Gondolas and Chianti - August 8, 2010

Sunday August 8, 2010

Senne's Summary: We visit the Doges Palace, take a gondola ride and have an excellent dinner!

We wake up and enjoy our "breakfast is included". Lorenzo has excellent English and gives us some tips about places to go, how to get our tickets and when to go.

We decide to head out early to the Doges Palace. We aren’t really sure what to expect… we’re basically going because I read about it in my guidebook, and also we really like palaces!

We get there fairly early (maybe 10 AM… early for us!) and only wait in line a few minutes. We start out in the open courtyard of the palace, which is nice, but not really memorable.

Doges Palace Courtyard

With low expectations, we head inside and are stunned by the beauty of this place. No photos allowed… which is unfortunate, but it also gave Steve the chance to really take in the beauty of the place without being distracted by taking pictures. I don’t think the photos would have been able to do the place justice anyway!

Each room seemed more beautiful than the last. The ceilings were ornately decorated with moldings, statues (yes, the statues are in the ceiling!), goldleaf and incredible paintings. This building was almost like an art gallery. It actually houses the largest painting in the world (it took up a whole wall)! When you read about the paintings you could see that some of them took 10 years to complete!

I don’t think I’ve been able to even come close to describe this place… all I can say is, if you are in Venice, don’t skip it!

When we leave the palace we decide it is time for lunch. We saw signs about what is against the law in Venice (being dressed inappropriately, littering, and eating or drinking while sitting in areas not specifically for eating and drinking) so our usual option of getting a sandwich and sitting on a step somewhere is out. We decide to get sandwiches and just eat them back at our B&B. (Being close to the centre has it’s advantages!)

One of the approximately two bajillion bridges you may cross while walking around Venice!

Next -- Siesta time. I take a nap and Steve watches the Italian Poker Channel. He was quite excited to discover they have a whole channel dedicated to poker!

We decide tonight will be the night for our gondola ride. (I’ve been having an internal struggle about the ridiculous price of this, but Steve convinces me it’s something you have to do once when you are in Venice. I like the way he thinks!)

We get dressed in clothes that would be appropriate for dinner and head out to walk the streets. We found Harry’s Bar (maybe a bellini there tomorrow?) and the designer shopping street! I saw one shoe store with amazing shoes in it… I can’t remember the name, but am going to go admire them again tomorrow. One pair had rhinestones all along the inside of the heel… they were gorgeous! Steve saw some sparkly watch stores and we were both satisfied. (No buying, just looking!)

We ask a few gondoliers their prices and then head to the one we like the best. The gondola ride was wonderful. 

The boat was beautiful, the gondolier was just the right amount of telling us stuff and being quiet, and it was pretty awesome to see the buildings along the quiet canals and a bit of the grand canal. 

You realize just how much you can’t see from the streets when you are on the canals, because many of the buildings front the canals.

As we went under the Bridge of Sighs our gondolier told us to make a wish, but not tell each other. Let’s just say mine was a good wish! (If I tell you it won’t come true!) The gondola ride was expensive, but worth it 😀

Bridge of Sighs

After our ride we decide to get some dinner. We start cruising the streets looking for a menu that looks good (SO MANY to choose from!) and a nice Italian boy chats us up so well in front of his restaurant that we would have felt guilty if we didn’t go in… nice work restaurant guy!

I’m glad we went in. We had an excellent supper. We shared a bottle of Chianti (that is A LOT of wine for lightweights like us), had bruschetta, salad (vegetables at last!) and then I had chicken (I’ve been missing chicken!) and Steve had shrimp scampi. Every last thing we ate was delicious (perhaps the wine helped 😀).

After dinner we manage to even find our way home in the dark and after a whole bottle of wine!  This is no easy feat before a bottle of wine... and an astounding feat after a bottle of wine. Nice work, Steve.

We both agree that our first full day in Venice was fantastic!