Day 4 in Venice

Today was our day to explore the Rialto markets. Tim, Donna and myself head out after breakfast. We all loved wondering around the markets and found some cantaloupe, tomatoes and fresh basil for our wine tasting later on tonight. The markets were wonderful and we easily found the reportedly “best deli” in Venice: Casa Del Parmigiano where we purchased some prosciutto to wrap the melon with, buffalo mozzarella to go with the tomatoes and basil drizzled with olive oil, and an assortment of cheeses. On the way back to the apartment we stopped by the Marchini pastry shop (also reportedly the best in Venice by trip advisor people) and purchased an assortment of pastries for tonight. The all looked wonderful and we had a hard time deciding which ones to choose!

When we returned to the apartment I baked a chocolate cake which I had brought most of the ingredients with me except for the powdered sugar for the icing. It was an adventure finding the powdered sugar in the Billa supermarket because we were looking for a box and it came in a small muffin type package. When we were at the grocery store a few days earlier we did not find but one other shopper who spoke English, but we still asked several people for help and we were able to communicate enough with hand signals and pointing at pictures to find what we needed. Everyone we asked tried to help us and was very friendly. While I was working on the cake, Bill and Donna fixed some pasta we had picked up a few days earlier. It was pumpkin and cheese filled which the man who spoke a little English told us was good and to eat it with a butter and nutmeg sauce with parmesan cheese on top. What a nice surprise it turned out to be.

Months ago Charlene and I had came up with the idea of having a wine tasting party at our apartment the night before boarding the ship. After our cruisecritic roll call grew to over 200 people we decided we could not invite the whole “Ruby Stars” (the nickname of our message board group) to the apartment. We counted available seating in the apartment and came up with a number of people to invite and chose mostly the ones we have booked private tours with during the cruise. We meet our guest in St Marks square at 5:45 and walked them though the alleyways of Venice to our apartment. Our apartment agent in Venice has been wonderful with anything we have asked. She helped us order appetizers from her favorite cicchetti bar to deliver to our apartment. They were wonderful and I could have never done it without her! We had asked all of our guest to bring a locally produced Veneto wine and we had a very lovely evening getting to know some new people we will be sailing with tomorrow.

NOTE TO GLADYS: Your ears should have been burning for quite some time. We talked about you and want you to know you were missed. You will be glad to know we had a Jewish couple here who said you would be proud of my ordering abilities!!! The lessons are paying off.

Day 3 photos

Burano

Lunch in Burano with Bill and Donna with serenade (accordian player)

Our musicians on gondola

The gondola gang after dinner

Day 3 in Venice

Once again, we are up early and go to meet a couple of friends we have cruise with before early this morning in St Mark’s Square to show them the way to our apartment. I love St Mark’s early in the morning before it is overrun with tourist and while it is so peaceful. After morning coffee we all set out to find the water taxi stop which will take us to the outer islands. Part of the gang head to the cemetery island but since Tim and I have been there before we decide to head to Burano, the colorful lace making island, with Bill and Donna. We have a wonderful day shopping and enjoying the colorful houses along the canals. We had a great lunch along a canal before heading back to our apartment. Daniela, our apartment agent, once again comes through with a request I had—I had asked if she could arranged a gondola ride with serenade to dinner. We have 3 gondolas for the 12 of us and the middle one has an accordion player and a wonderful singer. During our one hour ride I figured we would get 3-4 songs, but no, we are serenaded the whole time. I love Venice! We are dropped off beside the Muro restaurant where we had a wonderful dinner with friends. While uploading some photos for yesterday AOL locked up as usual and I lost 30 minutes worth, so will try to get more pictures up soon. Time to call grandson Joe and tell him Happy Birthday and that I missed him on the gondola ride he hopes to take one day.

Day 2 Photos

Tim and Charlene coming out of apartment

Scala Contarini del Bovolo (snail building)

The balcony of our apartment is to the left of this building

Rialto Bridge

Jewish Ghetto bridge

Inside of San Giorgio

View of St MArks from San Giorgio

View from San Giorgio

Sunset

Dinner along the canal

I thought the full moon was last night, but it is tonight instead and it seems to be causing alot of high tides and

 the raised walkways are out in St Marks.

Day 2 in Venice

It was good to finally get a full nights sleep. As expected, we both woke up before daylight. Having been here before and missing real American coffee, the Bellini Bunch (apartment gang’s nickname) decided months ago as soon as we booked the apartment to order a 220 volt European coffee maker to take with us, so Tim made a pot of Starbucks coffee first thing this morning :)  Tim, Charlene and myself went out to a bakery and got a couple sacks full of pastries and small proscuitto biscuit-like things for breakfast. The 10 of us had a leisurely morning enjoying each others company and breakfast then Jim & Jane along with Harry & Judi decided to attend Mass at St Marks Basilica while Tim, Joy, Charlene and Donna went to the Billa grocery store. It is another beautiful day here and short sleeve shirts and capris or jeans either feel good, no need for jackets. After we all got back we decided to visit the Jewish Ghetto section of Venice and had a lovely afternoon wondering around a Venetian neighborhood without all the crowds of the touristy areas. We found a great gelato stop and enjoyed our daily fix. While riding the water taxi we decided to detour and visit San Giorgio Maggiore Basilica on the island facing St Mark’s Square. It is a very lovely basilica with an elevator to the top of the bell tower and magnificent views. While we were standing beside the bells they rang and thank goodness it was only 5 rings! We then found a restaurant along the Grand Canal a little ways past St Mark’s and had a lovely dinner while watching the sunset and a parade of cruise ships leaving Venice—at least 5 of them. It was a great day!

Arrival Day 1 photos

Arrival in Venice

View from our bedroom

Had a two hour plane delay in Philadelphia and had to swap airplanes.  There was a bad funky smell and they decided we needed another plane. After the long delay, we were underway for an uneventful trip across the pond and arrived around 10:30 am Venice time to beautiful weather. The two water taxis we had reserved were waiting for us and whisked us straight to our apartment. The rental agency rep, Daniella, was here waiting for our arrival along with the porter we had arranged to help with our luggage. Daniella was wonderful getting us checked in and had a map prepared for us with grocery stores, wine shops, and her favorite pastry shop marked. The apartment is gorgeous. I don’t think we could have found a better place to stay anywhere in Venice.

We hadn’t been here 10 minutes before the first of many serenading gondola’s started the evening parade by our windows. Our apartment is on a corner of two canals and we are getting lots of gondola traffic and serenades. We are leaving the windows open all day and the weather is perfect for this. After getting settled in a little bit Tim and I decide to go for a walk and Harry & Judi join us. We explored the area around our apartment and decided since this is Harry & Judi’s first time to Venice we need to take them to St Mark’s Square, so off we go wondering that way with a pizza and panini stop along the way. From there we walked through more neighborhoods and found a wine store where we made some purchases. Then we walked back to the apartment to get ready for supper. It was about a 25 minute walk to the restaurant, Taverna San Trovaso, where we had reservations. It was worth the walk. The food was very good and the prices were ok. We were so tired we were about to fall asleep finishing dinner. After dinner we made the trip back to the apartment and went in for the night. I can’t remember if the full moon is tonight or tomorrow, but it sure is pretty tonight.