We finally made it back to Italy for Thanksgiving 2009; fitting, since we took our first big European trip to Rome for Thanksgiving two years ago. We checked into the
Hotel Olimpia and were pleasantly surprised by our Venetian-style bedroom.
Because we arrived in the evening, we opted for a simple dinner (sandwich and crepe) and decided to save our "Thanksgiving dinner" for the following night.
We began our first full day in Venice the next morning with a cruise along the Grand Canal, basically Venice's "Main Street." According to Ricky S., Venice was built on more than a million trees piled all the way down to the clay layer of a former delta, which helps to explain why the city is slowly sinking. Apparently there are laws against changing the buildings along the Grand Canal, so many buildings are a little worse for ware.
This Turkish "Fondaco" Exchange is thought to be the oldest house in Venice. Notice the archways and rooftops, indicative of former Byzantine influence.
Instituto Veneto di Scienze
Gondolier
Rialto Bridge
Accademia Bridge
Produce "market"...watching locals shuttle by boat across the canals to do their shopping made it really clear that Venice's layout dictates a unique way of life!
After the Grand Canal cruise, we explored Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square), with offices of the republic on the left, St. Mark's Basilica center, and campanile on the right.
This clock tower was built in 1496.
St. Mark's Basilica, one of the most unique church exteriors we've seen.
Gondola Parking Only
Probably our best picture from the trip- Gondolas with San Giorgio Maggiore church/island in the distance.
And of course we had gelato...pistachio for Matt and eggnog for Ashley
Fish market
Our final activity on day one was visiting the Peggy Guggenheim museum. This is Guggenheim's private collection of 20th-century art housed in her former retirement home, which happened to be located right on the Grand Canal (Matt is essentially sitting on the front porch in the picture below)...not a bad piece of real estate!
Our Thanksgiving meal was delicious. We ordered pasta with lobster and pumpkin stuffed ravioli at L'Osteria di Santa Marina, where our waiter was literally a clone of Dana Carvey in the
SNL "Pepper Boy" sketch; thankfully, only in appearance.
Venice isn't all that big of a city, so we were able to go at a very relaxing pace. So relaxed, in fact, that on day two, we spent several hours at an outdoor cafe playing double solitaire over a latte and coke. It was the simple things that made this trip so great. For lunch, we decided on cicchetti at an osteria, basically an Italian version of tapas that are eaten while standing at a bar. While the cicchetti were good, they weren't all that filling for one of us...
Matt stopping for pizza a little later...
For dinner, we decided on Osteria la Bomba for more cicchetti and pasta.We had the whole table to ourselves...
After dinner we played Settlers in the hotel lobby...this was one of only a few trips we've taken over the past 2.5 years that actually felt like a vacation!
Check out the Milan blog post for pictures of the remainder of our time in Italy!
