Schwesterfest 2011: It's One Louder.: Tuesday June 21, 2011

Venice, Italy; Ravenna, Italy

Up at o'dark thirty. Suzanne had read that one of the best experiences you can have in Venice is to get up at dawn, so we decided to give it a go. It was true. San Marco Piazza was deserted whereas the first day you could barely move for the throngs of people and long, long lines. We wandered the piazza taking pictures in the marvelous light. Then we walked through the streets and along the canals, just enjoying the beauty and quietude.

We had on our agenda to find this weird twisty house. It was supposed to be very hard to find, and it was. It was the kind of thing where you are walking down little alleys and tiny streets and bingo, (pffffft!) there it is. It was in the back of a tiny alleyway (where they were having a PPP. See yesterday's post.) We met a beautiful tiger cat there. In Venice, they LOVE cats. Cats were depicted on the famous masks, and we found beautiful cards with cats in fancy dress.

An ass.e by any other name...

We wandered over to the Rialto Bridge and decided to stop into a coffee shop (called "Mr. Sandwich," I swear) to have a cup of espresso and cappuccino. The case was full of the most delicious looking sandwiches, and Furio was behind the counter. We ordered two different huge sandwiches which were the best food we had had in Venice.

Jane called dibs on Furio.

Went back to the hotel for a second breakfast (espresso and cappuccino, and we put the pre-packaged croissants in our bag for emergencies.) We packed up and both used the bidet for the first time.

Went to the stationers but our friend was not there. Suzanne bought Jane a Pinocchio and cricket print. We walked over to the Rialto market where we purchased dates for us and sun-dried tomatoes for Mark. Soon after we decided we were ready to split Venice.

We went back to the hotel for our bags, walked to the Vaporetto station and took the Vaporetto to Trondetto. The Vaporetto ride was marvelous - nearly the length of the Grand Canal and as it was early in the morning we saw all of Venice coming alive - boats filled with raffia-wrapped jugs of wine, a boat loaded with linen for hotels/restaurants...even an ambulance boat and a police boat. And always, the incredible architecture...slightly seedy in a romantic way, and the indescribable color of the water and the air. And despite the rumors, Venice is not dirty or smelly. The water and the streets were clean. Our only real complaints were the food (we say stick to pizza and sandwiches) and the crowds.

Left Venice at 3 pm. Picked up and paid for the car, but when we left it was making a weird noise and the engine light was on. We told Brigitta to take us to the nearest Audi dealer. Meanwhile, we were sweating bullets both because of the heat and the fear of being stranded with a broken car! Plus the ice that had been in the cooler was long gone and we needed to get ice pronto, in what we would find was an ice-challenged country. The first Audi dealer listed didn't exist. The second one was closed for siesta or something.

Cool car at car park where we picked up our car.

We decided to go fill up on gas and see if we could get ice. We stopped at a gas station and Suzanne went in. There was a great bar/cafe, serving drinks and snacks. Suzanne asked if they had ice and the man behind the counter said, "Gelato?" No, ice. Cubes. In a bag. He pulled out cubes but he didn't have any to sell. He sent us to a large grocery store. We went straight to the courtesy counter. When we told the employee what we wanted, she picked up the phone and called the fish department and GAVE us a big bag of ice!


Nice ice people!

When we got back in the car, we discovered that the engine light was off and all was fine! Another Vacation Miracle (there were many more to come.)

Headed toward Ravenna (1.5 hrs away.) Went through another 5 tunnels, bringing the total to 54.

Arrived in Ravenna and located our hotel (Hotel Argentario.) Very nice front desk clerk, decent room, ELEVATORS! Dumped our stuff and then drove over to a nearby park and had our first genuine picnic of the 2011 Schwesterfest. We sat on our new picnic blanket on the grass and had cheese (goat cheese enrobed with nuts, eppoisses, fresh mozzarella, provolone), olives, ravioli, fruit and beer.

Checked into our hotel:

Bidet, mate!

After cleaning up, we walked into town and saw Dante's tomb and other local monuments. We passed a large yard with ruins at the bottom of it. It was full of cats. Near Dante's tomb and the monastery there was an open area with a fenced area next to it. In the fenced area were young people in weird animal costumes doing weird animal things. It was weird. Did we say it was weird? There is a video in case you don't believe us. We walked up and down the main pedestrian area and did some window shopping. We especially like looking at the shoes - there is a trend of Gladiator-style shoes which we are not fond of. We made fun of a lot of shoes.

We finally decided to have dinner and chose a restaurant with outdoor seating where we could observe people. We ordered what is supposed to be a local specialty, "piadina." It's a sort of tortilla filled with sausage or herbs (this one was not great,) a mixed salad (also not great,) and a "Moscow Mule" (GREAT.)