Category: Europe

We started our morning with a quick Croissant and coffee and headed over the Rialto and over to the fish market. Very interesting place and has an alluring odor if you are in to that. We crossed back over the Rialto and had a quick Spritz (to use the bathroom) and then did a little shopping on out way to the Jewish Ghetto.

https://jvenice.org/en/welcome-jewish-venice/

https://www.ghettovenezia.com/en/the-history/

The ghetto was a quiet place compared other places in Venice. The piazza was very open and filled with trees. There were a couple of restaurants, some sculptures, many art studios, and it seems 5 synagogues (for the 5 different languages/peoples that resided there). For those of us in the US, this section of space is equivalent to 1-2 city blocks in my home town, or a couple of football fields. Apparently at one point there were 5000 people living in this ghetto.

We stopped and had a quiet lunch on the main thoroughfare, collected our bags from the B&B, and then caught a train back to Vicenza. Rick and Vally were gracious enough to let us stay another night as well as use their washer to clean up the first week’s of travel clothes. We went out to dinner with them at a great local pizza place and ended up closing it down.

Tomorrow we are off to Florence for a quick tour of the area.

1 2 ►

We had a breakfast omelette and coffee overlooking the water before heading off to visit the local church (Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta Detta I Gesuiti). Local is one of the 150+ churches in Venice. The marble carving was beautiful, including marble carved to look like a cascading rug.

We headed over to the Doge Palace to meet our tour group. After a couple of spritz’s we met the tour for a speedy run through the palace. It turns out the palace was like the city hall for Venice and the Doge is a figurehead. It was very interesting to learn how the government was set up as a pseudo representation format. They were very careful about one person or family having too much power. The end of the tour included a tour of the prisons attached to the palace. We stopped and rested with a spritz and then Rich and I ducked back in to get some more pictures that we missed the first time around. The benefit of the tour was the skip the line part. lol. Beautified and interesting place.

Kathy wanted to visit the Peggy Guggenheim’s home and studio do we headed there. It was a very interesting collection of abstract, surrealist, and modernism art and had some Picasso and Dali among others. The gardens were beautiful and peaceful.

We headed to the Rialto bridge area and enjoyed a delicious dinner by the canal. Rich headed back home and Kathy and I found a gondola and took a quiet ride in the nighttime canals. So beautiful!

We love Venice and Italy.

1 2 ... 4 ►

We traveled to Venice today and are spending the next two nights here. The room is a very nice space and very comfortable. It is about a minute walk from the ocean.

It was about a 30 minute walk from the train to the hotel, which took us through some shopping districts. Once we were settled in the room, we headed out for some delicious pizzas for lunch. Then we went back to the room to rest a bit. Yes, we napped.

After the nap, we just wandered around the streets and alleys of Venice, did some shopping, and enjoyed the atmosphere. We went back and changed into some pants and then wandered for another couple of hours until we found a nice restaurant on a pier. We enjoyed some mussels and clams, gnocchi, and lemon chicken dishes over a couple of hours at dinner.

It was around 10:30 when we headed back toward the hotel room. There was a storm brewing with lightning and a light sprinkle. Honestly it was a gorgeous evening for the 25 minute walk back. We took some great nighttime pictures with the iPhones.

1 2 ►

We spent yesterday in Verona seeing the sites. Getting there was a bit of fun, though. I managed to get train tickets and then queue up on the wrong track only to watch the train we needed come and go. Easy fix, a spritz and some chips, and an hour later we were on the next train.

Mondays are rest days in Verona, so quite a few on the attractions were closed, but we really could not tell. We wandered through the beautiful streets and shops and just enjoyed a bit of Italy, first with a lunch of mini sandwiches and a Spritz at a quiet cafe.

We did tour a really cool basilica, San Zino. It was two churches in one as the original was removed, a second was built, and then later a third was built on top of that. Here’s the link.

https://www.chieseverona.it/en/our-churches/the-basilica-of-san-zeno

Then we wandered across one of the many bridges, and then crossed back into the old city. We say ancient Roman buildings, ruins, tons of beautiful streets and shops. We stopped again for a Spritz and snack and then toured another church, St Anastasia, Verona’s largest. The art and carvings were exquisite. Here is the link.

https://www.chieseverona.it/en/our-churches/the-basilica-of-saint-anastasia

We wandered through some open markets and then found the famous Juliette balcony. We didn’t fondle the statue, but enjoyed the crowds in the tight quarters.

We wandered back towards the coliseum and enjoyed some cheese and meats and another Spritz before finding the train back to Vicenza.

1 2 3 ►

Rich and Vally recommended Padua today. It is the home of the second oldest university in Italy, 1222 AD, and one of the largest city squares in Europe, the Prato della Valle. After parking, we walked through an old building that used to be a slaughter house, now transformed into a nice restaurant, and into the square. There was a local fest going on and we dove right in to get lunch at the tent. They were making fresh pasta with a group of volunteers pressing the dough through manual screw presses. We tried some of that with a vegetable marinara and some fresh mozzarella and tomatoes. Rich went for a plate of the local seafood and fries. All excellent.

We proceeded on to a walking tour of the city and stopped at the Basilica of St. Anthony with its original frescos and beauty. We enjoyed the sights and artifacts including St Anthony’s voice box, tongue, and lower jaw (he was known for his excellent sermons and care for the sick and the poor). The cloisters were so beautiful and quiet.

Vally had another appointment and we continued with Rich for a guided tour of the university of Padua (Vally’s alma mater). Galileo lectured there for 18 years and stood on the podium pictured below. Padua was the original medical university, and included the first medical operation viewing room. An impressive tour.

We finished up in Padua with a spritz and a gelato before going back for a bbq dinner.

1 2 ►

We arrived in Italy and managed to get ourselves up to Vicenza to visit with our friends Rich and Vally, who are sharing their home for a couple of days. It was great to catch up and then tour their local town. We managed to fend off jet lag and made it to a fantastic local restaurant for dinner. The food was fabulous, including some local salted fish dishes. We saw portions of the old city wall, viewed the Palladian Basilica, walked through the Piazza dei Signori, viewed Torre Bissara, did a driving view tour of Villa La Rotonda (the inspiration for Jefferson and Monticello), a nighttime view at the overlook and the Basilica of St. Mary of Mount Berico. We were tired and slept a good nine hours as we acclimated to the new clocks.

1 2 ►