

Tomorrow we're off to Verona for the day, we may head back to Venice the day after for an evening.  We both felt though that once you have seen Venice, that's about it, one day, maybe two or an evening and it is really no different to any other tourist destination.  The key to Venice however is to delve deep into her in order to unlock her potential.  If you skirt around the edges, you'll miss the best part of it.

Ciao.

Sean & Lorraine

Photos

Google Compositions
2017-05-21 Giro Stage 15 at Cossata & Road Trip
2017-05-22 Milan to Mestre (Venezie/Venice), First Impressions of Venice 
2017-05-23 Venice