Venezia (better late than never)

Aunt Patty and Uncle Rob arrived Wednesday afternoon. We took them to La Vera Birreria for dinner (aka the naked lady). It is a nice beer and pizza place on top of the hill by Monte Berico, great place for the first night because it is a light and quick meal compared to other Italain restaurants.

Thursday I walked them briefly through the market and then put them on a train to Verona while Phil and I went to work, their trip seemed to go well and most importantly they both made it back. Thursday we went to a more traditional Italian dinner at Aeolia. Here Patty ran into a slight snafu with her order and ended up with a fish pasta.  For those of you who don't know Patty really doesn't like fish! She thought she had ordered pasta with tomato sauce. Good thing Phil will eat anything. He switched with her, so she got the faggatini (most delicious food ever) which is tortellini with ham, pear, honey, and an Alfredo sauce.
                                     
Friday it was work again for Phil and I while they explored Vicenza.  When we got home we were all off to Venezia for the weekend. We decided driving in was the best option since there was four of us and ALOT of luggage! Thanks to my NCO we found the parking with no issues and after a short detour we were able to find the boat and figure out the system with minimal problems as well. After checking into the hotel and enjoying the executive lounge with free wine and snacks we made our way to a great dinner just down a few blocks from where we were staying.              

Our Hotel - on its own island!

Saturday we decided to get an early start and head toward Murano (glass blowing island) first and work our way back through the main Venezia area. After getting a "free" taxi/boat ride to Murano, we arrived at one of the many glass blowing factories. we watched an awesome demonstration of a guy make a vase and then a Ferrari horse in under three minutes. It was really neat. Then a walk through the gallery which had some truly amazing and interesting pieces of glass art. After finishing a bottle of prosecco (before eleven am) Phil and I came home with a bowl and Patty and Rob got great glasses and a pitcher.

Then we got a "free" boat ride to Burano (lace island). We got a brief explanation of all the different lace and saw a woman making some by hand, but we didn't buy anything. We took a short walk around the island, which is very small but really neat because of all the colorful houses.

Then we decided we wanted to walk around Murano before heading back to the main part of Venezia, previously we had only gone in the factory.  After about an hour of walking in and out of little glass shops we headed back. We took the water bus to the north side of the island and started to walk our way back to St. Mark's square. On the way we decided to take a gondola ride. It was a good thing, because later on there was a line a mile long. It was cool, something you should try at least once (especially if you live in the area, but do it when they aren't busy so you can negotiate price a little, or walk away and they will lower the price). I was a little disappointed thought that our gondola paddler didn't sing!

After the gondola, we continued our walk down to St. Mark's. The closer we got the crazier it got. St. Mark's itself was beyond crazy. We took one look at the line to go into the cathedral, that stretched across the square, and decided we would rather go to the pool and come back later. So that is exactly what we did. A dip to cool off because it was VERY hot, some little relaxation, and some free wine and hors d'œuvres, and we headed back to the St. Mark's.

We decided to go up Torre dell'Orologio, the clock tower, which had ZERO line and great views with the sunset. Then we headed to dinner which we ate right by the Rialto Bridge on the grand canal. The food was fantastic and followed by gelato we couldn't ask for a better day.

Sunday morning we headed back to Venezia, we got up the tower of the cathedral walked around the upper floors and a small museum area they had, then we snuck into the church during mass, so that we didn't have to wait 4 hours for it to open to the public. After that we took a walk back to the grand canal, had some more gelato and then back to St. Mark's. At one point we were going to wait in line for Doge's Palace but it was too hot and the line was too long and too slow so we opted to go back to the pool again.

After our dip, it was time to head out, so we got a water bus to the cruise terminal, where we dropped Uncle Rob & Aunt Patty at the boat before making our way back to the car and eventually home.

It was a great weekend, with great company. Probably the coolest part was actually staying in Venezia, since we live so close this is something that we ordinarily would not do so it was nice. Thanks Aunt Patty for your points!