Our second day in Venice was a wet one, unfortunately. At least up until the point when we bought an umbrella from a street vendor. Then the rain stopped. How convenient. It was still a good and full day, though. We started the day at the Gallerie dell’Academia, which houses some beautiful art, mostly religious themed. Then we hopped on the waterbus to go to a church that we thought was described as a “grotesque Baroque monstrosity” by one of our guide books (although we later discovered this was not the correct church). Naturally, we had to see it. It was quite ornate and busy on the outside, although the indoor décor was a bit more tame. The church is called La Chiesa della Salute, meaning the Church of the Health (of Christianity). After being harassed by a beggar woman who thought she owned the place and demanded that Mary (“Santa Maria”) requires that we give her 2 Euro to enter, we made it inside.

We wandered around in the rain (this is pre umbrella purchase) to find a coffee bar, which we did. The owner was very rude although he let us have our espresso for free because he didn’t want to break my 20 Euro. Yeah—if you ever go to Italy, try to carry nothing larger than 5 Euro bills because Italians really hate to give change! Once when I bought a cappuccino and pastry at the Snack Bar by my school, totaling 1.60 Euro, I tried to pay with a 10 Euro bill. The cashier woman looked in my change purse, pointed, and made me scrounge up all my 50, 20, and 5 cent pieces to give her for the payment rather than just giving me some change (which she had plenty of in that open cash register). And if you ever have one of those dreaded 50 or even worse 100 Euro bills, well you’ll find yourself cringing and saying “Mi dispiace” (I’m sorry) all over the place when you see the glares you get when you try to pay for something under 10 Euro.

Anyways, enough of the tangent. After the angry coffee bar man encounter, we tried to find our way back to the bus stop a different way than we came. Big mistake. There is pretty much only one road to any where in Venice. Unlike Rome where you can wander through millions of crooked little alleyways and get completely lost but then still end up where you’re trying to go, in Venice you get a lot of dead ends, bridges, and canals. We were walking along this one canal—in the ever-strengthening rain—that looked like it would hook back up with the bus stop piazza, when a couple passed us on the way telling us that it dead ends. So, we turned around and trudged back the way we came, getting more and more wet.

The bus took us to La Piazza di San Marco, where we ducked inside another, more friendly (albeit more expensive) coffee bar for snacks and warmth. Then we bought an umbrella and headed into St. Mark’s church. The church was gorgeous and covered in beautiful mosaics. Although entrance into the church was technically free, it cost a couple of Euros here and there to see any of the side things (the treasury, the artwork behind the altar up-close, the upstairs). We decided to go upstairs, where we could walk around an indoor balcony circling the church and providing close views of the ceiling mosaics as well as go outside on the balcony with the four horse statues (although the real ones were indoors to save them from the elements and the ones outside were just replicas). After looking out onto the square from our lofty position, we descended into the now rain-free square to check it out. And then we fed the pigeons (see “The Birds” blog for this tale).

Still laughing from our pigeon adventures, we window-shopped at all the cute gift shops as we wandered looking for a place to grab lunch. We found a cute place, and although it was a little expensive, decided to go for it anyways since that would mean they would probably have a nice bathroom and the place would be heated. It felt sooo nice to defrost in the warm restaurant; we had a strategically placed table, right under the heat vent. After cleaning up in the bathroom from our pigeon experience, we ordered some pasta, and enjoyed a tasty final meal in Venice! I got delicious cheese gnocchi and my sister got a hearty pasta bean soup. We didn’t want to head back into the cold, but we bundled ourselves in our jackets and scarves and traipsed outside.

The afternoon was all about jewelry and glass shopping! We found a shopping area (away from the pricey St. Mark’s square shops) and went door to door looking at all sorts of Murano glass products, which were gorgeous! A few purchases and a couple hundred Euro later, we gathered our bags of gifts (for others and ourselves, naturally!), and started to walk towards our hotel, hoping we’d be able to easily navigate the way. It took us a lot less time than we thought to find our way back, which was fortunate because it allowed us some resting and defrosting time in the hotel bar and lounge. We grabbed some free tea and cookies, and then we collapsed in two comfy chairs in the bar. It felt great to just sit and be warm. We were exhausted and killed the next hour in the hotel until we finally asked for our luggage and then proceeded to the dock to catch the waterbus to the train station. As we walked up the stairs from the water, we said our goodbyes to Venezia, promising to return to the beautiful city again, together, someday.

Posted by Lisa at 06:00 AM | Permalink