Day 9 Venice, Italy & Bolzano/Bozen, Italy 10/22/11

Venice, Italy - The Grand Canal

We woke up in Venice and got off the train at about 6:30 a.m.  First things first – finding the restrooms.   You have to pay to get into the restroom area so there was a row of change machines just outside the door in case you don’t have the right coins.  One woman who spoke English was really frustrated.  Apparently she had purchase a “pay as you go” (literally) card for use in the restrooms, but it didn’t work. While paying to use the toilet is pretty uncommon in the States, the practice does appear to keep them fairly clean and well stocked which is worth a few coins.

 

Venice, Italy

We got the schedule for the afternoon train options going to Bolzano before leaving the station.  Just outside the train station, there were Vaporettos (water buses) lined up.  There were automated ticket machines and we chose the 12 hour ticket option but the machines were not working.  We went through the line at the ticket counter and then figured out which dock had the Vaporetto #1 headed in the direction we wanted to go.  Like the trains in Italy, before getting on board the water bus, you have to run your ticket through a machine to have it date/time stamped.  On our way back, there was someone checking and luckily we had remembered to do it before boarding. 

 

The Vaporetto No. 1 - Venice, Italy

We rode the Vaporetto #1 down the Grand Canal. This was a great and inexpensive way to get around and to see the sights along the Canal. As we rode down the Canal, Connie was disappointed by how run down many of the buildings were, while Sheila tried to convince her that it was part of Venice’s charm.  However, we both found the amount of graffiti, even on the Rialto bridge, particularly upsetting. The view was still great as the sun was coming up.  We got off at the Salute stop and walked down to the tip of the Ponta della Dogana.  There we watched huge cruise ships go by, dwarfing the city and the little motor boats crisscrossing the water.  (Those huge cruise ships also disgorged huge numbers of tourists.  Venice was the only place we went that was so crowded with tourists that it impacted how we enjoyed the sights.  If there are days that the cruise ships don’t dock there, that might be a better day to visit Venice.)

The Doge's Palace - Venice, Italy

We then took the Vaporetto #1 again, this time just across the Canal over to the San Zaccaria stop.  We walked what was the equivalent of a few city blocks back up to the Palazzo Ducate (the Doge’s Palace).  We toured the museum.  During the tour, we got to go over the Bridge of Sighs and go into the adjoining prisons.  Connie got the audio tour in English but didn’t understand the numbering system until the last stop so she kept listening to the wrong entry for each room until Sheila pointed out that the number of the rooms was not the number for the audio!   ARGHHH.  

Piazza San Marco - Venice, Italy

After the museum, we walked out onto the square, Piazza San Marco, and enjoyed shopping along its perimeter.  Many of the shops carried the famous glass works from Murano, an island near Venice.   There were elaborate stemmed wine glasses and one inch blown glass blue Smurfs – something to suit every taste and budget.  The tricky part would be figuring out how on earth to get any blown glass back in one piece unless you paid to have it shipped.

St. Mark's Basilica - Venice, Italy

We each grabbed a slice of pizza and a Coke from a little place off the square and then returned to see the inside of St. Mark’s Basilica.  There was a long line outside, which was completely undefined and constantly broken by the tourists wandering through the square and taking pictures from every angle.  When we got to the entrance, the guard told us that we had to go to a different building to check our back packs.  A guy in front of us got caught trying to sneak in with his backpack under this coat.  He looked like the Hunchback.  Luckily when we did returned, the token we got in exchange for our backpacks was our “ticket” to skip the original line that we’d already done, and go straight in, so no more wait.  The inside was stunning with gold ceilings and mosaics everywhere.  It was hard to take it all in.  We wanted to sit and enjoy it but you could only sit if you were praying, which was not quite what we had in mind.  Sheila’s aching feet scored as she magically scouted out the only spot to sit. There was a little stone bench jutting out of the wall in a corner. We snagged it and sat for just a few minutes and gawked for a while.  

Connie in Piazza San Marco - Venice, Italy

On our way out of St. Mark’s, Connie stopped at a tiny little corner shop in the back to buy a map of Venice to help us find our way to the Rialto bridge.  We had decided to walk there instead of taking the Vaporetto again.   Since she didn’t have the right change, she was forced to buy two maps to raise the amount of the purchase enough to convince the clerk to make change.  This was frustrating, but there was no line to make purchases.  All of the tourists were swarming the booth, pushing and shoving, and it wasn’t worth stepping away and losing her place just to pick out postcards instead of buying an extra map.  Turned out the map was unnecessary since the street signs clearly designated the route to the Rialto.

Venice, Italy

As we headed out, maps in hand, we got some gelato and enjoyed walking along the square one last time.  The walk to the Rialto bridge was lined with little shops.  In spite of our recent gelato intake, we sacrificed to stop at a bakery where Connie had tiramisu in a chocolate cup and Sheila had a cream puff.  Yum!  The streets were narrow and crowded.   There were twists and turns and it was easy to see how one could get lost if they stepped off the main path.  It was reassuring to know that it only took minutes to walk from one side of the island to the other so you couldn’t get lost for too long.  

Rialto Bridge - Venice, Italy

At the Rialto Bridge, we took a few quick photos and decided that we were ready to leave to avoid getting into Bolzano too late.  We grabbed the Vaporetto #1 at the stop just under the bridge and arrived back at the train station in minutes.  We caught a 3:00 p.m. train to Verona where we transferred to our train to Bolzano.

The landscape as we rode north to Balzono became more hilly and then mountainous.  In Avio, we saw a castle from the train window.  It seemed to be an extremely large and well preserved medieval castle.  We looked it up later and it is called the Castle of Sabbionara or Castle of Avio.  There were a number of castles perched in the mountains, but this was the most impressive.

Castle of Avio  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_of_Avio

We arrived in Bolzano at about 7:30 p.m. and walked less than 5 minutes from the train station to arrive at the youth hostel where we had reservations.    

  

Bolzano Youth Hostel http://bozen.jugendherberge.it/cs.asp?st=114

View from the Bolzano Train Station - Bolzano, Italy

The hostel was brand new and the dorm style rooms with a bathroom were spotless.  Bolzano is an expensive ski resort town.  If you don’t mind sharing, the Youth Hostel is an inexpensive option.  It was also very conveniently located, from our perspective.  After locating our rooms and claiming our beds, we headed straight back out and had our big dinner, compliments of Connie’s mom, at an Italian restaurant recommended by the front desk clerk at the hostel, the Ristorante il Tinello. 

Ristorante il Tinello http://www.tinellobz.com

The restaurant was a short walk and down a narrow dark alley.  When we saw the sign, we pulled back the curtain (to keep out the cold air) and found a small dining room, obviously decorated for fine dining.  We each ordered spaghetti with a tomato / olive sauce, followed by the chef’s specialty, Argentine beef, served very rare.  It was delicious.  For much of the meal, we were the only ones in the place, although the adjoining bar next door was quite busy.  

Bolzano, Italy

Upon return to our room, we met our roommates, two young women from Singapore who appeared to be in their 30s.  They were on holiday and intended to do some light hiking in the area for a few days.  We took turns taking our showers.  The shower would only run for a few seconds and you had to keep pressing the control to get it run again.  Clearly water conservation was the objective because a small sign next to the control said something like, “Water is the source of live.”  The typo seemed to emphasize the message.  Once the clean sheets were on the bed, we crashed.  Once again, Connie took the top bunk and seeing her climb on and off the ladder would have been a You-tube hit if Sheila were that cruel.  (Sheila: “Damn! Never thought of it.”)  Our roommates must also have had a long day because we were all asleep by 10:30 p.m.