The World's My Home

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September 28, 2007

By Christina

Italy continues to deliver.  All four of us were completely blown away by the view of the Grand Canal when we exited the train station in Venice.  What a spectacle - gorgeous, colorful buildings lining the gondola-ridden waterway, towers rising in the distance, and Italians shouting at each other and the tourists - Disneyland for grown ups!!

Getting to our hotel was not so spectacular - 9 months of stuff weighs a lot when you are carrying it over bridges and up and down stairs.  But, we made it, and our hotel was really great, with a canal view on one side and a garden/church view on the other.  Best of all:  Joey and Bill (Dan's parents) were there waiting for us.  After dropping our bags, we spent close to an hour catching up on news of the world, Orinda, and travels.  The kids were absolutely thrilled to be with their grandparents and had a lot of fun sharing tales from our adventures.

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The next couple of days were spent exploring the streets and alleys of Venice and checking out the typical tourist spots.  A hit with everyone was St. Mark's Basilica, which looked nothing like the other churches and cathedrals we have visited.  We especially enjoyed hearing the story about the two Venetians who smuggled St. Mark's corpse back to Venice after he died and was buried in Alexandria, Egypt.

It had been a long time since either Dan or I had been in Venice and it really was better than we remembered it.  There were a lot of tourists, true, but everyone was good natured and nothing got in the way of the beauty of the canals and buildings.  We even indulged in a touristy visit to the island of Murano, to watch the ancient art of glass blowing.  Less touristy was our visit to the Getto Novo where, for close to 200 years (early 1500s to early 1700s), all of the Jews in Venice were locked in at night by soldiers.  This spot is often called the world's first ghetto and was very interesting.

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Two highlights are worth sharing, the first of which was not my favorite.  For those of you who have been to Venice, you know about the pigeons in St. Mark's Square.  Well, for one euro, you can buy a bag of pigeon food and feed the pigeons, allowing them to crawl on your arms and head.  Being a bit of a germaphobe (Dan frequently calls me "Howard Hughes"), you can imagine how much I loved this experience!  Little Miss St. Francis of Assisi couldn't get enough of the flying rats, however, and we literally had to pull Abby off the Square (well, I didn't, because I wasn't willing to touch her!).  Several rounds of Purell thereafter followed.

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The best highlight of all, however, was our gondola ride our last night in Venice.  I had purposely booked us at one of the hotels in Venice serviced by the "world's only lady gondoliera," and we were glad we did so.  Armed with a bottle of Prosecco, two Oranginas for the kids, and the iPod speakers set to Pavoratti, we made our way to Alex and the "put in" on the Grand Canal.  I know it is cliche to call the experience magical, but that's what it was.  With the moon rising, Pavarotti singing, and the six of us happily ensconced in our little boat, we were all very content.

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The next day we bid farewell to Jojo and Papa, sad to say goodbye, but looking forward to our two-week stay in Tuscany.

P.S.  Continuing my music trivia:  from what Who song does the title of this blog entry come?